1961 Owners Manual

[Ray C.]

Are there any differences between a 1961 first and second edition manuals? What are the identifiers of a reproduction 1961 manual?

Thanks for any information!

Ray

[John M.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

Ray,



without any changes these would be called a 2nd printing, 2nd run, or 2nd issue of that Edition. If even more are needed it would be a 3rd, 4th, or more .......

other than a FIRST EDITION, would have a good probability of being an original from the assembly line.

Red flags to watch for:
Repros are priced way lower than an original. However you can win the lottery if you get lucky. I once found a complete original 1962 Corvette Owners Guide 1st Edition in very good condition marked $10.00, the vendor repeated his price, I paid it and walked away happy. Then again I once bought another 1962 complete 1st Edition in like new condition from a vendor that genuinely thought it was an original and I handed him a $100 dollar bill (this was some time ago). This turned out to be the best repro of this 1st Edition that I have ever seen, and I have since seen and purchased a few more for a lot less.

A word of CAUTION



The first unnumbered page in the OWNERS GUIDE is of heavier paper stock and contains on one-third of the page a light blue tear-off post card to be sent to CHEVROLET at GM for a package of goodies, including a high dollar today gold Owners Pin and Patch. CAUTION Some early repros also have this page. Originals have card tear-off perforations that are slotted AND black dashed. Since an original owner could get this package of goodies for just sending in the card, I question if many original owner guides exist that have complete pages including card? Because of this, an OWNER GUIDE with this page but missing the card is quite possibly an original.

An original OWNERS GUIDE will have both a CONTENTS page and an INDEX page.

clearly and with equal clarity see the Brake, Clutch, and Accelerator Pedals, and the lower Dash edge under the Ignition Switch then that is a good case for it to be an original. The ORIGINAL owner guide was off-set printed by the thousands to match model year production output on the assembly line, and maybe a quantity for stock, and the detail from this printing process produced a sharp and clear image. Repros on the other hand are reproduced by a photo printing process, and probably only printed by the hundreds (?) or as needed to satisfy demand, and sharp detail in the pictures suffer and is washed or darkened out.

I am not sure where HELM Publications, who produces many different owner manuals, fits into this picture but I am pretty sure that they probably do. I do question if after market repro GM authorized Owner Guides (HELM) or NOS Guides from dealerships carried the light blue tear-off postcard page though, because that would mean that anyone, Corvette owner or not, could buy the Guide and send for the free goodies --- unless this was verified at GM to document ownership of one of these fine cars before sending the goodies, and it was also one goodie package to a Corvette buyer/owner for each car purchased?

There are other differences between an original and repro OWNERS GUIDE but these are the first I check, and this info should help you to clear a few of the hurdles and hopefully prevent a costly error in purchase.

Save the Wave .........

JG Mattson

[Valeria H.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

Thirty years or so ago I purchased a second edition 1960 operations manual. On the bottom of the back cover to the right is printed "Reprinted Courtesy of Chevrolet Motor Division" without the quote marks.

Funny that this subject was just brought up as I purchased another "second edition" 1960 operations manual on e-bay for $20 very recently. After reading this post I carefully scrutinized both manuals for differences and found that my new purchase does not have the "Reprinted Courtesy... on the back cover and the new one is 1/3 inches less in page width.

This sounds like an example of a fraudulent second edition. What do you think? My father worked for a GM dealership back then as the parts dept manager and may have given me this book as he would frequently obtain parts for my car that I needed.

I had an issue with the seller and complained to e-bay so even though I gave him positive feedback I still have a case # from my complaint that I may act on.

Valeria

[John M.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

Valeria

If you will recall, in my previous post I stated that I didn't know squat about the 1961 Corvette Owners Guide, and I will increase it here to double squat for the 1960 guide.

