I previously reported on a 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne for sale in California which was one lady owned and almost completely original, (“Never modified or messed with”) and had merely 48,000 miles on the clock. I described that car as possibly being “the most significant find” I’ve ever posted on CC. Well, this latest discovery from Facebook Marketplace may even top that one!
Original paint: solid Ermine White.
For sale in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Seller’s description:
Survivor 12,300 original miles one family owned, Blanche ordered this car in late 1959 , she traded in her 55 Chevy four door, her options are power steering, two speed wipers, radio, heavy duty filter and power glide. she drove it to 1965 and never drove it again and it only had 5000 miles on it. As a kid her nephew would sit in the car and say it would be his at some point well in the mid 1980s it became his , he went through the brakes ,fuel ,changed all fluids , tires and woke it up from from the long nap. He would exercise her a few times a year. The interior is prefect, paint is all original some checking and a couple dings, everything works except windshield washer pump. Drives amazing ! Great low millage car with extremely low miles. a lot of cool documentation. All original sales sheet , warrantee sheet, owners booklet, sales brochure, cool maps dating back to 1939. And her hand writing notes as she was pricing out different options when she was at the dealer. Wow what a car!!
What a car indeed! A 1960 Bel Air sedan–re-finned and refined from the iconic ’59 model–in pure white with original blue interior in practically mint condition. Chevrolet built about half a million of these full-size 4-door sedans in three trim levels (Biscayne, Bel Air, Impala). A very common car in its time (but not one often preserved), it has somehow arrived in the year 2023 in such a pristine state. The odds against such a thing happening boggle the mind!
Ah, that famous rear end design. I say famous because if you were “car aware” anytime before 1975, you will certainly remember riding behind one of these when you were sitting in the front seat with Mom on one of her shopping trips. To me, it’s such a clean, fascinating design–and one that still resonates in popular culture today. It’s from a time when an ordinary family sedan was not a boring box on wheels, but a fantasy rocketship gliding down the boulevard!
Cars like this are especially important because they show us what these cars were really like when new, and thus serve as an aid to restorers.
Worn and damaged interiors are often replaced with materials and patterns that really don’t match the originals. But in this car, everything is correct and beautiful!
See for yourself: 12,423 point 7!
Even the trunk looks unused and pristine. That’s probably the original spare tire.
Original warranty, invoice, license, registration–note the elegant signature of Blanche Swarthout.
This car even has a provenance, as we say in the antiques biz. Look at all these documents filled out and presented when the car was new!
Miss Blanche Swarthout lived at 204 Wayne Street in Syracuse, New York. Her car survives but not her house. The vacant lot at right is where 204 was. Was it an elaborate Victorian like the surviving neighbor’s house on the left?
More documents.
Under the hood we’ve got the base 6 cylinder engine (“Runs like a sewing machine!” claims the seller). “Drives amazing!” Yes, it’s true–when you combine this quiet-running six with Powerglide, and add in Chevy’s “Jet-Smooth” ride, you get a real cruiser, let me tell you. Blanche wisely ordered power steering which this heavy car really needs, unless you do all your driving in rural areas.
Advertising Gallery:
“Cream-smooth and whisper quiet.” I started collecting ads like this from National Geographic when I was about 10. I couldn’t pronounce SUPERLATIVE, and I didn’t know what it meant! Chevy buyers must be very literate people.
Power steering lets you twirl your two-ton chariot around as easily as if you were dialing a phone!
The Advertising World looks something like the Real World, except that it’s so much nicer!
For reference and comparison, this is my 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne sedan, with the same 6 cylinder and Powerglide, but with manual steering, and 57,000 miles. Shown on a misty spring morning. No scantily-clad chicks on white horses showed up.
Here’s a video link which shows the fine details of this ’60, and you can pause the picture at any time.
