things that make you go Hmmm.. PO buffoonery & some AMAZING build sheet coincidences

[jocko]

So, I'm taking the PO's K-Mart seat cover off so I can install the correct olive custom cloth seat (from Tim at Truckseats!), and as I peeled the cheesy thing back, I found an original olive Cheyenne cover. Why ON EARTH would someone go to the trouble to cover something like that up... As I progressed, I kinda saw why, the Cheyenne cover had some rips in it, but in my opinion, still looked better than the cheesy, off-green k-mart special. Oh well. Ha.. The bottom half was a good bit worse.

HOWEVER, here's the weird part...

I knew the seat wasn't original to the truck - and I already had the original build sheet FROM my truck (this is the 71 Cheyenne Super Custom Camper). So, when I got the old non-original, but year-ish correct, bench seat out - I wasn't THAT surprised to find a build sheet for the truck it came out of. But then... the plot thickens. The first build sheet I found was under the bottom of the bench. Then I found another one in the springs to the top half of the seat. When I compared them, the first thing I noted was that one was a CE20934 model and one was a CE10934 model. So, kinda weird. It would seem that the top half and bottom half of my non-original seat were from DIFFERENT trucks. Weird enough, right? But possible.

Then it got REALLY weird. Started looking a little further. They were made on the SAME day. So then I started thinking perhaps there was a typo in the Model Number. Nope - the build sheets called out two different dealers in SoCal. And listed completely different options.

Then it got REALLY REALLY weird...

Here are the VINs:
CE141Z655316
and
CE241Z655316

The ONLY difference in the VINs is 1/2 ton vs 3/4 ton. I always thought that the last 6 digits were unique to THAT truck only. Or, is it possible that the VINS could have the last same 6 digits - but be different models, and therefore have a slightly different tonnage callout in the respective VINs??)

I'm in build sheet twilight zone... This was a VERY interesting investigation (I love digging into old truck build sheets and deciphering, but have NEVER seen this much of a coincidence). Was really leaning toward a typo, but after reviewing, the sheets clearly come from two different trucks, went to two different dealers, and had different options. The only common thread is that they were built on the same day, and had olive vinyl trim and both were Cheyennes - so, lends some credence to how the trucks were built - note they had different exterior colors, so this would make it look like they were grouped on the assembly line based on interior trim color and trim level... (cue twilight zone music). My assumption is that these two truck were in line on the assembly line and the seat builder dude mixed one's upper half with another's lower half when he assembled them - and one poor schmo got NO build sheet at all in his truck. Ha. All I can say is that the 3/4 ton truck looks like it would have been GORGEOUS: White with olive interior, and tons of options, incl custom camper, tool stowage, etc. Oh, and Buster was a lot of help... My bare interior was in good hands (paws).

EDIT!! Ok, NOW I see the diff - one VIN ends in 316 and one ends in 361. Which, by the way is 45 #s apart - and the job sequence #s on the build sheets are 50 apart. Starting to make a little more sense - glad to restore my faith that all last 6 SER # digits are unique)....