VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1958-1960 1959 El Camino Interior

I'm restoring a 1959 El Camino back to original, but I've never seen an original interior. Is there someone on this board who owns an unrestored original or restored-to-original truck that I can ask a few questions?

To start with, I want to replace the headliner and the sun visors, but I'm not sure if the current materials are correct or if they've been replaced over the last 50 years.

Should the materials of these be the same? Mine are both silver vinyl, but the pattern of the vinyl is different. Any help would be REALLY appreciated, because I want this restoration to be as authentic as possible.

Link is not working, they had Belair interior's

You might want to call SMS... or send them an email. They have a supply of original materials that would blow you away. We toured their shop last year. I'd post a photo but then they'd kill me.

Located in Portland, Oregon.

In a quick search of their site I found '59 El Camino vinyl listed as "gray" color. But call or email them.

Also, they can make original material. But they have 12 to 24 month back-log all the time. They ARE THAT GOOD.

http://www.smsautofabrics.com/

--Bill Barker

Bill, no big deal but SMS is actually in Canby, OR

Thanks for your comments. I have checked with SMS. They have the materials, but they're not sure what is accurate for a restoration. Neither is Ciadella's.

Surely VCCA has car judges and probably some judging standards. How can I contact the judging people to ask about the interior fabrics and patterns?

Here are my suggestions for finding the interior information for your 1959 El Camino.

#1 - Check with some of the VCCA Technical Advisors like the 1958, 1959, 1960 and 1961 for example. Many TA's have own or have access to the Dealer Showroom Albums and other original literature that might have fabric samples.

#2 - Call the VCCA Library in Hershey, PA. It is located in the AACA Library. They might have this literature for you.

#3 - Place an AD in the G&D. In this way, everyone in the VCCA from around the world will see your request.

Dave
ps. The VCCA Judging System does not "own" any literature like you need. Many of us on the National Judging Committee have personal collections that relate to the vehicles that we own. My personal literature focuses on 1966 Chevelles and 1940 passenger cars.

Excellent info; thank you!

I am sorry I took some time to respond but the El Camino information is located in the truck books not the passenger car and loaned/gave them out to a friend of mine who lives out of state from me. He is a retired automotive upholsterer who made most of his living on 58-64 GM vehicles. I spoke with him last night and here is what he told me
The side trim was Belair and the interior trim was on the Biscayne platform only colors offered were gray, green and blue. (I don't know if 59 had a red Biscayne interior, I know in 60 they did not)
The correct headliner was the vinyl diamond pattern, the "fish scale" was reserved for the Impala 2 door and 4 door Hardtops. The trend has been to rewrite history and "restore" these cars with Impala seats. The trim number on the cowl tag will help identify which interior it came with.
If you contact the AACA library the info you are seeking will be located in the dealer books for the light duty trucks

The information from the 1959 PASSENGER CAR information lists the sedan pick-up as having Embossed board sun visor with leather grained binding (Same as Biscayne car), and head lining is patern vinyl....does't say what pattern but would also be the same as a Biscayne car.
Will have to consult my 1959 dealer albumn for descriptio/picture of Biscayne interior.

Biscayne's did not have a vinyl headliner they were ALL sedans were all cotton cloth, exception of El Camino

Thanks for your input. I've only owned my 59 Elky for 5 years and don't know much of its history, but the existing headliner is the diamond pattern and the sun visors are the "fish scale" or Sequin pattern. I have pretty much confirmed that the headliner is correct; still looking for confirmation about the sun visors. Mine look like they've been there for 56 years. So far, no one has shown me any positive proof what the material was.

You're right about the trim tag; all 59 El Caminos except those painted blue or green had a TRIM 803 gray interior, like mine. I'm not looking to put an Impala interior in this original car. SMS in Canby Oregon has the correct door panel and seat covers. And although most people believe the El Camino had a "Biscayne" interior, they were different; the seat covers were nearly identical but slightly different inserts. And I don't think the Biscayne had the stamped designs on the door panels and upper seat cushions.

I'm trying to contact one of the technical advisors of VCCA or AACA to get more real evidence of what was original. It's an uphill climb!

I'm doing a restoration to 1959 specifications, so I'd appreciate any more information you can dig up. Photos would be worth 1000 words!

Not quite. The Bel Air seat covers are completely different than the El Camino. The Biscayne, however, are nearly the same. Bel Air also used more deluxe door panels then the El Camino/Biscayne series.

You are 100% correct I messed that up I meant to mention they had Belair side trim, sorry again about that. The fabric/vinyl pattern is the same as the Biscayne models, if they are not identical what is the difference?

The 1959 passenger car dealer albumn shows the interior fabrics EXCEPT for the head lineing and sun visor. The Biscayne came with just a left visor. The 19959 accessory book shows a picture of the accessory right visor but is an artists conception so the design is difficult to ID....but note the visor is not vinyl covered but a design pressed into a hard board material.

The Biscayne and El Camino seat fabric (lower back rest and inner seat bottom) had a slightly different pattern. A local upholstery shop has fabric swatches of each. It's pretty subtle; if you saw only one of them, you'd swear they were alike. Here's a picture from my web site:

The El Camino also came with only one sun visor on the driver's side. There was an option package that many buyers got called Deluxe Equipment. It included the passenger side visor, arm rests, cigarette lighter, and the front fender rockets. My 59 El Camino's visors are both padded, just like regular passenger cars.

Note that most 1959 Chevrolet literature had the El Camino in the truck section, not in the passenger car section.

My earlier post above