New guy from NC with a 59 Fleet Option

[dirty deeds]

Hello everyone, I'm Darren and I came accross this site after buying a 59 GMC and decided to sign up. This is my first old truck so I'm excited to get to work on it although I'm in the middle of a drag car build so while I'll do a few small things here and there I don't plan to dig into the truck until my car is done. The truck is a 1959 GMC 100 series fleet option truck with a 270 I-6 and a column shift 3spd. The truck is completely stock aside from an electric fuel pump. The previous owner put in a new stock fuel tank, electric fuel pump, soft brake lines, and rebuilt the carb to get it on the road. It still needs new tires before I go too far from home. The truck has 60k miles on it and cranks up and runs just fine. Only real driving issue is a lot of steering play and the shocks are shot. Every light, guage, and switch on the truck works but the parking brake is seized up and will not engage. No big deal for now. The seat still has the original covering in good shape. I thought the grille, bumpers, and single headlights were some backyard fab work until I started looking for info online and found that these parts were part of the fleet option package along with the chevy cab and dash/gauge layout even though it's a GMC. I had planned on putting a mustang II front suspension and linked rear under the truck on air bags, then swapping out the drivetrain for an LS/4l60E set up and a newer model rear. My new issue is that after reading up on how rare surviving examples of these fleet option trucks are I'm hesitant to pull those parts off to update it. Now I'm torn between a restoration with the complete original drivetrain, keep the outside original and update the drivetrain, or sell/trade the truck to someone who wants a fleet option and just buy a regular 47-59 truck to hack on. I'm planning to drive it as is for a few years while I think about it. I'd at least like to put disc brakes on the front, but it's a slippery slope and hard to draw a line on how far to go with it. Here's a few pics of the truck. I'm looking forward to getting to work on this thing in the next year or two. There's lots of good tech on this site and I'll start a build thread once the work begins. If anyone has any advice or reccommendations for which direction I should go with this truck or any info on how rare or valuable these things are in near stock condition please chime in. I'd like to build the truck a wanted to but not if it means destroying a rare classic to do it.

Thanks for taking the time to read my drawn out first post.

Darren

[dirty deeds]

BTW, I still have the rear bumper. I took it off because it was bent and the truck looks better without it for now. I made the stake bed rails for it this week to make the long bed look a little shorter.

[GeorgeLeonard]

Hi what are soft brake lines? Just asking. Welcome to forum
Posted via Mobile Device

[dirty deeds]

Originally Posted by GeorgeLeonard

Hi what are soft brake lines? Just asking. Welcome to forum
Posted via Mobile Device

The rubber ones, not the steel hard lines

[Caddieup]

Hi!
I looked quick on Mecum just now and they have one that sold for $47.5K in Fla a week and a half ago. here's the link - gotta sign up for free to view it http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_de...=FL0112-121043

heres a dash pic!

[OrrieG]

Nice truck. It's yours so you can do what you want, but having said that, remember none of the fleet option items are reproduced. I like your plan to drive it basically as is then decide. Another option down the road would be to keep it, and find the same year in a GMC to rod and keep them both for comparision. I would bet if you showed them both the Fleet Option would get the most attention!

[Kim57]

Welcome.
Looks like a decent truck to start with. I personally see nothing wrong with which ever way you want to go.
Kim

[dirty deeds]

Thanks guys. OrrieG, that's kinda what I'm thinking about doing. It would not be a very expensive build to just refurbish what's already there, then find a different one to heavily modify later. The only fleet option part that is damaged is the rear bumper but I could have a good body shop straighten it out I think.

[jeffg1010]

Hey, welcome from Mooresville. I bought my Blazer from over in Albemarle from board member Bashed. There is a great collection of members here from the Charlotte area.
Nice looking truck!

[dirty deeds]

Thanks Jeff, maybe I'll see you out at the Oakboro cruise in over the summer if you ever get out that way.

