MARCH 25, 2014 (APRIL 2014):1974 GMC JIMMY-THIS ONE IS SO RARE IT SHOULD BE IN A VAULT

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The Chevy Blazer debuted in 1969 with a fair amount of success so GMC followed up in 1970 with the Jimmy.

 

These were basically built to be Jeep fighters because they were lighter, shorter and open air versions of their truck cousins.

 

This 1974 GMC Jimmy may be one of the rarest Jimmys on the planet.

 

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The story behind it starts out innocently enough as its owner Doug Weik explained, “I’ve always been a Chevy guy and I wanted something a little different and this Jimmy was definitely a little different”.

 

Doug did his search for a unique ride through a well-known online ad service, “He told me about and before the phone hung up I told him I’d take it”.

 

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The reasons were pretty sound because this truck fit the bill in many ways but there was one big reason, “This was an extremely rare vehicle because it was one only 49 ever built with these options. I wouldn’t have bought it if it was 4-wheel drive and the other thing was that it had to be blue and white. There were lots of Blazers out there but Jimmys were pretty rare”.

 

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Doug listed the features that made this Jimmy so rare, ” This is one of 49 ever built with a convertible top, two-wheel drive and a 4-speed transmission”.

 

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The Jimmy’s owner history was another big factor as Doug explained, “I’m the third owner and the guy who owned it first had it for twenty five years, the next guy had it for ten years- he didn’t drive it for five years and I’ve had it for the rest of the time”.

 

This is an extremely nice driver-quality Jimmy and it was clearly well-maintained for its whole life so Doug’s been really lucky in the repair department, “Other than the brakes, it was really tense because they nearly put me through the windshield so they had to be redone”.

 

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The rest of the Jimmy remains untouched, “This is a true survivor because it’s got over 100,000 miles on it but I left the engine alone. I’m going to run it until the engine quits”.

 

The stock 350 means this truck has a few quirks from the smog era as Doug admitted, “It’s a pig on gas unless you keep it between 60 and 70 but as soon as you punch it the gas mileage dumps pretty fast”.

 

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Doug loves spending time behind the wheel of this rare Jimmy, ” I can drive this thing anywhere, it runs nice down the road.In fact I drive it three or four times a week when I can”.

 

Doug loves the fact that people ask questions about this rare vehicle, “I get a lot of strange questions when I take it to shows. People always ask how I got rid of the door frames. Basically when I get to shows and I just stand there and answer questions.One guy stopped me to ask about the 4-speed-he questioned whether it was stock”.

 

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Despite the questions, there is always a perfect match between an old ride and the owner and there’s little doubt Doug has a match with this extremely rare 1974 Jimmy.

 

He just doesn’t keep it in a vault.

 

Jerry Sutherland

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