Can this 59 be woth what they're asking?

[Mia66GMC]

Sold my 53 Chevy and I'm actively looking to buy another truck. I came accross this 59 GMC. I usually keep my trucks for a few months,play with them, restore them with my boy and then sell them. I usually break even or sometimes even manage to make a few bucks.
Here is my delema: Knowing my background that I don't keep cars for ever, I've never bought something this nice or expensive. Do you guys think I could get my $12K-$13K, back being that it's a GMC not a Chevy? It doesn't need anything.

[PDW HOTRODS]

Looks good in pics, but quality of work is a big thing. If someone just spray bombed the engine and bondo over rust and a quickie paint job, then you will lose alot. If everything was done right then you should be OK.

[7T2]

In my opinion anything over $10K needs to be REALLY nice, and not need any attention to anything. Not necessarily show quality paint or chrome, but should not have any body or mechanical issues at all.

As far as resale on that truck, if it is as nice in person as it is in pictures I wouldn't say you would lose TOO much on it, but I doubt you're going to make money on it. In the past I think the issue with it would be the straight six, but with gas prices going up that might be more attractive to people (assuming it actually gets better mileage that a more modern V8). The truck has some updated mods, so it might sell better with a later model V8 in it.

Anybody else see an issue with the bed floor? Why isn't it evenly spaced?

[OrrieG]

The didn't come evenly spaced from the factory, PaulsGMC has a board dimension layout. I believe it is layed out that way so the bed to frame mounts land in the center of a board.

[7T2]

Originally Posted by OrrieG

The didn't come evenly spaced from the factory, PaulsGMC has a board dimension layout. I believe it is layed out that way so the bed to frame mounts land in the center of a board.

Oh, Ok. Never noticed that before. I spend more time in 67-72 land, but the older trucks are growing on me.

Interesting to note, looking at the board dimensions on GMCPauls.com, this particular year truck is one of the only ones that doesn't end up symmetrical if you divide it down the center. All others have a mirror image when divided down the center, even though different width boards are used. The 58-59 fleets had an extra board in there that throws everything off.

I never noticed any of this. Guess I never gave it much attention until I looked hard at a truck for some reason.

Edit again: The truck in this thread appears to be symmetrical, which is different than what GMCPauls has listed?

[mr48chev]

Without seeing the truck in person and comparing it to other like trucks that are for sale or have sold lately I'd have a hard time saying how much it was worth.

PWD Hotrods and 7T2 both had good comments and I go along with PWD Hotrods 100%.
Without seeing the truck in person and possibly learning some of it's history one doesn't know if it is a real restoration with a fully redone engine or low mileage original in great shape. As he said you don't know what the bodywork is like under the paint nor the quality of the paint. While there are plenty of guys who restore or rebuild these trucks and do it right and then tire of them and want something else there is that batch of "restorers" out there as there always seems to have been that grab up fairly decent trucks, slap a quick coat of paint on them and do the spray bomb rebuild on the engine and then try to turn a quick buck. It would be up to you to take a serious look at the truck and decide which did this one. As for me, half the fun of owning one of these is building it myself but then I am one of those who hangs on to his trucks forever and doesn't give a rippy doo dah about resale value on my personal rigs. I think that was the biggest reason I quit going to car and truck events on a regular basis a few years ago and went sailing is because I got tired of every other mouthbreather coming along asking what my truck was worth.

[55metalmonkey]

I'm not overly sure how rare it is but I can say that most I've seen are Stepsides not Fleetside. I'm sure google would have the answer to how many were made. If you do end up buying it a GM Vintage search http://www.vintagevehicleservices.com/options.html , will tell you everything about it and in some instances increase it's value if there was a limited number made and you have documented proof to pass on to the new owner

like PDW said, Quality of work is key to it's value but also where you live, prices seriously vary by location. You might want to research your local area to see what the average value is. The only thing I see that doesn't look like a lot of effort was put into it is the drivers door jam. black paint looks brushed on.

I would change the steering wheel BTW just doesn't look right, JMO

[dwcsr]

Originally Posted by Mia66GMC

Sold my 53 Chevy and I'm actively looking to buy another truck. I came accross this 59 GMC. I usually keep my trucks for a few months,play with them, restore them with my boy and then sell them. I usually break even or sometimes even manage to make a few bucks.
Here is my delema: Knowing my background that I don't keep cars for ever, I've never bought something this nice or expensive. Do you guys think I could get my $12K-$13K, back being that it's a GMC not a Chevy? It doesn't need anything.

