59/60 Authenticity Manual

[Blade]

Is there still no authenticity manual available for the 59/60s?

[76eldo]

Seems crazy but there is no manual for these cars.
When a 69/60 chapter was started I was going to try to get involved to help do a manual.
I asked the main club for an opportunity to review what was already started by others and was basically snubbed so I backed out.

It’s a big job and I guess no one is really working on it.

[Blade]

Hi Brian .. thank you, kind of surprised seeing all kinds of manuals available for nearly all years (even just for the '73 Pace Cars alone) yet these iconic cars not having any, and sad to hear that even those offering help get discouraged ..  . I hope this will be resolved and soon we'll be able to finally get the long awaited manual!

[76eldo]

For all the popularity of the 59 (and 60) models it seems like that would have been the first one out.

The club should tap some of the experienced members while they are still around to assist.  There are still some interesting originals cars around to use as examples.

I will eagerly purchase a copy when it's available.

Brian

[David Greenburg]

IIRC, '59-'60 are the only postwar years for which there is no manual, despite the popularity of those years. There is supposedly a partial draft around somewhere, but it has not been made available to those interested in moving it forward. Over the last 20 years or so, this issue has been raised a number of times, but somehow, nothing ever happens.     

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

Sounds like nobody is prepared to simply take the plunge and produce one, and possibly because they might run the risk of having to continually issue reprints as items are found to be incorrect, or new stuff found.

I can see if one was produced, and parts were wrong, the author would get picked to pieces.

Bruce.

[Brad Ipsen CLC #737]

I led the 38 to 40 V-16 Manual in the early 2000's.  The process to get these done at the time started with the Technical Directory and now it seems this job has been combined with the Chief Judge.  Ultimately the Board would be responsible for getting these done.  The first comment is if it is 100% correct you will never get done since there will always be a few items unknowable.  In my case I do not remember exactly how it started but Pete Peters, Technical Directory in the early 2000's asked me to volunteer.  At the time I was working overseas and had time to kill and could not work on cars, so it seemed like a good thing to do.  I had completed two restorations of late V-16's at that time.  The format had been worked out and I think we copied the 41 manual for the layout.  Now there are many layouts already existing so even more electronic cut and pasting can be done.  The first draft was worked out with two of us, Terry Wenger and me.  We would discuss details and write information the best we could.  Then the manual was printed as a draft and reviewed by a committee.  In this case all committee members were either owners of the cars or previous owners of these cars.  The review process is the key to getting things correct.  Comments received are discussed and if agreement cannot be reached it can be written as so in the manual.  The correctness is a group effort and not in the hands of anyone person.  I know nothing about 59 and 60’s but there is obviously a lot of knowledge on this message board as well as probably others not on it for that review process.  If the status of the manual cannot be found out seems like a conversation with your board representative would be the route to go and volunteer to help on the project.     

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

Hello Brad:

Just a clarification as to your comment.  The "Board" has
nothing to do with getting Authenticity Manuals finished.

That falls under the Chief Judge / Technical Director Bill
Anderson.  All somebody needs to do is phone Bill and
express an interest to do a manual.  This, of course,
involves finding a group of 4-5 volunteers who are willing
to devote the time and effort.  Unless somebody makes
that call and gets the ball rolling, there will never be
a 59/60 manual.

It would be very difficult for one person can write an
Authenticity Manual.  There is just so much detail that
no matter how well you know a given year, you're
going to miss things.

There are plenty of finished manuals available now to
use as a template for what is needed, the layout, etc.

I worked on the first manual for Class 15 with Pete Peters
and a few other volunteers in 1997.  It was a great learning
experience.  Pete developed that format and we filled in the
blanks.  After half a dozen rewrites, we had a finished product.

Mike