VIN problem on 72 Blazer

[paujones1]

I'm attempting to purchase a 72 Blazer in Northern CA. The truck has been parked next to an body repair shop for at least 10 years. I talked to the guy at the shop who said his son owned it. We met and reviewed the condition. It was all there, but had not been moved for 10 years. I asked about the title, and was handed a folder full of DMV paperwork, a few hand written bills of sale and attempts to register it in 98. From what I can tell, it is registered as non-op, but has not been registered since 93 and had 2 prior owners who each passed away. Kind of a mess, right?

I went to AAA to see if they could run a search and just tell me who owns it and what is owed to transfer it. They would not touch it. They handed me a few bills of sale and statement of fact forms. They said go to DMV and they can tell you the status and next steps. In CA, its a half day thing to go to DMV or wait a month for an appointment so I decided to look online to see if I could get more info.

I found a form online INF70 to print, send in 5 bucks and DMV will send a report. I did all that with the license plate, VIN and description.

DMV sent back a form saying there is no such vehicle on file.

My question: The VIN on the forms I have starts with CKE182S...... Were there 72 Blazers that has a CK... VIN? I thought K5 blazers were KE.... and C10 pickups were CE....

Was this originally a 2WD truck? Pretty sure it was 4WD.

Thanks in advance....