Chevrolet called the El Camino a utilitity vehicle and they were included in the truck lineup. It was based on the two-door station wagon. Imagine a station wagon with the back half of the roof gone - there's your El Camino. It featured the same side trim as the Bel Air series and an interior similar, but not identical, to the Biscayne series. They were built to be utility vehicles and lacked many of the "fancy" features of the Bel Air and Impala models.

Chevrolet produced 24,000 El Caminos in the 1959 model year. There were Chevrolet assembly plants in Atlanta GA, Baltimore MD, Cleveland OH, Flint MI, Janesville WI, Kansas City MO, Lansing MI, Los Angeles CA, Norwood OH, Oakland CA, Pontiac MI, St. Louis MO, Tarrytown NY, Van Nuys CA, and Willowrun MI.

Not all of these plants produced the El Camino. Most of them were made in either St. Louis or Van Nuys.

The Data Plate on the upper left (driver's) side of the cowl gives some good information about the production of the El Camino.

• STYLE always started with "59" for the model, followed by the model designation: 1180 for the 6 cylinder car or 1280 for the 8 cylinder car.
• BODY denoted the Assembly Plant ID and production number
• TRIM indicated the trim colors of the interior.
• PAINT gives the code for the original paint
• ACC were accessory codes.

More on the Data Plate later.

VIN - Vehicle Information Number

The VIN or serial number of 1959 Chevolets was etched into an aluminum plate and rivited to the left front door post, visible when you opened the driver's door. The El Camino used one of two prefix letters: G for 6 cylinder models and H for V8 models. There was no distinction between the 283 cu in V8 and the 348 cu in V8 in the numbering system. However, the trim on the front of the hood did identify the engine; the script Chevrolet was used on the 235 cu in 6 cylinder cars, a chrome "V" was on the 283 cu in V8 cars, and a chrome "V" with crossed flags was on the 348 cu in V8s.