If you have a 30+ year-old "Reprinted Courtesy of Chevrolet Motor Division" operations manual then I would figure that the publisher had the blessings of GM at that time and it is a legal reproduction by whoever did the publishing. I would venture a guess that it was done on a 2nd Edition because this might have been the last Edition (?) for 1960 and therefore the most updated edition for that model year. There would still be differences though between this 2nd and the 1st Edition. Thirty+ years ago preceded the GM copyright issues by a bunch of years and I do not remember the exact year it hit the fan but I think it was in the mid 1990s. I can still remember vendors at Bloomington Gold looking down isles and around corners to see if the Feds were sneaking up on them.

As far as your issues with the EBay seller I don't quite understand them? You paid $20 for the product you got. Did you expect a genuine original for that price? $20 is a repro price. I think there should be no complaints on this transaction unless I am missing something. If it DOES turn out to be an original then you got a great bargain. I wouldn't compare the Ebay purchase publication with the 30+ year-old known reproduction as a guide to assembly line originality, so seek out someone with a known original and bombard them with questions. Like I also said in the previous post; Use CAUTION on Ebay, know what you are buying, and Buyer Beware!

Save the Wave .........

JG Mattson

[Valeria H.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

John,
I do not believe my recent purchase from e-bay (advertised to be a true 2nd edition) is what it was advertised as. The green area on the front cover is smudged with fingerprint in 3 areas like it was assembled while the ink was still wet.

Furthermore, my 30 yr old 2nd edition's second page is very thick as you stated initially. The recent purchase's second page is the same thicknest as the rest of the books pages.

Also, the pages of my first book are yellowed while the recent purchase's pages are white. This is clearly a recent print.

Yes, I only paid $20 plus shipping for the book but I do not appreciate being lied to or false advertising. The item could have gone for much more.

I am also asking if anyone else has a 2nd edition operational manual for any year that has the printing on the back cover "Reprinted Courtesy of
Chevrolet Motor Division".

Valeria

[Ray C.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

Hi! John

Thanks for the reply!
Ray

[John M.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

Valeria

I have a reproduction 1962 CORVETTE OWNERS GUIDE that has the words REPRINTED COURTESY CHEVROLET MOTER DIVISION on the back outside cover along the bottom. Note that there is no "of" in the wording. This repro has no tear-off postcard page, no CONTENTS page, and no INDEX page. Since it has no CONTENTS page it also has no Edition Number either. This information is just for you to be aware of while you search out what you have.



I hope you find someone with an original Owners Manual to help you out. You might consider posting a new post to this forum asking for just such a person. There are a lot of Corvette owners with a lot of knowledge that watch this forum, so if you put a new post right up front and on top instead of at the bottom of this thread you might have a better chance of getting the help you are looking for.

Save the Wave ..........

JG Mattson

[Bill M.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

other than a FIRST EDITION, would have a good probability of being an original from the assembly line.

JG Mattson

FYI: I have a repro. '59 manual that is of the 2nd edition.

[John M.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

FYI: I have a repro. '59 manual that is of the 2nd edition.

Thanks Bill, it's nice to know that there are repros of editions other than the 1st out there, and that is why I left the door open in what I said. In the Owners Guide that I am familiar with (1962) I have never seen a repro of the 2nd & 3rd Edition. It seems the reproers have concentrated on the 1st Edition of which I have found six different ones. I had a hard time finding a complete original 3rd Edition, and an even harder time finding a complete original 2nd Edition. If there is a repro of these out there I haven't seen it yet.

Save the Wave ..........

JG Mattson

[Art B.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

I have a repro '61 Owners Manual that I purchased in 1988. It is the second edition and has the number 3784033. On the back cover it says:
Reprinted Courtesy Chevrolet Motor Division.

[Valeria H.]

Re: 1961 Owners Manual

My 1960 2nd edition which I think is real has a contents page, an index page, the very first page under the cover is much thicker than the rest of the pages and the printing on the back states "Courtesy of Chevrolet...
Valeria