'59 Chevy guys - what's the difference?

I've got a '59 4-dr belair hardtop in the 'storage" yard.. in sad shape. Never knew it was rare until now...

Brian

 

Travis, glad to see you back...

 

My dad bought a 60 Bel Air 2 dr HT. His brother was a Chevy dealer and he couldn't sell it so my dad got a deal. Not a 59 but the differences are probably similar. It shared the exact same sheet metal as the Impala. It came with full rubber floor mats instead of the Impala carpeting.(My dad thought that that was a plus, he didn't have to buy the rubber mats to protect the carpet.) I believe there was extra decorative chrome trim on the impala dash. The body trim was different obviously. You could get any engine/trans combo that was available that year. Ours had the 6 cyl powerglide...what a turd! I'm sure that is why it didn't sell. Most people that wanted the 2dr HT would pony up for the Impala so Bel Air 2dr HTs are pretty rare. Basically, the only differnces were trim levels. The Bel Air 1/4 panel side molding for a 2dr can be expensive and hard to find because it is the same as the El Camino and in high demand.

Get a 59 Chevy dealer brochure off of ebay. It will show all of the models, engine trans combos and trim levels.

 

i have to ??? about the bel-air 1/4 panel trim being the same as el camino. i have a 59 elky,robbed the trim off a car in a junk yard, 2dr bel air,got it home and it was 1/2 to 1 inch to long. by the way the car we robbed it off of had a j-2 olds motor with tri power. not saying it came that way just what it had. also what is the diff in rear bumpers. all tho i do have a s/w rear bumper with the very rare step on it

whoops re-read post you meant 2dr hdt bel air 1/4 panel trim. mine came off a 2dr post bel-air. maybe i shouldn't cut mine to fit now. now about those bumper????

 

Some 59 Belairs were also all White.. No Two Tone.. The 2 dr hdtp I owned was All White.. no vertical trim on the taillights..

 

There were two 59 BelAir two door hardtops, and one 60, around here when I was a kid. All three were a horrible diarrhea grey color, all owned by oldtimers that bought them new. Could have bought the 60 from the old stick that owned it for around $600 in 1980. I thought it was too damn ugly and bought a 65 Rambler instead......

 

The El Camino side trim is longer than a 2-door sedan or 2-door hardtop. If you look at the profile of these cars, you'll see that the back of the El Camino is sort of slanted whereas the cars are more straight up. That's why the El Camino side trim is a little longer even though it looks exactly the same as the Bel Air trim.

The S/W steps on the rear bumper for 1959 and 1960 came from the Kingswoods. Same trim as the Parkwoods (Bel Air level) but the Kingswoods have the 3rd seat... 9-passenger wagon.

Your 2-door Bel Air sedan trim and the 2-door hardtop trim should be the same as far as the side trim goes.

 

Mine was white over blue and the white was on the roof only.



Mutt

 

Holy shit!! nice chops.

 

Holy shit x2! I hope I'm not gonna be tested on this!

 

My dad bought a Black '59 FI/4sp convertible new.

 

Bumpers are the same, brackets and valances are different.

 

ChickenRidgeRods-

You're right... my mind has been fixated on 1960 the last few months. Have a look.

 

maybe i mis understand what your saying. in my case the trim i took off of a 2dr sedan,bel air,is longer then my elky 1/4 panel. ? if i line it up at the edge of the door, it goes past the tail light? i'm talking about the long side 1/4 panel speer

 

The rear quarters are slightly different lengths too. Two door sedans, hardtops and converts all used the same lower quarter panels, (from the edge of the fin on down). El Caminos and two door station wagons used the same quarters, but were slightly shorter than the sedan / hardtop / convertable quarters.

 

was 14 in 59 and car crazy .i will never forget hanging around at the local chevrolet dealer,when the new cars were unloaded, first i spottet the emblem fuel injection on the front fender white bel air 4 speed a while later one of the salesmen got me a ride in that car .what a thrill.........

 

I love 59 Chevy's. Man, batwing fins and cat eye tailights can't be beat. One of the sickest cars ever is the 59 Chevy in the winter 2008 Rod & Kulture, beautiful. Pretty cool story as well

 

Not all hardtops were Impalas...there was a 2 and 4 door hardtop Belair...also the nomad wagon had impala style trim. I used to have a 1959 Chevrolet "finger tip facts" book to reference. Hope that helps.

 

Anybody got a pic of a 2 tone car...where the color goes from the body out to the fin near the door? Is there a chrome trim piece there, or just a paint line?

 

1959 HP-185-250-280-300-305-315-320-335...........Rich

 

i know some had a paint divider,small piece of stainless that goes there. pretty hard to find couple of pieces. don't know if it just had a paint line tho? anybody?

 

mother bought a new 59 4 dr impala in the winter of 58-59 250 hp 348 3x2s grade retarder trans,never would let me drive it

 

Here's a photo of the paint divider trim piece. It is about four or five inches long, just off the top of my head. Like anything, they're either really tough to find, or you wander into a yard and it has five 59's and four of them have what you need. Good luck.

 

and don't make fun of my old paint shop style arrows, either! I'm not a graphic designer.

Also props to whomever pointed out the shorter front windshield on those models. The only chop I've seen on a 59 el camino (not to make it sound like I'm some old timer who's seen everything) was done by subbing in the shorter windshield and doors. Also, the impala trim is not only wider, it has blunt ends, as opposed to the sexy spears.

oh yeah, the car in the photo used to be two-tone, otherwise it wouldn't have the paint dividers.