The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Part Number Look-up

I have a PDF file of a Chevy Parts Catalog and I have a hard copy book of the 55-59 Assembly Manual...
neither of which are easy to use.
I was just wondering if any of you research experts know of a site where part numbers for items can be obtained.
Now wouldn't that be nice?

Jerry

Hy Hellomrwilson, I'm soo confusilator illiterate that I can barely ask you this question, but are you wanting o.e.m. p/ns so you can try to cross them into some jobber numbers, or do you just want to know the original p/ns of stuff now made of unobtainium??? Seriously though if you ask for a p/n for a specific part, I will do my best to find it for you. I have quite a few parts books, and I can read them!

Hi 3B,
Sorry for not being more specific. I'm primarily interested in OEM numbers.
Thanks for the look-up offer. Like I mentioned, I have a Parts Book on PDF. It's just a bear to search through as is my Assembly Manual.
I was wondering if someone had run across a P/N database online.

I use the 1929 -1949 parts manual thats on line, it's probably the same as you have in pdf form. Start at the illustration pages to get an idea where to start your search and get a closer location of the group your part might be in. It saves you from searching the whole book each time.

Joe

Thanks Joe.
Some documents written in pdf format are searchable. Scanned raster images of pages are not. Best I can do maybe, is as you said and also, place some book-marks in the file.
I'm working on a database for my '59 truck now that I have a '58 parts truck.
I have a lot of individual parts in excess that I'd like to identify by number and eventually sell (after I glean everything I need for my '59).
The database is searchable by name or by number... but anytime I think I've got a good idea, I just know someone already has done it! I was hoping someone knew of a site that has a searchable database like this.
I appreciate the comment!
Jerry

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

LOL
That would do it!!!

In my younger day, I worked at a car dealership and I remember the huge parts books. Throwing them up on a counter was like throwing a saddle on a horse!
Working for an OEM industry in the engineering side, painstaking efforts are made to put the information in a database. For us, data entry is a bear, but a must.
Maybe someday, some enthusiasts will compile the information.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments Mr. Graham!

Jerry

Old trucks require old methods of researching.

Old trucks are fun.



-W

Yep, those be the parts books I had to work out of back in the day. They were loose leaf
and we would get packs of revisions when ever they were released, which was quite
often. That would keep the night parts man busy for a few days posting all the revisions.
The master parts book in January was quite a different book than the one that we ended
up with in December. The pages containing the obsolete parts were pitched and as far as I
know the numbers were gone forever.

Some people think that the reprints of the Chevrolet parts manual that we have available
here are the gospel, but they’re actually a small segment of the complete parts listing for
Chevrolet over the years. I'm not exactly sure where those came from because when I was
at the counter back in the day, I never saw a bound edition of a parts manual, there were
just to many changes throughout the year to have a bound parts book. I worked at four of
the larger Chevy dealerships in the Chicago suburbs so I‘m sure we would have had them
if they were available at the time.

And that someone that compiles that information could be you Jerry,
the movement has to start somewhere, right?

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

The database I am currently working on (MS Access 2003), is for my '58 & '59, since this it will help with my '59 project... to keep up with all the parts I have in boxes and baggies. ha!

To have the database program as is used by Chevrolet today, would be a score! There's a lot involved in writing something like that from scratch and I'm not a 'puter geek.

I agree with Woogeroo that the research in finding parts is fun.
It truly is.

Already we have a cool VIN look-up tool. Can you imagine though, going to "Tech Tips" and pulling up information by typing in a part name, casting number or searching a part list for their specific year/model Chevy truck?
That would be a super resource... just sayin. :o)
I'm going to keep searching the net. Maybe someone's working on eating this elephant.

Jerry