Too bad we don’t have a picture of Miss Blanche–I’d like to picture her driving this car. I wonder what she would think of the fact that 64 years after buying her Chevy, not only would her car be so well preserved, but that people all around the world would be seeing her name and commenting on her automotive purchase. Yes, the future is a place where unexpected and improbable things will happen.
When cars like this come up for sale, the next question is usually, “What will the next owner do with it?” If you go on eBay, Craigslist, etc. most of these are modded, rodded, hacked up, butchered, generally abused, or total junk. No, this car means more to me than all those screwed-up examples. The asking price is $24,000–which is a lot, but arguably you’re getting a lot. An unspoiled piece of true Americana. In fact, I believe you should get a government grant for preserving this once-ordinary but now truly amazing car! The listing has been up for 4 weeks now–no one wants this thing?
Back in 1979, we purchased an equally stunning GMH Australia assembled factory RHD 1960 Chevrolet Belair 4 door sedan with just 31,000 miles on it. The car had perfect factory applied paint with equally perfect factory installed genuine leather upholstery and Westminster plush pile carpet.
We owned that ‘60 Chevrolet Belair until 1991 and over the 12 years added just under 9,000 miles. It is still owned by the same owner that we sold it to in 1991 and today, remains probably the best surviving example of fewer than 1400 assembled by General Motors Holden (GMH).
Of course, the Australian assembled 1960 Chevrolet, marked to introduction of (first year) the 283 V8. Nice car!
NZ had the V8 from 56 1960 saw the introduction of automatic trans in Chevys.
If you mean, the V-8 from 1956, then not all remaining 265 c.i.d. castings ended up in the early U.S-made 1957 Chevrolets with manual transmissions, unless Oceania had her own engine plant for further casting this block
My father replaced the 57 green chev wagon with a similar car 60 pontiac lurention 9 pass wagon coppertone paint metalic had pritty much same interior as the chevey had 2 ash trays ours ended up with 2 L/ H ash trays so we had a contiac insted of a pontiac this had the stove bolt six way under powered for the weight + capacity of the car. my father never changed oil + the oil line to the top of engien pluged up + destroyed the top end + lifters had 2 drill out one of the head bolts to get oil to the top this was a comon problem of the time served are family of 9 well
” No scantily-clad chicks on white horses showed up… ”
Stephen, you left too soon; she was looking for the owner of that great red and white Chevrolet and was sad to have missed you.
We chatted a bit.
I was 15 when the ’59 Chevrolets first came out and these marvelous automotive sculptures blew me away. They seemed to be like me, young, optimistic, and excited about today and ready for the future.
1959 was a crazy year for car designs; looking at all of the swoopy GM designs of that year made me feel like I was that cat in the 1954 Joe Turner song:
“i’m like a one-eyed cat peepin’ in a seafood store” . (*)
In 1960 my older sister bought a new ’60 Impala convertible, white with black top and a red checked interior, a small V8, and PowerGlide. She let me drive it from my job location in town to my home with the top down.
As I pulled into the driveway my father came out on the front porch, saw me smiling at the wheel, sitting on that bright red bench seat, in the middle of what seemed like acres of white hood and trunk, and said “Don’t get used to it”.
(*) [Verse 4]
I’m like a one-eyed cat peepin’ in a seafood store
I’m like a one-eyed cat peepin’ in a seafood store
Well, I can look at you an’ tell you ain’t no child no more
Oh… now I get it!
(*) I know, I know, Joe Turner wasn’t talking about a cat or seafood… I get it now, but not then. I was amazingly innocent in those horizontal tail fin days.
Very neat find. I too hope that whoever buys it keeps it just as it is except for the mileage. Might as well drive it some.
Personally, I think it’s worth the asking price. Then again, that may be an emotional reaction. There were from what I can tell nearly a half-million of these produced in 1960 (4 door sedans with various engine/transmission configs). I suppose that makes them one of the less-rare cars from the period.
Your points about the value of something like this to restorers are very true I think.
