[AZ Chev]

Im sure there are many of them out there, but I had never seen an Ochre and white truck in person in my neck of the woods, and that color combo fit my fancy. I specifically wanted a highly optioned K20 truck with the option code 463 White & Ochre, and it had to have AC with original SPID in tact. My intent was to build it as close as I could to the factory SPID while possibly adding a few more cool factory options along the way.

A couple of years into my search, (around Feb. of 2019) I came across a craigslist add with two trucks for the price of one about 1300 miles away in Oregon. At first glance, the first truck appeared to fit the bill. It was exactly what I was looking for, in the colors I was looking for. A 72 K20 Cheyenne, White & Ochre, with a long list of options, including AC, sliding rear window, tilt steering, Saddle interior, etc. It had some rust, but nothing that wasn't easy to repair, and had a freshly rebuilt engine and trans. It originally belonged to an Oregon Logger.

Truck #2 was also a 72 Ochre Cheyenne, but it had rust in the cab and hood, and was not an AC truck. It had nearly all of the original parts truck #1 was missing, such as original engine manifolds, carburetor, air cleaner, sliding rear window, and had some really straight clean body panels/fenders as well.

After talking with the seller a few times, I talked the wife into a road trip, promised some good food, a nice hotel, etc., and for the most part, kept those promises. The plan was to load up the first truck complete, and dismantle the second truck and haul home everything I wanted from it, making it all one trip. It all worked sort of as planned, all except for the snow storm that moved in... about the time I moved in.

We arrived late Friday Evening, and I had a hotel for Friday night, planning to load the trucks on Saturday. We stopped to look at the trucks Friday evening before going to the hotel, and in spite of the fact we could not get truck #1 to start, everything looked pretty close to what was described. I wasn't too worried about the truck not starting, as the seller had receipts for all the work that was done, and the engine and trans were obviously fresh. The seller said we could pull #2 truck into his garage to dismantle due to the weather.

When Saturday morning rolled around, the seller changed his mind and didn't want the mess in his new shop, so needless to say, a long, wet, cold day in the snow followed.

By late afternoon, I had pulled the engine, trans, windows, fenders, and all the other parts from truck #2 I thought I needed for my build, and headed back to the hotel. We spend the last hour at the hotel drying wet tools I had brought along for the job, then loaded up and headed out.

We had a long night ahead of us heading home, going over mountain passes on Ice and fresh snow, but made it home safe.

More to follow....