The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk rusty frame

I don't know if you folks consider the 59 el camino a truck or not but someone has to have delt with this before. I finaly got to puting the 348 back in the el (after 4 years!) but before that I went and power washed every thing I could get to while it was on the trailer. I found that the frame is rusted badly in the rear arches. Is the sedan frame at the arches the same and could they be grafted in? What other repairs could be done here?
I am looking for a differant frame with no luck yet.
Thanks
Raycr

Ray I don't know that it matters whether anyone here thinks its a truck or not, what matters is that there may not be anyone here who knows much about a '59 El Camino.

I know I don't. Others might know, but you're asking in a context where most the people play with pickups and trucks, not cars with pickup bodies.

If I remember correctly the same basic frame design was used under the '58 to '64 Bel Air and Impala cars. But I know nothing of the specific differences between years and models.

I'd suggest going over to ChevyTalk.org and asking in the forum specific to these cars. You should be able to find someone there who really knows.

For what its worth, I was in Colorada a couple months ago and spotted two '59/60 El Caminos in a wrecking yard. Webb's in Ellicot (near Colorado Springs).

Talk about a guy with a horseshoe in his back pocket--you just scored big. I store my parts trucks in the far corner of a salvage yard in an area seperate from the yard itself. Everything there is old so someone, I don't know who, didn't want to haul two 58-64 car frames off for scrap so they very neatly stacked them one on top of the other in front of my old cars and trucks. One has been sandblasted and painted a beautiful blue. The other is complete less engine and trans but I don't have nor forsee getting a 58-64 so they're like being near a chicken house--cheep cheep cheep. My place is about 40 miles north of Dallas. Neither is rusty.

There some slight differences from '58 to '59 rear suspensions-the '58 use a 4-point suspension with a horseshoe shaped upper link-'59 and '60 use a 3-link with only 1 link on the top. I don't see why you could't use either year frame to repair your truck (yes, I consider them trucks), you may have to swap the rear crossmember to keep the suspension mounts the same. A frame from a station wagon or sedan delivery would be identicle to an El Camino.