Team Chevelle banner

Jim Schild - Original Chevelle 1964-1972 (Original Series)

38K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Al 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Description: Book Description by Amazon:
Chevrolet?s answer to Pontiac?s GTO, the Chevelle was General Motors? muscle car for the masses. With an abundance of Chevelles today awaiting restoration, this Motorbooks Original Series title detailing factory-correct replacement parts is sure to prove extremely valuable to enthusiasts.

The abundance of information?serial and engine numbers, paint codes, trim, options, and technical tips?featured here are essential to enthusiasts interested in achieving an authentic restoration. The author?s expert advice is sure to help readers avoid the pitfalls that can often ruin an otherwise successful restoration. Lavishly illustrated with exclusive color photography to emphasize all of the information described.


Land vehicle Car Motor vehicle Vehicle Classic car
 
See less See more
1
#3 ·
I wish I could more fully recommend this book. The new book is "Original Chevelle: 1964-1972" by Jim Schild. It really pains me to not be able to fully endorse the book and here's why:

Of all the Chevelle related books I've read, I've yet to find one that really gets most of the details right. "Chevelle: 1964-1972" by Mike Mueller is pretty to look at but got quite a bit of the data wrong, especially on the early cars, and featured some cars that have many incorrect parts and inaccurate detailing (the book is supposed to feature original or correctly restored Chevelles). Don't even get me started on inaccuracies in the restoration book by Paul Herd. So when I was approached by the author of this new book to provide some information and to make my car available for inclusion in the book I was thrilled. The author had quite a reputation of creating accurate books on Mopars so I felt optomistic we may eventually have an accurate, useful reference book on Chevelles. Unfortunately, that just didn't happen.

It's a generally nice looking book though some of the photos of engines and interiors are rather dark, a flash when taking the photos would have helped tremendously. A lot of fine detail is lost with the photos being so dark. It is laid out with numerous "facts and figures" in the text and this is where the book really falls on it's face.

I really don't want to sound so harsh toward the author and the publisher but I feel an overriding obligation to Chevelle enthusiasts, especially those who are new to Chevelles and may wish to use books on Chevelles as a reference points, that this particular book does contain some meaningfully incorrect data. Quite a lot of it, actually.

On the positive side, the author did include a number of non-SS cars in the mix to round out the whole picture of the world of the "classic" Chevelles. No Z16 was included in the photos, though they are mentioned quite prominently in the text, which seems odd. Since the Z16s, rare as they are, are so intergral to the history of Chevelles and so different from other '65s that we should be presented with some pictures of at least one of them. There are some very nice Chevelles featured throughout the book, some of which you all may recognize from Chevell-Abration and the various Chevelle regionals, however if you are seeking a good general reference book on Chevelles you should look to other titles as this one misses the mark by quite a long ways.

Rating2
ProsNice selection of cars used in the photos
ConsQuite a lot of factual inaccuracies
Would you recommend?no
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top