I bought this 1959 GMC fleet option truck a little over a month ago, with the intentions of just using it as an old truck, but eventually it will become my son's first vehicle. He's 7, we've maybe got enough time to get it fixed up a little bit.....In the mean time though, it'll will serve as the trash and lawn waste hauler, and around town daily driver. I am going to get it a little closer to the ground this winter, and maybe pound a few dents out of it, but for the most part, we'll leave it as is until my son is old enough to help to fix things up with a little supervision.
Cool truck. I am starting work on a 59 Apache for my son to drive around as well. He takes his test in 2 weeks so I am behind the 8 ball. We are hoping to have it on the road by spring.
I like it for sure. I see the strong Kansas wind "fully" opened the driver's door at some point in it's life. Which engine does it have? The first 3 digits on the stamped pad left of distributor will be the cubic inches if it is original inline 6.
Very cool. You know, until a couple weeks back when I saw another 58-59 like yours I realized I had never seen a GMC in this body style with the single headlight. Now I have seen two of them!! Anyway, nice truck...
Actually, a (probably) drunken Nebraska farm hand rolled it into a snow filled ditch, then he opened the door fully. It's not bad at all for a rollover truck, thank God for the snow, all the pillars are straight, and the curved glass is fine. Someone already put a chevy V8 in front of the 4 speed, and I'm okay with that. Yes, the fleet option trucks are said to be extremely rare, the OldGMC website claims that less than 100 are known to still exist. They were GMC trucks built using a chevy cab, they have a V shaped gauge panel, and a unique front end treatment.
Yeah, they're rare! I haven't seen one for over a week, it was driving up to Burning Man as I was heading home from Vegas.....
Well, the only info I can find, and I found it through the HAMB said that. I don't know how they have or have not accounted for them. Heck, I saw one on the HAMB classifieds last week, so maybe they're not quite as rare as the old GMC website thinks. I'm sure they made lots of them, they were for fleet use after all, but I'm betting that trucks bought for fleet use were run into the ground. Here's where I read up on the fleet option trucks....right or wrong, it's the only info I could find about them.....after re-reading it, they have changed the wording from "less than 100 remaining" to " the number of surviving fleet option trucks is extremely low" http://www.oldgmctrucks.com/page0287.html
Wow!! Nice, you learn something every day! I first viewed the pictures at the beginning of the post and thought "single headlights on a '59?? That can't be right..." I've never seen a GMC Fleet option truck until today. BTW, I worked a at gas station in 1979/80 and we had a 1959 GMC Fleetside longbed for a shop truck--> it had the V8 (Pontiac?) and a three-speed on the column. Oh yeah, it had power-steering too. We used to get yelled at for grinding the transmission going back into 1st gear.
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