Interesting that the power steering was a dealer installed option. Wonder if the dealer installed version was the same setup as factory installation. By this time I think factory power steering was becoming quicker than manual (fewer turns lock to lock). Sounds like a lot of work for the dealer to change steering gears, etc. Of course, Ms. Blanche probably didn’t care.
Kind of a guess and someone else here is no doubt more sure about it but I think Chevy power steering back then might have been the added on type, not integrated into the steering box anyway. And Chevy was definitely slow on giving power steering a faster ratio and fewer turns lock to lock. Maybe the same as manual steering?
The steering box is exactly the same as a manual direct from factory. Power assist is a better description for these cars. A push pull had cylinder is added to the linkage to produce “power steering”. You still have over 7 turns lock to lock….. My 61 has the same.
Yes, the advertising world resembles the real world superficially, but looks nicer! Kind of like Narnia, it resembles reality but the animals talk and it maybe isn’t as nice as it looks. The 60 Chevy is in the field grazing, like perhaps in that world the animals are cars and the cars are animals. Why, after all, is the pretty girl sitting on the horse instead of sitting in the car? If the Chevy is such great transportation in so many ways, you’d think it would be preferable to riding a horse bareback.
Anyway, this Bel Air is an incredible artifact. It’s amazing how a car can last in practically new condition for so long, when neither the manufacturer nor the original buyer really intended it to. I imagine Blanche (best old lady name ever!) bought the car figuring she’d have it for 5 years or so and trade it in like she did her 55. But somehow it ended up staying as new for 63 years and counting.
The fact it’s a four door makes me more confident it will continue to be preserved in its stock condition. Nobody wants to hot rod or customize a sedan. A two-door would be a different story.
I like your 59, and I think you’re both better off for being in this world. I have always preferred the 59’s styling vs. the 60. Not that I don’t like the 60, I just prefer the curvier, finnier 59 lines, particularly in the front end. Perhaps you remember the article I wrote in 2018 on auction cars because I profiled a 60 Impala Sport Sedan with 17k miles and in similar amazing condition. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/auction-classic/auction-classics-scottsdale-2018-carvana/
While researching this article I also found THIS 1960 Impala 4-door hardtop, also in white, and only 14,000 miles!
Wow, what cosmic forces converged to make all these 1960 Chevy survivors? This looks just like the one in my article other than the color!
I love the sound of those doors closing. Really solid and precise.
“Really solid and precise.” Yep–“Body by Fisher”! The doors on my car also close with a solid “click”.
thats not unusual the doors on my hillman do the same and no slaming required.
Is this Impala for sale? If so please let me know! I am very interested.
Bill Figg
734-646-8056
It’s a Bel Air. Here is the Facebook Marketplace link. I think you need to log in to Facebook to see the ad:
https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/242085861871760/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post
If you’re interested in the Impala hardtop, the same man (calling himself RAT RODS on YouTube) made both the Bel Air and the Impala videos. Maybe he owns both cars?
I am glad he is getting the original radiator re-cored as I absolutely detest aluminum radiators in vintage cars. They are an abomination and of course he would get it re-cored for the obvious reason.
A radiator re-core at only 14000 miles already? Hmmmmm
Not surprising Sal ;
Coolant if left over five years becomes corrosive…….
I’ve replaced scads of radiators on older American cars ans imports with aluminum heads, water pumps and so on suffer badly when neglected .
-Nate
So true…
The heater core is the last in line to get replaced then. So much for wet storage. I used to think that only modern anti-freeze could corrode a cast-iron block with head, when both green and red-colored types get mixed together into the same system.
Corrosion caused by prolonged retention of simple traditional ethylene glycol combined with water, absent of additives, is quite remarkable.
Around 1980-81, I worked in a radiator repair shop/auto parts store where I used to patch and sometimes re-core and paint radiators for over-the-counter sales. At that young age, my thoughts were always somewhere else, not yet developing the necessary anylitic mindset to ask why the cores were rotting from the inside out in the first place.
