Looked in here a couple of times and I still can't finger out what exactly you're looking
for Jerry, or why exactly you need to know.
If you have a particular part on your '58 or '59 truck that you want to know the OEM part
number of, then you just find the group number of that type of part in the illustrations as
Joe instructed. That takes you to the individual part numbers listed by year and model in
the catalogs.
If you have a NOS part in its original GM box and don't know what the part number fits
about all you can do is start looking thru the groups in a parts catalog and scan that group for
the part number. Of course you would have to scan ALL of the parts books in existence
until you found the part number.
If you're looking for a data base that has ALL of the GM parts numbers that were ever
created listed numerically and which tells you what model and year they fit, forget it.
That would be an astronomical task as GM has assigned literally millions upon millions of
parts numbers since opening the doors to all of their divisions.
A new part in it’s original ‘Genuine GM' packaging doesn’t differentiate whether its for a
Chevrolet, GMC, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick or Cadillac. They just generally have a GM
group and part number on the box or container.
Back in the late 50's and 60's when I was a Chevrolet parts man all we had were the
separate hard copy parts books that we now find at swap meets or in reprint. I haven't
been behind a GM parts counter for half a century so I wouldn't know for sure, but I
would imagine that a modern day GM parts room computer, which is tied into GM's
mainframe computers may have access to a data base like you are looking for. But again
it would probably only list the currently available part numbers. I have been to the parts
room a few times to see if they had any parts listed for the AD trucks and the counter man
just hauled out one of the old hard copy parts books like we all have access to. In other
words, nothing that old existed in their data base.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
Last edited by Denny Graham; 12/04/2011 1:26 PM.
