It is always fun to learn about car stuff that we never knew existed in the first place. Things like the fact Chevrolet produced a version of the 1959 Biscayne called a “utility sedan” that had a big storage shelf instead of a rear seat. The idea of a “business coupe” bad been around for more than 20 years by the time this car was built so the idea is not weird, we just didn’t know that they made a Biscayne designed for traveling vacuum salesmen, people peddling shower curtain rings, bibles, encyclopedias, etc. It strikes us as a little weird that they would use the coupe body instead of the four door style because dragging bulky stuff out of the back would be a little more a pain using only two doors instead of all four. The rear windows are fixed, there’s rubber floor mats all around, a bench seat up front, and all of the interior charm of a Civil War prison camp. To think that guys traversed the county in cars like this makes us appreciate modern stuff even more.
This car retains all of the factory goodness that it had in 1959, except in the engine compartment. Gone is what was likely an inline six engine in living in that space now is a healthy 454ci big block Chevy engine with a three carb intake taken from a 427 Corvette. We’re in love. The transmission is a Turbo 400 which is shifted on the column just like the original transmission which we bet was a PowerGlide. The rear tires are nice and meaty, mounted on body colored steel wheels. The cartoonish horizontal “bat wings” at the rear of the car are present and accounted for and looking as great as ever.
This is a cool and unique car. We bet that the vast majority of these “utility sedans” that were built got driven into the ground and then scrapped. After all, they were fleet cars doing yeoman’s work out there on the highways and byways. A salesman’s tool, nothing much more. They wouldn’t have had much value in the used car market because they don’t have a rear seat and parents who were able to put two and two together may have realized that there was MORE opportunity for “gymnastics” back there than if there was a seat!
A rare case of a plain car that escaped the cruel hand of the crusher and has gone on to live a very cool “second life”.
SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE PHOTOS OF THIS REALLY NEAT AND WELL DONE CAR – BIG BLOCK RUMBLE AND NO REAR SEAT!
The rear window regulator handle delete is cool! I don’t know much about these cars, but I haven’t seen that before.
Chevrolet had a model like this available in ’55. I believe it was labeled as a 150 Businessman’s Coupe or Sedan. All the deletes were available. I’m not sure if there were other Tri-Fives offered that way.
Remember, back then radios and heaters were “options”.
In the sixties, my aunt had a bottom-of-the-line ’60 which I got to drive a coupla times, but I never had a reason to see if it had a back seat. ‘Story is she went to a dealer in Indy and requested the cheapest [new] full-size Chevy available. I’m pretty sure it didn’t have the heater delete!
Thanks for the article, Brian.
I love big cars, especially stripper Chevies like this one. Rubber floor mats, and they even deleted the passenger side sun visor. Biscaynes, Chevelle 300 and Chevy 100.
Basic = cool.
The ‘business coupe’ had been a staple in the lineup for years. they were built mostly for salesmen and fleet usage. Typically they were bottom-dollar stripper models with little to no optional equipment. I am not sure when manufacturers actually stopped making these types, but I didn’t know they carried them into the late 50s. The coupes and sedans of this ilk are definitely super cool. Most of the manufacturers did keep making wagon models for these types of purchasers for much longer.
There was an orange and black 59 Biscayne like this in Dunlap Indiana that I saw parked in a driveway each and every week that I went to Peddlers Village for their Saturday night Amish dinner buffet. It had been a local NIPSCO gas company meter readers car and the owner wouldn’t part with it. Said he was saving it and was gonna give it to his kids when they got old enough to drive. Would have made a really neat lower class stocker with a 283 2 barrel and a four speed. Soon after NHRA dumped all the older stock classes anyway so I guess it wasn’t a loss since I couldn’t have raced it anyway…..
Awesome car! I love that they didn’t go overboard with it.