1959 Chevrolet El Camino

RUST FREE Pickup truck

8 - Cyl.

Automatic

C59L161989

Gasoline

Hello and welcome to another Houseofhotrod auction! Today I am listing a 1959 Chevrolet El Camino - most likely one of the nicest '59 Caminos anywhere, and at a fair price point. This '59 is done as an early 60's Custom, and is a rust free frame off restoration. Solid, tight, and just a joy to drive. I have owned this Camino for 11 years now, and for the first time I have it up for sale. It's never been offered, and is only for sale as we have come across a unique investment opportunity. You will not find a more honest '59 anywhere. This is a wonderful super solid runner and driver that will absolutely be a blast to own. Street driving, cruising, city or highway - this car can do it all. I will do my best to describe it so that you feel you know it, and to point out any and all problems (none that I can find on this car!). It's hard to show the total story of this car in the words I use and only 4 pictures, plus another 100 or so more I squeaked in, but again - I will do my best, I tried to use pictures that covered the overall feel and look of the car. I use lower resolution so that anyone in the world can download them with relative ease. The pictures are taken at McMinnville Oregon's Evergreen Aviation Museum - home of the one and only Spruce Goose. They are very nice folks that let me snap my pictures there at the museum. The plane behind the car is a 1944 Douglas C47A Skytrain. Not just any C47 Skytrain - it's one that flew troops that parachuted into Normandy on D-day, as well as flying various missions before and after that day in history. If you're ever in town, stop by and see this awesome pair of museums - there is an Air and Space Museum there, as well as an Imax theater. If you are ever in this area, please stop in and visit them. Please also be aware that this car is advertised and for sale locally, nationally and globally, and we do reserve the right to end this auction at any time if the vehicle sells before auction ends. This car is definitely for sale and definitely on the money price wise. If you are SERIOUS about this car - please call my cell # 503.580.6225 If I don't answer the first time - try again later - if I am at work I may not be able to answer your call. Please be considerate of the time. We have little ones that need to get their sleep - so all we ask is a little respect timewise. Someone's gonna get an awesome first year El Camino in their garage! This is a unique opportunity to own a car to enjoy, to show, to drive or to drag - and most of all have fun with. The value is here, the timing is right. You will never lose. Buy it today and be the envy of those who hesitated and missed it. El Camino for 1959 - a new idea (at least for Chevrolet) and a radical departure from anything they had been doing up til then. Yes, people had been cutting the backs off of wagons for years, and Ford came out with theirs in 1957 but finally Chevrolet did it, and on one of the wildest automobile designs ever!! This makes the '59 Camino, a first year car, one of the most sought after Chevys ever, and low original production has kept them few and far between. Not to mention the rust monster that has devoured most of them. You see lots of parts cars and projects, but very few turn key, or even nice ones. I think this Camino is one of the nicest on the planet. A tall statement I know -and I am a little partial, but I think it's true. I call this car 'Palamino - as it is part Impala, and part El Camino. The car was built over several years back in the 90's, and was taken to Hot August nights. The man who built is took a different car there each year and then he was done. He is the lead painter at one of Salem Oregon's best body shops. Once completed he takes them to Hot August Nights, he is done with them - and that's where I came in 11 years ago or more. Ken had done this car as a ground up restoration, frame off - and he started with a relatively (for a 59) rust free Eastern Oregon car. This is High desert country, and the sheet metal there is as good as it gets, but the '59 Chevrolet cars had a bad problem with really thin floors, and lots of water leaks, not a good combination. Quality control as a rule in US built cars suffered in this time frame, and they weren't really building them with the idea we would be still playing with them 50 plus years later. Ken completely sandblasted the body while off the frame, and put in new floors where needed, and properly repaired any and all rust or rot, which other than the floors, wasn't much - you will note that in some spots the floor is double thickness, like in the rear 'footwell' area, this was done to make it stronger - but where it had rusted out, is cut away, leaving some of the original metal in place, instead of cutting it all out. POR 15 was put on the floors, aywhere there had been surface rust as well, to stop this process completely. The car had rally wheels and lots of bow ties, and I had always wanted a 1959 El Camino - so, once I saw this, I was just done. I have gone through the car over the years, and done it as an early 60's Custom, and tried my best to be true to the era, with a few modern tweaks, but very few - getting rid of the things I didn't like, and making a fun, classy, and true to the era driver. Let's go through the car from front to back. The engine is a completely gone through/rebuilt at time of