Good evening! Looking to see if any of you have any info out there, because this old girl doesn't exist online. It is actually titled as a 1959 Buick Truck. It was redone in the 60's as a kustom. Has a 59 Impala dash, 56 Ford "Custom Cab" plaque on dash in place of the impala emblem. Very well done I might add. Shaved handles as well as roof scallops from an Impala. Pictures make her look a lot rougher than she really is. The frame is super solid, and still has the 401. I looked for this car for two years (last known to be 2.5 hours from where I live) and finally tracked it down (Get this...a whopping 3 miles down the street from me, lol) and finally made a deal. I'm super excited to get started and hopefully pick up a little info along the way. I recently found a 59 Buick "Commercial" that is a 4 door convertible with the same bed as mine. It has a series of cabinets throughout the back of it. Pretty strange (but cool). Owner knows nothing about it, and it doesn't exist either, lol. Both having the same bed, there has to be something to it. Anyway, I look forward to hearing your guys input! -Danny
My plan was to redo the top of the fins, and do an extended deck lid so to speak to make the tonneau cover, just like the model car I posted. I am not going to start cutting until I have exhausted research to make sure I'm not ruining something though.
I was going to ask that too, but forgot. If I had a clue about using fiberglass, I’d make a lid for it. No matter what you do or don’t do it’s a cool car to start off with.
Gotta love the oddball stuff that nobody has! You have distinguished yourself by choosing a path less traveled! Congratulations on a great score! "Money has no value, unless it's spent" "Everything old, is new again" " Everything odd or weird, can be beaten and reshaped into acceptable automotive art " Don't let anybody try to discourage you!
I would guess the first one may have been a coach built flower car. I see it has Buick wheels on it so it is Buick suspension. Check it close. They may have used the El Camino cowl and roof. That is why it has the Chevy dash. If I remember right most of the GM lines used the same windshields in 1959. So it might have been the easy work around for the coach builder.
there was one of those at Pate last year. it used 1960 Oldsmobile quarters and front clip. He said his father did it many years ago
That's really interesting, looks like it's got more '59 Buick than El Camino in it but the door tops look like El Camino, except for the vent wing area. It could be someone's custom that was pretty well built, or it could have been a coachbuilt type thing like a flower car, very hard to say. But it appears to have been finished out really well at one time. The lack of a tailgate, flat ended tailfins, and open rear body panel makes me think some kind of insert was in the bed/box at one time. I hope more history turns up on it. No matter who built it, it's a worthwhile project for sure.
Congrats on your cool project, enjoy it! I have no info on that one, but the "4-door convertible" is/was a '59 Flxible ambulance and was a relatively complete and original car less than a year ago... Apparently the top removal is a recent development. Too bad. A few pics -
A crying shame that ambulance lost it's roof, I wonder if someone was fixing a Cadillac hearse without any glass and used the whole roof? Seems like it might be the same roof and I know those Cadillac ambulances/hearses can sell for a bundle of cash, seems a shame to destroy that very intact Buick though. Glad to know the red example above isn't going to receive the same fate. Interesting though, I wonder if it was also a conversion, maybe a flower car with some kind of wooden bed insert? The fin modification sure looks like what was on that Ambulance.
Danny, First congrats on getting the '59. Second, I'm envious. I have a '59 Invicta wagon as well as a Le Sabre 2dr. post. I've often dreamed of building a Camino style truck by grafting the roof and rear window from a Camino and using wagon rear cargo panels. A bit of history; GM told Buick to design the new "59's and the other divisions would follow. They all used the same "tub". Therefore things like the glass, model to model, inter change. The common "joke" is that a Chevy door will fit a Caddy. Although I haven' throughly checked I think a Buick door would also. The raised belt line trim on a Buick on the front door is a bolt on. Maybe yours has a Chevy door. Can't figure out the the rear window on yours. The dashes are welded in so as stated before it's probably a Chevy cowl and roof and doors(?) Maybe was a flower car or somebody just wanted a Buick/Camino (and I can't even think of a catchy name) just like we dream of. By the way, Collectible Automobile had a very good article on the development of the '59 Buick. Hope this helps a bit and good luck. DoUg
That is awesome info. The reason I'm hesitant on thinking it was converted after it left the factory is the fact it is titled as a "1959 Buick Pick up". Flower car was my first thought the very first time I seen it, but they are titled different.
Just to pique your imagination, about six years ago there was a challenge on the Photoshop thread to digitally "build" a Buick El Camino - go here and scroll down a bit: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-to-end-all-photoshop-threads.300531/page-513
Something to think about and not knowing the state licensing where your at, but in California you can license a pickup for less money as a car, going with non commercial plates. Same thing with an El Camino/Ranchero too. This allowed you to legally if licensed as a commercial vehicle, to have a load above the bedsides without being in an enclosure (shell, canvas structure, etc ). I wonder if that is why it was titled as a pickup? I had a Jeep pickup with non-commercial plates I used to moved back to Ca from Az, my load was in plain sight and the CHP stopped and gave me a ticket for the exposed load in a non commercial vehicle Gotta love California
Definitely not a coach built flower car. Would not have a Chevy dash for starters., but there were no coach-build B-59 flower cars when new; last (one-off) Buick flower car was '49... until '92.
B-59 dash is bolted in. As the GM '59s share the same firewall, the Chevy dash likely bolts in too (I can only directly attest to B-59s). There is a very minimal cross-Divisional sharing in '59, but they do share the front floor pans, front doors, front seat frames & firewall.
That is very cool! Would love to see that one back on the road. here’s an Olds version I saw at the Pate swap meet last year.
Someone by me has a Buick Elky, looks like it has been running around for years. I'll try to catch a picture of it when cruise night season opens.
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