[_Ogre]

i'd chop that baby up and make it yours

there's a guy looking for stock rims for his truck a few post up from yours.
do the mustII and linked rear and drive the poop out of it.
that grill is unusual enough to keep it, but you need regular 4 eyes for it (IMHO)

i'd also keep that long a$$ bed on it because everyone has the short box.
(this coming from someone that put a truck trunk on his truk)
that would be a 3200 if it were a chevy, 1/2 ton, long box. thought that bed looks longer.

that said read paulpickupparts post in this thread before you start disassembley.

[oldcouple]

I have only seen one those, in the 70s in Pendleton Or, it was a beige and cream color, I always thought it was a mild custom. Thanks for posting it. If it were mine, I would restore it on the outside, add the bolt on disc brakes/rear end, maybe update the motor, but the stock as can be look is very nice.

[jfnar]

If you don't want to restore it you can sell or trade it to someone who does and get something that's less rare and already beat up a little for a chop job. I'd hate to see this truck get hacked up.

[dirty deeds]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I probably won't be ready to begin any serious work for close to 2yrs so I'm just going to drive it and have fun putting around town in it til I get a few projects out of the way. I have to finish my drag car, restore my daughters tin lizzie model T (it was my dads when he was a kid, on it's 3rd generation now and older than the truck), restore an old Gilbarco gas pump and an adjustable tire inflator that belonged to my wife's grandfather, and an old trike bicycle that was my wifes grandmother's so I have a lot of irons in the fire ahead of the truck. I did plan to keep the long bed wheel base but if I did end up modding the truck I was considering chopping the bed length behind the rear fender down to short bed dimensions but keep the length in front of the rear fender. I think the proportions would look good like that and I would not have to chop and splice the frame. I'm not a huge fan of the extra bed length behind the rear fender if the truck ended up heavily modified, but I wouldn't care either way if I leave it stock. Everything's just ideas for now and I'll change my mind 100 times until I actually plug in the welder and fire up the grinder I guess no matter which way I go it's good I found this site and info on the fleet truck so I didn't end up tossing those parts in the scrap pile. If I do go the custom truck route I'll know to keep those parts and sell them to someone restoring one of these trucks so they don't go to waste. But for now, nothing is set in stone.

[Maximus]

I love how the fleets used Chevy dashes, I have never seen the 'Vee' with a GMC logo in it thats cool!!

Ive seen one more of these trucks for sale

These parts are for sale, if you have extra cash you may wanna grab em just to have if you need... I doubt they reproduce these but if yours look better then nevermind...

Ebay fleet parts


as for the front end, if you don't like it, don't keep it. Its your truck, just make sure you keep the parts if you can store them.

Cool truck! keep us posted!


man, a GMC with a chevy dash... that will piss off some of the die hard GMC guys! haha

[OrrieG]

Originally Posted by dirty deeds

Thanks everyone for the replies. I probably won't be ready to begin any serious work for close to 2yrs so I'm just going to drive it and have fun putting around town in it til I get a few projects out of the way. I have to finish my drag car, restore my daughters tin lizzie model T (it was my dads when he was a kid, on it's 3rd generation now and older than the truck), restore an old Gilbarco gas pump and an adjustable tire inflator that belonged to my wife's grandfather, and an old trike bicycle that was my wifes grandmother's so I have a lot of irons in the fire ahead of the truck. I did plan to keep the long bed wheel base but if I did end up modding the truck I was considering chopping the bed length behind the rear fender down to short bed dimensions but keep the length in front of the rear fender. I think the proportions would look good like that and I would not have to chop and splice the frame. I'm not a huge fan of the extra bed length behind the rear fender if the truck ended up heavily modified, but I wouldn't care either way if I leave it stock. Everything's just ideas for now and I'll change my mind 100 times until I actually plug in the welder and fire up the grinder I guess no matter which way I go it's good I found this site and info on the fleet truck so I didn't end up tossing those parts in the scrap pile. If I do go the custom truck route I'll know to keep those parts and sell them to someone restoring one of these trucks so they don't go to waste. But for now, nothing is set in stone.