The job was fun, until the already stingey boss made a big deal about my offering an elderly client to buy up his low-milage Maverick, without asking the boss first. This pettiness on his part influenced my severing of this employment relationship, especially given that my plan wasn’t to flip this vehicle as he would have had
Sal ;
Whatever it is that makes for a ‘boss’ persona, part of it is making sure no one else gets a break or anything they didn’t even if they didn’t realize it until _you_ mentioned it .
Sad but oh so true .
So many great deals missed or jobs lost in my youth when I was foot loose and fancy free .
-Nate
My father ordered a new 1960 Bel Air four door sedan in Suntan Copper and Fawn Beige two tone. It had the 283, P/G, AM radio, rear mounted antenna and full wheel covers. He drove it until 1966 when he took delivery of a new ’66 Bel Air with the same exact equipment (different color).
From 1971-1974 I owned a ’60 Bel Air 283/glide in Shadow Grey metallic. More recently I had yet another one. Originally a 283/turboglide car in white with a Suntan Copper interior. The years had not been kind to it and it was beyond saving so I ended up selling the engine/transmission (350/350) and sold the body to a guy with a nice one so he had spare parts.
This one is tempting and probably worth two thirds the asking price. If it was a V8 and manual I’d be tempted to go look at it.
An outstanding survivor .
-Nate
That interior and seat fabric takes me right back to Iowa City where a classmate’s father’s ’60 Bel Air was the car we rode to catechism class in after school on winter days. Actually, not a very good memory, as I hated having to go…
My uncle had a green with white top company car very much like this but his was three on the tree manual and no power steering. He drove about 25,000 miles a year as an insurance rep covering about 1/3 of Arkansas. His company traded every three years so he had a 57, 60, and 63 – all very basic 6 cylinders. In 1966 they changed the plan and started just paying mileage. He got himself a much nice Impala with A/C, etc. at that point. I don’t think any of the Chevies ever had major troubles.
It’s great to see one in time-machine original condition, and I hope a devoted “next caretaker” steps up with the money (whatever the final price), who will look after the car and drive it *just* enough (whatever that is) and not modify it. I still remember when these were everywhere, and my dreams of a far-off 21st century!
Show me a 1960 Bel-Air 4 door hardtop sedan with the V8 ,auto, factory air conditioning in this condition. I might spring for it.
Excellent research as always Stephen, thank you. Beautiful Chevy, even in unadorned form. Thorough paperwork, is always very impressive.
Unfortunately in many Canadian cities, cars of the ’50s, and well into the late ’60s, were gone forever by the mid ’70s. They did not hold up well, to the conditions. Never had the regular chance to see staples of the ’60s, like the early Falcon or Corvair.
This is the exact car my father bought off the lot as our first second car. Same grey- not blue- interior. To me, the all-steel gun metal grey dashboard is an iconic design. Power steering was six turns lock-to-lock as I recall. Very sharp design. Dad traded it in for a yellow ’64 LeSabre convertible- our first and last soft top.
My grandma’s neighbor owned one just like this, only medium green inside and out. It was in pretty much this same condition, probably around 40k miles in the mid 1970s, only with the beginnings of northern Ohio rust starting to come through. I went over to water some flowers or feed a cat or something when the neighbor lady was away and spent several minutes sitting in the Bel Air as it sat in its garage. I remember thinking what a nice car it was.
Something that always made these cars look vaguely old-fashioned to me, at least in sedan form, was their ‘six window design’ (with the separately-framed window behind the rear door). Both Ford and Chevrolet went to ‘four-window’ designs in the late-40’s/early-50’s but for some reason Chevrolet went back to a six window expression in 1955. They finally abandoned it I think in 1961? It made the cars look heavy and fussy at the same time.