the frame off. Its a Chevrolet 350 that is pretty much all stock internally, that I believe is from the early 70's, and it's dead on dependable - have never messed with it, as I like it relatively stock and problem free. Whenever I am getting a car ready for Goodguys Puyallup - and don't get the car done, this is the 'backup plan'. Check the oil and the gas, pack a tent and some goodies, and away I go. We cruise it, and drive it only on nice days. The engine is dressed with a few chrome goodies, and topped with an Edelbrock intake and carburetor. New hard fuel lines were used instead of rubber for safety and a clean look. There is a HEI distributor for strong spark and durability. Headers (correct ones for the X frame/chassis) exit the exhaust, which goes to a system I sketched out, and a good friend built for me. The lake plugs are functional - and run old NOS caps. I love cruising with 'em off, but the police don't so much. The mufflers are turbo type, and exit to a unique bell/flair tipped scavenger system out back. All four pipes are functional, and it sounds nice. Radiator is new, and the car has no cooling issues. The engine compartment is well detailed, the inner fenderwells are painted a gloss black, and the rest is painted. Most everything under the hood is new. An Optima battery provides the spark. All the wiring in the car is new, and tidy. There is a battery shut off for safe storage, and preserving the battery. The transmission is a Powerglide, and it was rebuilt just a couple of years ago. It leaked when it sat (typical) and I didn't like that, so had it completely gone through - not a backyard job, but professionally. It doesn't leak anymore. When we did this, we got all the correct linkage for the kickdown, and now it is functional. The brakes are stock, and all new, springs, cylinders, shoes, lines, hoses etc, all new. The shocks in front are KYB Gas, and just a couple years old. The rears are air shocks, with separate line kits. I like to do them this way. I have never carried much of a load, but like to be able to keep the rear up, and ensure a nice tidy rake at all times. The car has power steering, and I had the ram rebuilt using Stainless Steel components, so no leaks there. We cut the coils all around, they were all new - but I wanted the car to sit a bit lower, and now it does. Not too low, but just right. The car drives super nice, is tight, and all sorted out. This is a hop in and drive to the store, hop in and drive wherever you would like kind of car/truck. The wheels are vintage chrome reverse - not reproduction. I bought them brand new from Salem Speed Shop in Salem Oregon, and the staples had never been pulled on the boxes - they are Appliance Plating wheels, and are 15x6 inch - they are date coded from 1963 - These wheels are Super nice, with beautiful and much better chrome than the new 'Milner' type wheels that are available. The centers are capped with a NOS set of Cal Custom blunt nose spider caps. The lug nuts are bullet, as are the valve stem caps and even the air shock caps. The tires are less than 1000 miles old, and are Coker Classic wide white Radials - 205/75R15 up front, and 235/75R15 out back. They still have the nubs on them, and have never been curbed. They are like new, and contribute to that super ride and handling. We have probably driven the car less than 5000 miles in the years we have owned it. Inside, the car is done just like an Impala. The door panels and seat upholstery were done over ten years ago, and still look like new. This was custom ordered, from Ciadellas, as the El Camino was pretty plain jane, and never had Impala type upholstery. Impala seat covers and door panels give this the look of an Impala with cloth in the centers, and a very luxurious look. Everything there is new. Headliner is new. All weather strips new. All side glass new. Windshield new. All inside trim is painted in base/clear, and matches the car - and it's all gorgeous. All the trim chrome new. Sill plates new. All door handles, armrests, armrest bezels etc are new. Carpet is correct 80/20 loop pile that has a white binding, and I ordered custom rubber backed mats to match - when I had gotten the car it had black loop carpet in it, and I thought the red was a better match. I had a good look at the floors when in there, and it's super solid - and good to last another 50 years, or more. The bed carpet is from the same dye lot, and is bound in white as well. It snaps in place, and removes in less than a minute when the weather turns bad, which fortunately has never happened for us. The steering wheel is from a '61 Impala, and is one of my most favorite steering wheels ever - it's all custom painted to match the car, is beautiful in condition, and has no cracks. I completely went through it, and it all works. The turn signal cancel parts are new. Horns work. I had the speedo all gone through, and it works perfect, as does the odometer. There is an oil pressure guage added to the stock gauges. I had pulled the tank out, and had it boiled and sealed, and have had zero problems since - that was about 8 years ago. I installed a sender when it was out. The fuel guage has never worked, but I have a NOS one that goes with the car that I just never installed. The car is pretty good on gas, so I have just kept it filled. The heater is completely gone through with a new core. I put in all new heater cables, and redid the control levers. I also installed a