This truck was $9500 on the first of the month which was a good deal. Its a real stretch at $13K considering its missing most of the GMC tags and has a Chevy front clip.

[meter swinger]

The resale market gets pretty tight at that altitude. I paid 5k about 8 yrs ago for a short fleet. What makes it a tough sale to most people is the the straight axle and the drum brakes make for a white knuckle drive in city traffic. And if your going to update the suspension thats even more $ to recoup. Where i live i think that would be about a 8-9k truck. And around 11-12k with ifs & v8. Nonetheless go to any car show and try to find a big window short fleet. Most people have never seen one. stepsides are everywhere. Offer them what you think is fair you never know what someone is willing to take.
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[55metalmonkey]

Originally Posted by dwcsr

This truck was $9500 on the first of the month which was a good deal. Its a real stretch at $13K considering its missing most of the GMC tags and has a Chevy front clip.

wow, i didn't even notice,
here is what the front should look like if you wanted it original

http://www.classictrucks.com/events/.../photo_02.html

[dwcsr]

Another thing to look at is the vin plate. If it starts with 3A59 then its a Chevy truck with a GMC cab and motor. If its starts with 102 then its a GMC with a chevy nose. Either combination knocks down the value considerably. If it were a pure GMC with the trim and nose it might be worth the 13K. As it sits $9500 was where it should be priced. No doubt its a nice truck for a daily driver if thats what your looking for.

[Mia66GMC]

I finally saw it in person yesterday and to say the least I was disappointed. The paint has runs, over spray, and although it doesn't have that much bondo it still has some. The Floors are solid as well as the cab corners. The motor sounds good and it shifts smooth. The Bench seat was gray and it was spray painted black. It may need some $ in attention to detail. The guy went down to $10,500. Here is the pic of the vin plate.

[dwcsr]

Thats to bad, if the paint was good it might be worth a shot. Spray painted seats eventually deteriorate. The paint makes the fibres brittle.

[Mia66GMC]

You guys know alot about GMC's, what would you say top $$$ for it? I live in South Florida and there are very few 50's trucks around. I really like it but I know, I'll eventually get tired of it and sell it. Say, I re-upholster the seat, and I (me & my boy) try to fix the imperfections.

[dwcsr]

I would say it was worth 7500 with what you said was wrong with it provided whats under the paint isn't nasty. I think you can get a lot of truck for 9500 - 13k that looks real good and has been nicely restored. Maybe not perfect but a 8 on a 1-10 and you may have to drive a bit to get a good one

[meter swinger]

Keep looking. Theres always more bondo and rust there than meets the eye. Did you crawl underneath it? how about the door bottoms. Also the front of cab bottom where the fenders bolt up many fleetsides had the wrap around rear bumper that bolted to the bedsides thats another bondo target. Also if you want to get the correct gmc grill those are hard to find, and not repoped
Theres better deals out there.i wouldn't give more than 7 for it as you describe it. Considering the $ its going to need. Miami huh? Man i miss the florida coast.
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[jocko]

i'm with meter, punt on this one. If you were searching for your "I'm gonna keep er forever" truck and you really really wanted a 59 jimmy with a chevy nose, then yes, buy it. But you stated up front that you buy and sell often after you tinker a bit, spruce it up and sell. The only way to make money is to buy the stuff that is priced low because and it has faults that fall into your personal area of expertise for fixin. So, unless you stumble onto that rare barn find where granny is sellin it and doesn't know what it's worth (which never happens anymore apparently in my neck of the woods), you really need to look for what YOU personally can fix so you can make money on the resale when you move it along. It IS a nice truck, even with spray painted seats. But all things being equal, I would not pay $10,500 for it. But, that's just ME - like anything else, it's only worth what YOU (or the next person you sell it to) think it's worth. I do not think you'd make money buying this truck if you plan to do a little work (or somehow scrounge the jimmy front end, which would probably be the BEST approach to making any money on this, good candidate for a GMC restoration, but...) and then re-sell it soon. Punt I say, PUNT! There are other fish in the sea.

[dicer]

If its a GMC he should have put the GMC grill on it. I've seen lots of over priced junkers with a paint job out there and it sounds like that is one too. Lots and lots of unprofessional semi restorations, but with a big price. Which means sometimes your better off getting the rusted out mess for cheap and starting from ground zero. At least in the end you know what you have then.

