1959 Chevrolet El Camino - Quacks Like a Duck

What is it they say, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck...it's a duck, right? Then what was Chevrolet's El Camino? Was it a car? A truck? A station wagon? All of the above, actually. Although, in most states, these are classified as "trucks". Perhaps that's why I find them so vexing. 

This relic is from model year 1959 which was the first year for Chevrolet's car-based truck. Ford came out with their two-door, Ranch Wagon based Ranchero in 1957 and was a surprise hit. So much so that it forced GM to play catch up. Quickly. Based on the station wagon version of General Motor's "B-body" chassis, the roof was reinforced and the cab and bed were braced together with welded beans for more structural rigidity. 

Like all Chevrolet cars for 1959, these used GM's infamous "X-frame". The X-frame, so-named because the frame came together in the middle to form an "X", enabled designers to draw up sumptuously long and low designs. The downside was it had a degree of flex unlike anything GM had ever had up to that point. 

That wasn't a good thing, by the way. The bed itself was a double-walled design, and a thick steel floor helped to shore things up further still. However, due to the frame's design, there was only so much could be done. With stiffened rear leaf-springs, these had a 1,200 pound payload and it's six-and-a-half foot bed could carry thirty-four square feet of stuff. Slightly less than a run-of-the-mill Chevy Stepside pickup of the day. And a whole lot easier to handle too thanks to a soft, cushy ride and way over boosted recirculating ball power steering. 

The styling, subjectively, particularly on these '59's, is simply transcendental. So much so that this dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker can see past its hokey, mid-western pickup truck-ness and see it as a work of art as opposed to some kitschy colloquialism. I'm inclined to buy this hunk of junk and use it as yard art. Hopefully my H.O.A. wouldn't have a problem with that. 

Mind you, not at nearly four-thousand dollars which is about what the poster of the Facebook Marketplace ad is asking for this thing. Although, you find a '59 El Camino in "Concours" condition and you'd be looking at something worth more than $50,000. You're pushing six-figures for museum quality El Camino's in original and unrestored condition.