It has taken me three hours to write this blog entry because after seeing this truck and falling to the ground, I awoke only to see this truck and fall to the ground again, that time using the stairs to gently break my fall. What has me passing out? A 1959 Chevrolet 3/4-ton truck equipped with NAPCO 4×4, the factory engine, all of the factory body panels, and a restoration that would put some amazingly high end historical sports cars to shame. This very well could be the nicest NAPCO truck left on the Earth. It really is that good.
As we have told you over the years, 4×4 trucks were a relative rarity in he late 1950s and none of the factories actually produced their own four wheel drive systems. Companies like Marmon-Herrington and NAPCO filled the void by manufacturing the parts and pieces to make production trucks four wheel drives that were capable of getting people through and to some of the toughest stuff around.
This truck is a holy grail in many ways. For starters it is a heavy duty 3/4-ton unit. The 235ci Stovebolt six is present and accounted for, the interior is perfect, and the seller claims that the restoration saved all of the factory steel, replacing the bed wood and the tires.
The things that make this one stand out aside from the NAPCO parts? The fact that it is a big window truck, the fact that it is a long bed, and the fact that it is a fleetside are just a few of the reasons that this rig is so dreamy. Now I need to take a moment for myself or take some money from someone else…whatever.
Check out the images below and then hit the link at the bottom to see the eBay link –
Neat truck, and certainly a treasure from the past – but seriously, if you had a week off to go to car shows and drive the truck; you’d be limited to a 100 mile radius and if you had a bad back, far less than that.
It is amazing that it survived, there were no cowboy cadillacs back in the day – it was something remarkable if they even got washed. But no, I’d look at in a museum and tell the admiring children about when men were men and pain-free backs were something for those who didn’t work.
People make a Big Deal about “NAPCO’ equipped trucks. Ask a Real 4×4 mechanic familiar about those antique NAPO systems and stand back. They might have been OK in the fifties but they have very long shortcomings which I’ll leave details for another day.
A 235 stovebolt six in a truck like that will gurantee you are in-the-way of everyone else when you take that thing out on-the-road, and speaking of that, that thing is one rough-riding SOB without power anything. It was 1959, I get it, but fer Chrissakes – $ 55 THOUSAND DOLLARS FOR THAT THING ? Not from me, Son.
I will agree the quality of fit and finish is to a high standard, like they weren’t from the factory and also, some dim bulb will overpay and buy it anyway. You want to see what trucks of that year and livery start out as ? Go watch ‘Classic Truck Rescue’ on You Tube.
You might as well order up 20 or more of those $ 3,000.00 RideTech shock absorber kits for C10 series on speculation….
There was a reason pulic demand was not there for Flint t o build them in the 50’s.These trucks sucked as drivers when new. They are no better 50+ years later, no matter how much lipstick and rogue you slap on them. Fall down all you want. Eventually they put you in an asylum alongside the person that pays $55k for this.
and Nostalgia – don’t get me started. For $ 55k I want another rental house that generates income, not an antique money pit. Get Real.
Just when you Think it cannot get any more ridiculous, along comes this Thing:
https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/chevrolet/3100/1854573.html?refer=blog
A Real Bargain. Only $ 183k for a 57′ pickup.
I give up.
Fortunately, that’s not a NAPCO, it’s merely a truck on a later frame with an Atlas 2 transfer case, 4L60e, and 6.0 LS motor. That’s both driveable and wheelable. 183k is steep, but the concept is good.
It’s a nice truck, I have had the opportunity to be around 3 like this. The hubcaps are wrong on the front but the right ones are next to impossible to find. Good to see correct colors under the hood. If I had not seen them myself I would call BS but I know of at least 2 different NAPCO Cameos. As a 4×4 guy the NAPCO stuff is modern day crap, it’s a cool truck as a novelty but a bitch to cruise. My daily is a 58 fleet with a 235, so I know.