Boy you must be slow, Rick at American Restorations would have all those popped out in two hour long episodes.....

[Liz]

Originally Posted by jeffg1010

There is a great collection of members here from the Charlotte area.
Nice looking truck!

mmhmm welcome from down the block

[1959 Apache 3600]

Welcome!
Good looking truck you have there. No matter what you decide to do with it, it's a great truck to start with.

[TX58]

Wow, thanks for clearing up the fleet option info. I have seen those grilles before and always thought it was some old aftermarket stuff. I would restore it, you can always hot rod a more common truck.
Posted via Mobile Device

[vwjohnny]

I had the same concerns as you about 3 years ago. After I gambled with a head rebuild and some other parts the truck fired up and stills runs great. I scrapped all of the ideas I had and just started driving it. Good luck.

[GeorgeLeonard]

Originally Posted by dirty deeds

The rubber ones, not the steel hard lines

Oh yeah, I guess that was kind of a silly question. I seldom think about those rubber ones I suppose because they dont rust like the hard ones. But that doesnt mean they dont fail, just like the hard ones do from time to time.

[_Ogre]

Originally Posted by Maximus

I love how the fleets used Chevy dashes, I have never seen the 'Vee' with a GMC logo in it thats cool!!

i missed that, now i have a reason to buy a gmc...

[dirty deeds]

Originally Posted by Maximus

I love how the fleets used Chevy dashes, I have never seen the 'Vee' with a GMC logo in it thats cool!!

Ive seen one more of these trucks for sale

These parts are for sale, if you have extra cash you may wanna grab em just to have if you need... I doubt they reproduce these but if yours look better then nevermind...

Ebay fleet parts


as for the front end, if you don't like it, don't keep it. Its your truck, just make sure you keep the parts if you can store them.

Cool truck! keep us posted!


man, a GMC with a chevy dash... that will piss off some of the die hard GMC guys! haha

Thanks for the link, I was looking at those and thought about picking them up for spares buy mine are nice. As long I don't break them I should be ok.

Originally Posted by OrrieG

Boy you must be slow, Rick at American Restorations would have all those popped out in two hour long episodes.....

HAHA, I know. I was watching that show the other day and he did one of those old tire inflaters just like I've got to do. Honestly I'm even slower than that as 2yrs is optimistic. I have a 12yr old and a 2yr old that get most of my time.

Originally Posted by Liz

mmhmm welcome from down the block

Thanks neighbor

Originally Posted by 1959 Apache 3600

Welcome!
Good looking truck you have there. No matter what you decide to do with it, it's a great truck to start with.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by TX58

Wow, thanks for clearing up the fleet option info. I have seen those grilles before and always thought it was some old aftermarket stuff. I would restore it, you can always hot rod a more common truck.
Posted via Mobile Device

Thanks. It can always change down the road and I'm always changing my mind. If I were to start on it today it'd probably get a restoration and front disk brake swap.

Originally Posted by vwjohnny

I had the same concerns as you about 3 years ago. After I gambled with a head rebuild and some other parts the truck fired up and stills runs great. I scrapped all of the ideas I had and just started driving it. Good luck.

That's a cool truck, I would not have thought of chroming that grill. I was considering blacking it all out with a nice base/clear glossy black. That would keep the theme but throw a little custom look at it.

[dirty deeds]

BTW, the guy I bought it from called and said he found the orginal build sheet so I went and picked that up this morning. It was cool to see that such an old document survived. He said it was stuck to the original gas tank when he swapped it out. I think it's cool that I bought this truck for my wife to replace her 61 Cadillac that we had to sell to pay for private school and daycare bills when our youngest was born. After looking on this order, it was entered for build on her birthday Looks like the "FLT" marks the fleet package, and this confirms that the heater was factory and not added on later. Also looks like the black is the original color as well.

[Kim57]

The build sheet is very cool.
Kim