The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Odd '58 or '59 TF...

On the way home today I saw an old '58 or '59 TF pick up still out there earning it's keep. It was pretty battered and had home made
wood stake sides on the bed. The guy driving it had lawn tools, trash cans, and a mower in the bed. It wasn't smoking! As I passed the old truck in traffic, I did a double take! It had single, large headlights! It also had what appeared to be a trim piece on either side of the lights, sort of like the '60s had. There is no question about the year. The truck was a Task Force, and had to be a '58 or '59 by the shape of the hood and fenders, but only one large head light per side! If the owner did this himself, his work on the lights was much neater than the rest of the truck. Any ideas?

It was probably a stripped down model called a Fleet Package. It's like the W/T trucks of nowadays,
Scott

Thanks, Scott. I googled the fleet option and found out that Jay Leno has one. The head lights on his are what I saw, but the rest of the front clip on the one I saw looked "normal" to me, not like
the one on the Jay Leno's Garage site.

Les

If by "normal" you mean like a Chevrolet, either someone put fleet option fenders on a Chevrolet or put a Chevrolet grille on a GMC Fleet Option truck. Chevrolet never offered the Fleet Option.

Cletis,

Yes, I did mean "normal" for a Chevrolet, so I suspect that you are correct about sheet metal changes. I bet the old guy driving the truck has no idea of what he has.

Just a thought, but I wonder if the headlight assemblies from the fleet option just bolt into the stock fenders?

Did the front end look like this? http://www.oldgmctrucks.com/page0380.html

Here is another pic off a fleet front end

http://www.scottssupertrucks.com/gallerydet.asp?ID=23

Here is Jay Leno's GMC fleet option pick up;

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/your_garage/cars/7221.shtml

That is not Jay Leno's truck. It belongs to Allen Snyder. Something odd going on here.

Cletus - that pic is in the "Your Garage" section, fan rides - you too could "park" there

Bill

It is odd that the truck on JayLenosGarage talks about how the trucks were stripped down for affordability, but the one shown has a hood ornament.

Nice-looking truck, though. I just can't get happy with that single lamp in the double mount. Even though it is factory, to me, it still looks like a scab-on. To each his own, I guess.

I learned something today- never saw/heard of the fleet option differences.

Bill

The one shown has been customized. The hood ornament was added and the grille was chromed by the owner.

For more infor on fleet option trucks, Old GMC trucks.com