70 K10 the Teal Deal

[landarts]

In June of 2021 I had just sold a few trucks and had also bought a few more with the proceeds. I just returned back from Washington a few weeks earlier to bring back a 70 K20 with a service bed that I bought from a local fire department deal. Anyways I was browsing through Facebook Marketplace and saw that a 70 K10 and an additional parts truck came up for sale about fifteen minutes from my house, so I reached out and made an appointment to go take a look. Once I arrived at the property there were actually three trucks there but these were the only two that were for sale. He stated that he would only sell them as a set.

So I looked over the parts truck first to see if it was worth anything or if any of the parts on the truck were worth using. The parts truck is a 72 C20 CST with a stripped-down cab that was rust-free, a nice bed, a tailgate, and all of it sitting on a nice rolling rust-free frame. Then I walked over to the 70 K10 which was what my real interest was focused on. Overall the truck was in good shape, not much rust except for the drivers rocker and a small bit on the passenger rocker. The firewall, cab supports, cab corners, floor, and doors were as solid as can be, and original. Body damage on the driver's door and the driver's rear corner. The rest on the outside was mostly peeling clear coat from a prior repaint, but overall a straight truck. Under the hood, the motor top end was removed and sitting in the bed of the truck. Missing the brake booster and master cylinder and the power steering hoses were also missing. The Interior was complete, the seat was in need of recovering, the dash pad had a few cracks, the rubber floor mat was in good shape and the radio delete plate was in the glove box. The glove box SPID was beyond readable and the door VIN plate had been removed and reattached after painting with standard rivets.

So I also noticed that the truck had a "Cheyenne 10" emblem on both sides of the fender for its badging. The truck is a "70" so the Cheyenne badging is not right and I saw nothing on the truck that resembled Cheyenne. So I asked the seller if he had a wire brush I could borrow to see if I could clean up the frame on the driver's side front where part of the VIN is stamped to see what it might tell me. After doing some cleanup and scrubbing the VIN on the frame matched the VIN plate and also matched the title. I did not see anything on the truck that would tell me it was not a true K10. The interior paint was the original paint and had not been repainted like the outside. I was able to make out on the bottom of the SPID the faint numbers "600 Saddle Vinyl" and "536 White/Turquoise.

After all the investigative work I came to this conclusion. The truck is an original 1970 K10 truck with a one-year-only color "Turquoise" paint. The interior is original paint Turquoise with Saddle dash pad, saddle seat belts, and Saddle door panels, and I would bet it had a Saddle seat cover at one time replaced over the years with the aftermarket black one. The radio delete plate was original paint with Turquoise paint and there were other places on the outside that showed me the original Turquoise paint. The P.O. had removed the door VIN plate when it was painted and at the same time added the "Cheyenne" fender badges. Anyways I bought the truck and the parts truck and put it in storage for about 6 months. Have been working on it over the last couple of months. Over the next few days, I will be uploading bits and pieces of the story and lots of pictures to get us up to date.