1959 Panel, dual wheels...from factory?

[howard.peters]

Found an interesting picture on the web, from 1966. I took a screen shot and cropped out the unimportant stuff. The truck shown is, I believe, a '59 Chevy panel with dual wheels. My question to all you experts out there: was this a factory built truck, do you think, or built in a custom shop?

I have looked at a document downloaded from the GM Heritage Center, called 1959-Chevrolet-Truck.pdf. This seems to show that dual wheels, 19.5 inch, were available on at least some series 3800 trucks. I have never before seen this on a panel truck.

After doing some googling, a few pictures and articles were found showing one ton panel trucks with duals. One from the 30s, one from the late 40s, a couple from early 50s, one 1957. All either appeared to be or were said to be factory built. Needless to say these are quite rare since few were made and they were generally worked to death and then scrapped.

Opinions?

[_Ogre]

lots of coach builders modified panel/suburban trucks for specific uses
3 door forest service and military trucks and 6 door limos come to mind

this is my 59 3800 back in the day

[Coupeguy2001]

Look at the windshield. It looks like someone is using that truck as a pusher truck on the Bonneville salt flats. They might have modified it to suit their needs,

Tow truck, pusher truck, parts bin, etc.

[dwcsr]

Originally Posted by Coupeguy2001

Look at the windshield. It looks like someone is using that truck as a pusher truck on the Bonneville salt flats. They might have modified it to suit their needs,

Tow truck, pusher truck, parts bin, etc.

They did have some dual wheel panel vans used by Civil Defense, Fire trucks and Forestry service that I remember from the 60's, I don't know if GM actually built them or they were done by a coach builder

[1957 Chief]

Originally Posted by Coupeguy2001

Look at the windshield. It looks like someone is using that truck as a pusher truck on the Bonneville salt flats. They might have modified it to suit their needs,

Tow truck, pusher truck, parts bin, etc.

My first thoughts as well.

[howard.peters]

I found another picture of that truck. Here, it looks like the rear fender extensions are nothing more than pieces of sheet metal bent to fit the wheel opening. There is pretty clearly an area of gray primer masked off around the wheel opening as well.

It now seems pretty obvious that this was just brewed up in the shop... Just get a set of dual wheels from the junkyard, along with the adapters for the front axle; make a quick set of fenders from some sheet metal; spray can of primer!

Coupeguy2001, you were right. These pictures are from the 1966 Bonneville speed trials; the gold car is a Studebaker driven by Neil Thompson, who set a record that year which held for 19 years.

Ogre, VERY nice work on your yellow '58 pickup. Looks as professional as those high end custom shops! Have you done anything with your '59 panel?

[_Ogre]

sadly, no...
i'm in the process of giving it away to the guy who has stored it in north carolina for the past 19 yrs

[OrrieG]

Here is what was available from the factory. But sometimes they were sent to coach builders or even local shops for conversion. If it was factory or coach builder I suspect they would have use a modified step side bed fender to make up the difference. In 1985 when I was looking for a 4wd donor I came across a 1957 3/4 ton truck that had a dually rearend that fit under stock stepside with tubs on the inside. It was 4wd, but I do not think it was NAPCO. I passed because of the very low (4.56) gear ratio the guy said he had. At the time I had a 1+ ton rearend in mine with the same ratio and the highway trips to my favorite hunting and camping places took a long time.

http://chevy.oldcarmanualproject.com...esto/56083.htm

[_Ogre]

i read somewhere that a true 3800 napco had a 5.17 diff
i believe 4.56 was in the 2 wheel versions, my 3800 panel would cruise all day at 45 mph

i drove that thing all over the country
bought it in san jose ca, drove it to milwaukee, moved to kallispell mt, vacationed in key west with it, lived in it for a very cold winter in rawlins wy and eventually moved to north carolina where it still lives

[OrrieG]

4.56 is what I had, 45 on the straights, about the same up hill because of the ratio. With granny 4 speed would crawl up a tree even with the fully loaded camper on it.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by OrrieG

With granny 4 speed would crawl up a tree even with the fully loaded camper on it.

true dat