shut off switch/ heater control valve (Ford type) in the heater hose system that keeps the hot coolant out, until you pull the heat lever. Keeps the car about 20 degrees cooler in the summer. Originally the hot coolant passed through the core all the time, and only the flap kept the heat out, and not well. The rear view mirror is a day/night accessory one. The outside mirrors are left and I added a right hand one, they are new as well. There is a nice indash AM/FM Cassette, that feeds to a JVC 10 or 12 disc player, and it feeds an amp for the 2 6X9s in boxes under the package shelf, and also a neat portable woofer system. The audio is awesome- it thumps without having holes drilled and speakers cut everywhere. There is also two mids and tweeters in the stock speaker location. The stereo sounds excellent. The radio antenna is one I installed - this is a factory NOS complete antenna assembly, and I don't even want to tell you how much it cost. It's new, it's right, and fits properly - these are pretty intricate and car specific antennas, and this one is as good as it gets. There is an accessory light in the rear for convenience. Headlights are the closest I could find to vintage 60's Lucas units, and the bulbs are a really cool shade that matches the pearl in the main color of the paint. All 4 match. The tailights are from a Nomad wagon, and are even rarer than El Camino lights - they give the look of Impala tail lights, and are a bit more classy than the plain red stockers. The yellow wires underneath the floors in the pictures lead to lights in the fender wells (see last pictures) When doing night cruises we flip this on and it lights up the chrome reverse wheels. These are truck type lights, old school, and NOT neon, just like in 'the day'. There is also a switch on the same panel that turns on the dome lamp at any time for convenience. The spare is a mini one, but has a cover that matches the vinyl on the rear deck and trim - the size fits well in the cab behind the passenger seat. There is plenty of storage left behind the seats, and the rear floors have their own mats. Overkill, but it is just how I do things - right, or not at all. The car still smells new inside - we don't smoke, and never have - and the car is kept inside and covered. Hop in, and it smells like a new car - it's all super clean, and not from being detailed, that is just how we keep it, like new and clean. The body and paint on this car are amazing. The car is very very straight, and the paint is like new. It's a base/clear, and if I remember right it was from Glasurit. The color is a special mix, and I have the mix code. It is a maroon color, with gold pearl in it - when the light hits it it's almost a bronze/orangeish color, but at night a dark maroon. This is not a flip flop color or chameleon type- just an old school pearl, with modern materials and clear coat for longevity. VERY shiny, and very smooth. Just gorgeous. The car is super super straight, with hundreds upon hundreds of hours of prep sanding - and the complete body was taken down to bare metal. Nothing underneath to cause problems down the road. The white has a red pearl in it, again I have the code for that too. There is very little filler in the car, a little on the bottom of the front edges of the rockers in two or three spots, but this isn't visible unless you are under the car, and that shouldn't be very often! The bumpers were rechromed when the paint was done, new headlight bezels etc. There are no tonneau holes in the bed trim. The stainless could have been buffed a bit better, but that is one of the few things I can pick on - there are a couple dings in the side stainless, but small ones. The grille is a Cal Custom Stainless unit that I found New Old Stock (NOS). I can replace that with the stock one if you prefer. There is a NOS radiator bug screen installed to keep the bugs at bay. Locking gas cap keeps the fuel where is should be. Bed floor is pretty nice, as nice as I have seen with no rust or rot. Not perfect, but pretty darned nice, and no scratches, as we never hauled anything in it, and once we got the carpet installed - only camping gear, and a box or two. The rear license assembly pivots like it should to make the plate readable with the gate down. (see pic). This is as new a car as you will find in a '59 Camino, and I dare you to find a nicer one at the price. Super rare, super unusual, and super clean. We have won several awards with it, and it has been pictured in several mags over the years such as Street Rodder and Goodguys Gazette. It's showable indoors or out, but it's not what we do, although it definitely could be. Overall this car is very solid, very tight, and very well put together. It needs nothing but driven, and a new home. This is a truly turn key car - hop in start it up, and drive it. Please note that the car has not been detailed, this is just how I have kept the car. No rattle cans, nothing phoney, nothing covered up - just honest, clean and neat n' tidy, and it's always kept this way. The car is stored inside, in an insulated shop, kept warm snug and dry, not outside and is always kept covered to keep the dust off. The title is clean and clear and in my name - the plates that are on it don't go with it, nor does my club plaque that is laying in the back window ( not mounted). Be prepared for many a long conversation with people who 'had one just like it', billions of thumbs up, and just a little (or a lot) of envy from other old car owners and just about everyone you run into on the road - and certainly isn't a car for the shy. the car is worthy of, and will win awards and trophies at most any cruise-in or car show indoor or out - one thing is for sure, you won't pull up to a traffic light, or anywhere for that matter, and have one just like it pull up next to you. Own it, enjoy it love it - you have to promise me one thing though - that you will give it a good home. I have babied, cherished and loved this car for many many years, and it will be super sad to see it go. Investment wise - it's better than money in the bank, or any stock or bond out there. As the soda slogan used to say 'It's the real thing!' Now for the nitty gritty: DO NOT BID IF YOU DO NOT INTEND TO PAY! Your bid is a contract and will be treated as such. If you have zero or negative feedback - please contact us first. We reserve the right to cancel bids to those who don't adhere to this request. If you need to get permission of any sort to buy - PLEASE GET IT FIRST. Excuses such as - I had the money now I dont, My spouse doesn't like the color, Gee I got sick as soon as I won the bid in the last 30 seconds of the auction, Oops I hit buy it now by mistake, My kid bid not me, My attorney says etc etc will not be tolerated or excused. PLEASE think before you biid! A 500.00 deposit is required within 72 hours of auction close, the balance in full due within 10 days of auction close. Paypal will not be accepted on any part of the auction unless agreed upon in advance, other than the deposit. Payment is by bank wire, cashiers check or cash. No overpayment scams please. If paid by any form of check - check will clear bank before vehicle leaves it's present location. Winning this auction does not qualify you to fly in and inspect the vehicle then decide IF you want it, or to renegotiate. The vehicle is available for inspection by appointment, so if you aren't sure - come see it first! Shipping is at the expense of the winning bidder. Vehicle must be picked up near McMinnvile, Oregon. This car is 51 or more years old, and so is sold as is. We have possession of and guarantee a free and clear title to the vehicle, with no brands or anything of that sort. Vehicle is titled in Oregon as a 1959 Chevrolet PU, just as it should be. VIN (serial number) plate in the door jamb is the original one, and has never been removed - it will make the VIN inspection (if your state has one) a breeze. The license plates that are on it do not go with the car, nor does the club plaque laying in the rear window shelf. Vehicle is sold as is with no warranty either expressed or implied. Vehicle is being purchased from the car's owner, not Houseofhotrod, and the bill of sale will be from them. We will help you arrange shipping any way we can, winning bidder pays for all shipping charges. We have recently been using a service called Uship at www.uship.com which is a spot where you can insert a shipping request, and shippers will bid to do your shipping - these shippers are rated on feedback just like eBay rates their sellers. Pretty cool. We will help with shipping any way we can. Sorry if we sound snotty here - we just want to communicate that we take our eBay seriously - all we really ask is that you do the same!! This makes it much easier for those of YOU who are also serious about bidding and buying. I have bought many vehicles here and understand your concerns - we've been there! PLEASE ask questions if you have them - I will do my best to answer honestly and quickly. Thank you for looking and bidding. Summary of My Selling Policies Payment Paypal ships fastest, but checks and money orders are acceptable also. Checks will be held until they clear. Certain auctions will not qualify for Paypal purchases, but will be noted as such. Large items will be paid with Cashiers checks or wire transfer. Again - this will be noted in auction. Fees No state taxes in Oregon. Your state may require a tax be paid, but I do not collect it. Never a handling fee unless stated. Shipping I ship worldwide unless stated in auction. some larger auctions will be restricted to US bidding ONLY due to the high instances of fraud, and non paying bidders. sorry not picking on you, just speaking from previous experience. I will ship via source that is most convenient for YOU. Method will most always be listed along with shipping costs - but they will vary based on location shipped to. Buyer pays all shipping unless otherwise noted! Delivery Items ship next day if possible, unless weekends/holidays prohibit. I will ship when the funds are available - items will be held in all cases until paid in full. Refunds & Returns Items are sold as is. I provide a good description in my listing of the condition of the item. If unsure - ask questions or if possible view the item on appointment basis, even if you plan to bid in the last minutes/seconds of the auction. I sell a lot of items for others, therefore do not own them. I will most always specify as such. Winning an auction does NOT qualify you to be able to fly in, and decide if you want item and or renegotiate. Contact Me The best contact method is via email, certain auctions will list my cell #. I answer emails within 24 hours, usually much faster, unless I am out of town which is rarely if I have an auction in progress. BID WITH CONFIDENCE Read my policies on my SquareTrade Seal stwithpolicies SquareTrade © <