Even a 1959 Ford Custom sedan looked more modern than the ‘exciting new 1959’ Chevrolet to my eye. Each to their own…
https://www.flickriver.com/photos/carphotosbyrichard/31657831767/
What a find-it is in amazing condition. My parents had one almost exactly like this except theirs was a Bel-Air. Same exterior color, 6 cylinder, powerglide, no radio. I’ve forgotten what the color of the upholstery was, although I do remember the door panels were silver vinyl. They drove it two years and traded it in on a ’62 Impala.
Really “optioned up”!! P/S and anti freeze!!
My mother had an exact version of this car minus the power glide and power steering. She hated this car because she went from a 1956 New Yorker hardtop coupe to this in 1960. By 1965 she’d saved enough to buy a new New Yorker hardtop sedan, fully loaded. We sold the Bel Air to the man across street who promptly traded it in on a new and very tiny Datsun pickup truck.
How much was you Asking forthe 1962 Chevrolet.
Interesting; it certainly reminds me of the 1960 Turquoise and White, 3 on the tree, 4 door Biscayne 6 my father bought new. Except his had manual everything to go with the “dog dish” hubcaps; no radio tho!
It was a BIG, clumsy, slow tank with no handling and at best mediocre brakes…if the roads were dry! Rear visibility over those fins left much to be desired while backing up, even if you were 6’1″, as I was then. My memories of driving that big Chevy are very vivid and are not shaded by rose colored glasses.
While nice to see a cared for one like this, I would not call these ’60 Chevy’s drivers’ cars by any stretch of the imagination. OTOH I did make it 3 miles thru town to get home in @ 4+ minutes to meet my curfew deadline after my High School prom; didn’t realize I could make that 6 move that fast! All green lights helped me make by 0300 hours!! 🙂 DFO
This is an amazing find Stephen! I remember when these were new, and I pored over the brochure from the Chevy dealer. I also was given a 1/25 promo model of an Impala convertible in that light olive green that was popular at the time.
The ’60 remained my favorite even after the 1961-62 models came out. I loved that wraparound windshield and iconic instrument panel, both of which disappeared the following year.
Today I prefer the ’59 to the ’60, because the former is more radical.
Side note: The IIHS 1959 Chevy Bel Air 4-door sedan, with 6-cylinder and manual transmission, was purchased for $8500 back in December 2008. Its mileage was unknown, some Impala parts had been transferred onto it (taillights and fake roof vent), plus the interior had been reupholstered to approximate the look of a Bel Air and Impala combination.
Rear-end view showing the segmented Impala taillights and roof vent.
While I’d rather have the ‘flying roof’ hardtop version, I’d love to have this car specifically to park it next to an equally pristine 1960 Corvair 4-door hardtop survivor.
It would be hard to find two more disparit vehicles coming from the same manufacturer (and GM, no less) in the same model year.
Rudiger,
With absolute respect, your ‘pristine 1960 Chevrolet Corvair 4 door’ can not be a ‘hardtop’. If it is, then its first I have ever come across.
Chevrolet did not offer their Corvair in a hardtop body style until the release of the 1965 models when both 2 and 4 door pillarless hardtop bodies were offered. All 1960 through to 1964 Chevrolet Corvairs (with the single exception of convertibles) were built with conventional fixed ‘B’ pillars. None were hardtops.
On a closing note, Chevrolet always referred to its ‘hardtop’ models as ‘Sport’ models. Examples are Sport Sedans and Sport Coupes. Sorry but your ‘60 Corvair is a 4 door sedan and not a 4 door hardtop.
The optional mono, AM only, manual tune radio cost the equivalent of about $750.00 2023 dollars (!).
Very Nice to see a great 👍 car such pristine condition 😀
The seller claims the paint is all original, yet the dealer invoice says it was a two tone white and grey car. My bets are that the entire car has been repainted white at some time.
