The Tale Of Two Blazers

Remember when retiring meant the company gave you a gold watch? That's how they used to do it back when companies showed the same respect you gave them for 30 or 40 years. Nowadays, you'd be lucky if they opened the door for you when you walked out of the building for the last time!

After 35 years of service writing software for big business, Michael Gannaway from Pflugerville, Texas, decided he deserved a nice gift, so he bought himself a Deluxe Rodster-a little convertible roadster with a body (with a '40 Ford nose) that sits on an S-10 chassis. Rodster Street Rods out of El Segundo, California, come in three versions (convertible, pickup, and sedan delivery), all using the S-10-type chassis as a base.

Michael wasn't interested in building the car himself (he was traveling out of the country at the time), so he contracted Jim Crabtree (Cumberland, Maryland) to do the build to Michael's specifications. Gannaway drove a donor S-10 to Maryland and, three months later, picked it up finished and painted and drove it home, and continues to drive it all the time. (He even installed marine material inside the cockpit so rain doesn't hurt the interior!)

But by 2004 Michael was ready for another project, so he decided to build another from Rodster's line-this time the sedan delivery. He located a pristine '89 S-15 Jimmy, bought it for $1,000, called Henry Caroselli at Rodster Street Rods, and ordered a kit. The original concept on Gannaway's ride was to make a surf wagon: painting it green and adding a big surfboard to the roof (remember, this car was going to be driven throughout Texas). But by chance Michael was looking through a copy of Truckin' magazine for ideas and found a late-model Suburban that had been painted in two-tone tangerine and raspberry. He knew that is how he wanted his new delivery to look.