Where have all the `59s gone?

When I go to car shows, I see many beautiful `55 to `57 Chevys. Don't get me wrong...I like them nearly as much as the next guy! The lines are clean, the cars are well proportioned, and parts are readily available. But for every fifteen or twenty Chevys I see from "The Hot One" era, I will see ONE `59 Chevy - if I'm lucky.

So where the heck did they all go?

There were over a million of these cars made in 1959, 1.4 million to be more exact; given those numbers, a person should see a lot of them. Even in the seventies I remember seeing them surfing the streets of North Seattle. But unlike the `55 to `57 cars, the`59s didn't survive. A while back a friend of mine picked up TWO `57 Chevys for $600. Try finding TWO `59 Chevys anywhere...well, okay I had two in my driveway at a one time.

But the point is this. Old tin is still out there, as long as it's a `55 to `57 Chevy!

Here's my speculation regarding the `59 survival rate:

1. Look at all the compound curves. What do you see? I see lots of places where dirt, road salt, and grungus can get stuck. The front and rear valances will rot easily, as well as any spot where metal bolts to metal. A very famous place for that is at the headlights; road grit gets thrown up on the back of the headlight buckets, where it gets stuck between the bucket and a panel. My wife's `59 Impala was so bad in that area that it wouldn't hold headlights IN anymore!
2. It is possible that the `59 Chevy (and to a degree the `58 as well) are victims of `57 popularity. When most people think of a classic car, the two that come up in conversation most are an early Mustang or a `57 Chevy. With such demand and such a following, it's no wonder that my friend was able to extract TWO out of a field at the same time. In my formative years,`58 and `59 Chevys were considered less desirable alternatives to the `57 and were thusly thrown away.

Now here's the cold hard truth: A website visitor wrote to say that he saw countless `59s in wrecking yards during the late 1960s. The enticing curves attracted more than longing gazes from pre-soccer Soccer Moms; those curves also invited rust, something most `59 owners will attest to with little arm-twisting. Call a wrecking yard sometime to find a solid headlight bucket for a `59; the ones that remain now all look like swiss cheese. So you can see that - sadly enough - these cars started rusting out early and eventually became part of the earth once more.

Given the unfortunate passage of time that can melt a `59 into rot, we should be thankful that even a handful of these car exist today! Now it's time for each of us to do our American duty and Restore One! A restorer friend once wrote "Do the hobby a favor: Restore or preserve a classic car, build a Hot Rod, ride a Harley Davidson or do something that adds to your life and soul."

KDC

Originally written October 13, 2001, edited and updated for this blog