1959 Chevy Truck

[59stepside]

Hello all.

I have been reading these forum posts off and on for the last couple years I decided to finally sign up! I have a 1959 chevy longbed step side big back window truck. It was originally my dad's growing up and ended up being the everything truck. Go in the mountains and get firewood, grocery store, hardware store, etc... It got pretty beat up.

Through highschool I ended up doing a lot of body work, paint, and dropped a new GM crate engine in. It actually looked pretty good. After highschool I moved away and worked in the auto repair field for a couple years, started a business doing custom paint, body, mechanic, and complete restorations. I then joined the United States Coast Guard where I serve as aircrew on board C-130 aircraft and also aircraft electrical technician. Meanwhile the truck has been sitting in a field for the last 8 years!

My dad has passed away and I enherited the truck so I had it shipped down to me. I plan on getting it on the road again as a daily driver. I now have a family with two kids 3 year old boy and almost 2 year old girl. I want them to have memories of working on the truck through the years so I can continue to create a bond and pass the truck down as it was to me. Still need a build name.. Any suggestions? I will post up some pics of where I'm at with the project soon.

Sorry for the long post I just wanted to get a good starting point on here!

Beau

[Kabwe]

Hello and welcome

There are a lot of really cool guys here that love to help, receive and sharing information so I think you will find it very rewarding being here.

Its so cool you have a truck with a history. Please keep us posted and share pics.

Once again welcome

[_Ogre]

nice to hear your going to keep it alive. yeah these trucks usually got used as trucks and got pretty beat up. hopefully sitting in the field didn't do it too much harm, ie rust.
welcome to the forum

we do like pics, lots of pics.
before and after.
do you have any when you first drove it?

[59stepside]

I will find more pics sooner than later. Here are some of the most recent.

[59stepside]

The truck arrived with a seized up rear end. The piñon bearings were trashed. And the delivery guy bent up the front bumper off loading it...

I threw in a 1980 Trans Am rear end with Posi- and disc brakes.

[Kabwe]

That is a really nice project truck you have there. Thanks for sharing the pics.

[59stepside]

This is a pic of the truck right after it got painted in my senior year of high school. Not a bad high school truck! I was working two part time jobs after school and weekends to fund my project.

[59stepside]

During the rear end swap.

[59stepside]

Rear end swap. Ended up doing the axle flip too to get it lower. But it will need a c-notch at some point. I will want this truck pretty low so it will end up being a substantial step notch most likely.

[Kim57]

Welcome.
Nice looking truck.
Kim

[59stepside]

Second attempt on uploading pic.

[apache200]

Your truck looks great and welcome

[59stepside]

Has anyone had luck with installing a new windshield wiper motor? As long as I can remember this truck never had working windshield wipers or even a motor under the dash. I ordered the repayment from LMC and it doesn't match anything under the dash to mount to? LMC said it's the only replacement they have for the 58-59 trucks. Long story short it's past the return period and don't want to pay 20% restocking fee or whatever they have.

I started mocking up my own brackets to mount under the dash and to keep the right geometry. I got it close but it sits pretty low and was wondering if anyone else has had an issue with this...

[59stepside]

Mocking up brackets

[59stepside]

Picture above is upside down. Sorry

[59stepside]

Those pics turned out terrible but they were my quick attempt to get some on here in between things going on here. Pay no attention to the rats nest of wires that need to get ripped out and replaced. Lol. For orientation you can see the black firewall insulation in the pics.

[_Ogre]

4 eyes, big back window and yellow to boot?

what's not to like about this truck.

[hopped up]

nice truck. looks pretty good for sitting in a field for 8 years

[59stepside]

It cleaned up pretty good. It's got the usual rust spots; cab corners, lower front fenders. The wiring is pretty bad, it will need to be replaced. The only downside is the long bed. Some angles it looks great but sometimes it just seems way to long. And it probably isn't going to stay yellow... The front will need some help. In high school I pulled a lot of leafs out of the front spring packs and notched the frame but didn't reinforce it at all. I'm surprised it held up, I don't know what's going to break first, the springs or frame...

[FarmerSid]

Darn right it's in good shape for siting for so long! Shorten it up if you don't like it. It's only a bit of welding. LOL!

[59stepside]

I found out that my truck had the rare heavy duty optioned electric wiper motor. It just makes things a little harder since there is no brackets or reproduction motors available. I think I can get the vacuum linkage arms and might get this to work or just keep building brackets to get all the pieces right. The spacing between the origins, mounting locations for the linkage arms are so far apart I don't know if it's going to work on this motor I got.

Time to think outside the box....

[59stepside]

Original wiper motor

[59stepside]

Ok, so this is where I am at with this wiper motor. I have this electric wiper motor conversion for the 58-59 trucks from LMC that didn't match my truck because the truck came with a different style electric motor, brackets, and linkage. I posted pictures above of what this wiper motor looked like as far as I know from what I was able to find.

I decided to stick with the wiper motor and fabricate my own brackets. This is where I am at with brackets and measurements. Pics below:

[59stepside]

Ready to cut some metal!

[59stepside]

Bracket