[Russell Ashley]

How much bondo does it have? If it is minimal and the truck doesn't need cab corners I'd say that it would be a good deal at $10K. It's an original six cylinder and the hydramatic looks to be original from the pics so that makes it pretty desireable to me. Add the BBW, sun visor, fleetside bed, new bed floor, and good paint (although a ten footer maybe) and then consider that it's ready to enjoy, and I don't see what's not to like. I'd rather that it had the GMC grill but I wouldn't consider it to be an "over priced junkers with a paint job".
Before I bought my 57 early last year I bid $10K on a 59 Chevy fleetside on EBay. It was a nice original that needed a complete freshening up but was driveable. I was outbid almost immediately so that's what makes me think that this truck would bring 10K or maybe more.

[classicchevyII]

Originally Posted by Mia66GMC

I finally saw it in person yesterday and to say the least I was disappointed. The paint has runs, over spray, and although it doesn't have that much bondo it still has some. The Floors are solid as well as the cab corners. The motor sounds good and it shifts smooth. The Bench seat was gray and it was spray painted black. It may need some $ in attention to detail. The guy went down to $10,500. Here is the pic of the vin plate.

yep thats a GMC vin plate, older GMC's up to late 57 never even had vin tags on window post only door frames, also frame is not stamped vin #'s till late 57.

also the value of GMC's are way more then chevys, not sure why that is but ive been to a few big auctions and GMC's pulls for more cash always..

one thing that would bring that value down is the engine, that looks like a 6, if it where a V8 the truck would be worth more.

[7T2]

Originally Posted by classicchevyII

also the value of GMC's are way more then chevys, not sure why that is but ive been to a few big auctions and GMC's pulls for more cash always..

Chevy's are more popular, but that may be because parts are more readily available. Given the same model Chevy and GMC, restored to the same condition, the owner of the GMC will probably have more money in it because a lot of GMC-specific parts are not reproduced and therefore cost more for good ones. On a fully restored truck a GMC would probably sell for more because it costs more to restore. A GMC that needs restoration would probably sell for less than a Chevy because the buyer knows it's gonig to be harder to get parts for cheap.

Don't believe me, spend a couple months searching for a nice 55-57 set of GMC grill/bumper chrome and get back to me...

[meter swinger]

^^^ thats no joke. I gave up trying to find a 56 jimmy grill. Theres even less 58-59 grills out there. You do see them once in a while on a 1 1/2 ton. Even the gmc gauges are hard to come by.
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[Houston54]

IMO that truck would only get about $6K out of my pocket. The things I notice are the single stage paint job (not base coat/clear coat), the seat appears to be a 60/40 out of a late model GM truck which is not bad but if they painted it then that is a corner they cut and drops the value. The radiator does not look right to me either. It seems to be sitting up too high. The painted turn signal bezels put me off also.

I would suggest having the truck inspected by someone very familar with these old trucks in your area. There are a lot of places where they can hide problems. Good luck.

[jfnar]

Fleetside 58's and 59's seem to go for about $500 to $600 more than a stepside in the same shape around here.The big back window is worth more too but I'm not sure how much. Based on everything I've read about this truck I'd put it around $5 to $6k in my neighborhood. If it had the chrome on the bedsides it'd be worth another $500 to $1000. I don't know what the difference in value from a chevy to GMC is but I do know that there are some parts that are not interchangeable at all and some that are difficult to swap because they weren't made on the same tooling. I would really like to get ahold of one with the chrome grill, bumper and bumper guard. Lots of bling there. Just my opinion.

PS: I just noticed that the truck in 55metalmonkey's photo has chevy bumper guards. The GMC bumper guards are round and look like they came off the front of a caddilac.

[55metalmonkey]

Originally Posted by jfnar

Fleetside 58's and 59's seem to go for about $500 to $600 more than a stepside in the same shape around here.The big back window is worth more too but I'm not sure how much. Based on everything I've read about this truck I'd put it around $5 to $6k in my neighborhood. If it had the chrome on the bedsides it'd be worth another $500 to $1000. I don't know what the difference in value from a chevy to GMC is but I do know that there are some parts that are not interchangeable at all and some that are difficult to swap because they weren't made on the same tooling. I would really like to get ahold of one with the chrome grill, bumper and bumper guard. Lots of bling there. Just my opinion.

PS: I just noticed that the truck in 55metalmonkey's photo has chevy bumper guards. The GMC bumper guards are round and look like they came off the front of a caddilac.

You mean more like this?
http://classiccars.com/listing-14605...gon-97527.html