I had no idea this even existed, 1959 El Camino is my favorite car. 59 was when GM styling peaked.
"After a later stint serving as the college car for the retail store’s son where it took on significant wear and tear, the one-and-only El Catalina was purchased by Darrel Lotridge, who then set about restoring it."
Wow, lead a tough life as a 300hp delivery vehicle and then a commuter with no major accidents or mechanical failures that would send it to the yard.
Custom pick-up conversions often do the same thing, cut the back off the wagon and use the floor as the bed.
It is funny that they cancelled this but oked the GMC Caballero 20 years later