[oldzy]

Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

I just picked up a decent one (still looking for a matching 'Parts' catalog thru 1975) which is dated April, 1983 printing (I assumed this is the latest printing)... but I can find hardly anything for 69 Chevelle. For example, there seems to be nothing at all in section 12.000 for mouldings. Mostly 71+ stuff it seems.

I find this same issue with my Oldsmobile 'Parts' and 'Illustration' April, 1983 catalogs. I can hardly find anything on my 72 Cutlass.

Is this normal? Are the prior 1983 releases (all-in-ones or 2 separate books) better/have more info?

Thx.

 

[al carson]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

You can find plenty of Cutlass Parts at OPG. Call 1-800-243-8355.

 

[BlueSS454]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

That is a common problem with that book. I have a copy of it on CD with a searchable function. I plugged in tons of GM part numbers, hardly any came up.

 

[Schurkey]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain

Because by '83, when that book was collated and published, most of that stuff had already been discontinued.

You (and I) need one from when the cars were NEW.

And don't get me started about OPG (OPGI).

 

[Donnie1]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain

And don't get me started about OPG (OPGI).

isnt that the truth!

 

[Bowtie-72]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

Most of the illustration books are junk. They never really were helpful. The parts books are the helpful ones. The bad thng is you have to become used to how they are laid out. There's a guy on ebay who sells the Chevy parts catalog on CD. It was pretty [email protected]$10. It is in PDF format, and is NOT searchable. I am a GM partsman, and am very familiar with the old books. When I got my cd (off ebay), I tried to search known part numbers, and they do not come up. You have to scan page by page for the group # (GM's designation of where a part number is located-kinda like the library catalog numbers), then scan within there for your application. There's a pretty good index, and the disc comes with the illustration catalog as well.

 

[oldzy]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain

Thanks for the info.

I have the CD version also (PDF from eBay also), and not searchable. No doubt it is because they are scanned 'images' and no OCR (Optical Character Recognition) done afterwards.

I also seen someone photocopying the entire Parts/Illustrations books and reselling them as an 'original' catalog. Are they even allowed to do this? Permission from GM?

So now I have this mint original (looks like never used) 1983 Illustration book which seems pretty useless right now. Hopefully, the Parts catalog is much better.

 

[Bowtie-72]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

put it on ebay.... there is a market for them.

 

[DUKE 69]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

The only thing the "Illustr." book MAY help you do is determine what "Group #" to look in the see what/if there are any part #'s for your car. However, that is only helpful if you also have the parts book to go with it. I happen to have both and have used the above-mentioned method before--sometimes with some success and sometimes not. As was already mentioned, it takes some time to figure out GM's "codes" in either book when figuring out what a part is called. It definitely is another "language"!

 

[Bowtie-72]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

Yep.
I personally do not use the illustration catalog at all, unless I need to see this pic. The illus pics are better back then, but are definately not comprehensive to each variation or options you could have. They also don't include many thins we would actually be looking for. Its a nice general reference, and would help get you to a general area. tip: if you can't find the pic for your car-go to another car w/same pic as you need. GM uses the group #s across all makes/models of cars, so you can find a t-stat or whatever for every GM car in the same group (helps for speed). The only exception to this is trucks-they use 2 more groups, and do not include 4 others.

 

[elcamino72]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

I have a parts & illustrations set from 1976, it's the ticket. It covers all models through 1975. The 1983 version covers much less. I too have the 1983 version on CD, but when I can't find something there I go back to my 1976 version and if it's not there I go to my single year versions (i.e. only covers 1972, etc.).

The single year books are by far the nicest, but they are also the hardest to come by.

 

[oldzy]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain

I have a parts & illustrations set from 1976, it's the ticket. It covers all models through 1975. The 1983 version covers much less. I too have the 1983 version on CD, but when I can't find something there I go back to my 1976 version and if it's not there I go to my single year versions (i.e. only covers 1972, etc.).

The single year books are by far the nicest, but they are also the hardest to come by.

I just found the 'Parts' Catalog (EFFECTIVE OCTOBER, 1976) on eBay. Cheap too at $13 USD. I also found an 1983 parts/illus set on eBay as well

I tried to get this one as well since it looked good with Chevelle/Monte Carlo only.

 

[rpol7966]

Re: Chevrolet Chassis and Body 'Illustration' Catalog - hard to find info on certain year

The Parts Illustration and Special Information Catalogs are pretty hard to come by. I have several that I obtained over the past 30 years. Starting around 1970 the illustrations were included in the regular parts books. Prior to then, Illustrations and Special Information were in separate books and revised issues were printed for each model year and contained a lot more information and model specific data. It is better to have a parts book that was "current" for your specific model year or just a year or two newer. The closer to your model year the book is, the more correct part numbers you will find. Of course most of the numbers will have been discontinued by now.
Another important source is GM parts history books. These will trace part numbers and show newer numbers that have superceded the original number. I have used these history books extensively to find parts that carry a part number other than the original.
Once in a while, you can find these books at dealerships. GM has gone exclusively to computer parts "books" so the paper books are obsolete. Many parts people will discard thess books.