Yahoo Autos 1970 Chevrolet K-10 Pickup on Bring a Trailer: Ex-Mining Truck Looks Like a Gem
Here's a clean, nicely restored vintage pickup that hews to its factory specification.
This truck's K-10 indicates 4-wheel drive (versus the C-10's rear-wheel drive).
This pickup's black-and-white color scheme reflects its initial deployment as a fleet vehicle, for a mining company in Arizona.
Finding the perfect vintage ride often is all about having the patience of a geologist. Dig deep, sift through the listings, and uncover that rare nugget of high-grade collector iron. Well, here's a jewel from the desert mines, polished up and ready for a new owner.
Unearthed on Bring a Trailer—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—is this 1970 Chevrolet K-10 pickup truck, well-preserved and sympathetically cared for. Resto-modded pickup trucks are big business these days, but the charm of this truck is pure 1970s nostalgia. The combination of short bed and single cab is almost unheard of in modern pickups, and despite the fact that it's a 4x4 model, it's not all jacked up like some would-be Baja runner.
Delivered new to the American Exploration and Mining company's Tucson office in January of 1970, this pickup truck arrived at something of an inflection point in the history of U.S. mineral extraction. It was just six months since man had landed on the moon, and if you were involved in digging raw materials out of the ground for industry, the sky might have seemed literally no longer the limit.
This Chevrolet was reportedly driven by a geologist, who bought the truck after the company went bankrupt. You can just imagine this truck, white paint reflecting some of that desert heat and A/C doing the rest, bouncing across the Arizona landscape like a moon buggy on a distant planet. With its short wheelbase, 4x4 system and locking hubs, and five-speed manual gearbox, it'd be as surefooted as an antelope.
Having remained in the same family until 2023, the truck is in largely original—or faithfully restored—condition. The paint was resprayed in the original white last year, the 16-inch wheels wear relatively recent Michelin tires, and the interior was comprehensively overhauled. Sharp eyes will spot that the seat is out of an earlier 1968 Chevrolet pickup, but it doesn't look out of place at all.
Under the hood is a 350-cubic-inch GM V-8 crate engine that was installed back in 1996. The distributor has been upgraded and there are new plugs and wires, and the valve cover seals have been replaced. All fluids have reportedly been changed, and a few transmission seals were also replaced.
Basically, this truck is ready to go exploring again, whether for rock-hound gathering, or just tracking down scenic vistas. Don't miss your chance at a lucky strike. The auction ends on February 8.
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