This just popped up on Craigslist–1959 Bel Air, same owner since 1973, 6 cyl., manual transmission, 34,000 miles. I like the green color. The white two-toning does not extend over the trunk–not sure if it originally came like that. Rear bumper appears to be one solid piece, not 3 segments. Don’t like the fact that the dashboard is somewhat hacked up, and why would you put 1962 wheelcovers on a ’59 but OK.
https://westernmass.craigslist.org/cto/d/brattleboro-1959-chevrolet-bel-air-4dr/7649147714.html
I like this green ’59 ~
The seller seems to be honest and he’s not asking a whole lot for the car .
This was the standard two tone when I was a kid and they were new .
-Nate
Wonderful story and pictures to support it! Yes, the old gal would be very pleased at seeing her car in such great shape and mention of her name! Thanks for sharing!
Nothing to do with the car, but the empty lot is kind of sad…..my relatives lived in NE PA, and a lot of the landmarks I knew of have disappeared especially in recent years. We never lived there (only my parents who moved away before I was born, they moved frequently and I’ve been there hundreds of times to visit relatives, since we moved so much it is the closest thing to a stable home base). Not just homes but businesses that used to anchor the town (like bank buildings, hotels and stores) were torn down such that I hardly recognize parts of towns (the streets are the same, but looks odd without the buildings. Not just buildings, but since this was coal country, there were many “culm banks” which held the waste once coal was mined, they formed many hills that were around long before I was born, but someone found a use for them, and lots of them simply disappeared. I guess you could say it was an improvement, but they were also landmarks and to me it looked odd without them. My grandparents home and business still stands, but across the street, even “sturdy” brick buildings fell into disrepair and were torn down so you now have a view where there once were just houses. Likewise lots of churches have been closed, partly due to population shifts but also due to the shortage of clergy able to staff them, so there’s been consolidation of most parishes.
Kind of the opposite is happening in the city I live in (for 41 years so far) which is a southwest boom town….the property where my employer is was bought by a shopping mall developer, and the building where I worked many years is now surrounded by many much taller structures, and the roads keep changing….including the main road to where I worked, which now has a 28 story building built in the middle of where it used to be. I still go back to pick up friends who work there for lunch, and they have to tell me how to get to the building that I used to go to work at every day. It used to have a view outside, but now is surrounded by other taller buildings, so that’s all you can see. And even with that, the infrastructure hasn’t kept up with number of people moving in, not enough anything (homes, apartments, stores, churches, etc.)…But I guess that’s what happens in a boom and bust cycle, the towns back in NE PA boomed maybe 120 years ago, and like lots of places in the rust belt have been losing population probably starting before I was born.
As for the 1960 Chevrolet, we kind of have a similar but less extreme example in my family…my Dad’s last car, a 2006 Impala still is in my family, though with my Dad deceased and my Mother stopped driving, it now is owned by my sister, who uses it to drive my Mom to doctor’s appointments (her 240SX isn’t too good to transport oldsters).
It started out putting more normal mileage on it, being driven to mostly the east coast from Texas multiple times early in it’s life, but now barely gets driven, maybe 1000 miles/year, only local travel, so it has only about 71k miles on it. It isn’t worth much except to us, as it has been a good roomy car for elderly parents, even has a bench seat (which I used when my Dad was handicapped, having him sit on a towel and pulling him into the passenger seat from the driver’s seat while he was transferring from wheelchair via a transfer board).
Are you sure it’s a Bel Air? The invoice that is pictured says it is a Biscayne.
Whatever it is, it’s a beautiful car. My Dad had a 1960 Bel Air, turquoise colour. I loved that car!
Back in early 60s a neighbor had a black 59 2 door Chev Biscayne with a 348 V8 and the turboglide (not power glide) transmission. It was probably a retired police car.
Yes, alot money 💰, for a unrestored car, hmmmm, you have to decide 😀, if want a 4/dr.,or do want 😀, a newer 2/dr.,car,as things 😀 aren’t cheap these days.