The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Assembly Manual 55-59 is just a 55!

Hi Folks,

I love the assembly manual in my case the 55-59 one. But I have to say I'm also disappointed it's clearly a 55 only, and any changes after model year 55 is simply not there. I have a 58 and a two 59 trucks and the more than a few bits that aren't covered.

The question is if the assembly manual was actually published by Chevrolet for the repair shops or was it something that was internal to GM and first later on published to help the community?

The assembly manual is clearly used by all the different GM plants in the US and abroad. Although my guess is that lot is missing since e.g. torque figures aren't there. (They are there in the 66 Chevelle I have).

So where does GM have the original assembly manuals? Are they still saved could there be a 59 or 58 only one printed if GM would give access to the original for a reprint? Where did "Golden State Pick Up Parts Inc" get there 55 from when they reprinted it?

Burbly Dyna

yes it's "just" 55 - an assembly manual is exactly what the name says, the "assembly specifications" for each new series from the engineering/design dept, intended for the reference and training of the assembly line crews - an internal document, later reproduced by vendors to help themselves to some of your money .... the next assembly manual prepared by GM was for 1960, and there were scads of documents specifically for dealers and shops and the public - also note some pages of the 55-59 manual are dated 1954 and earlier

after the first year of a series there were documents circulated internally called 'running changes' that documented the yearly design and engineering updates - find a package of those for each of the TF years and have them reproduced - otherwise the shop manual covers details like torques, and you may be aware that the '59 shop manual is a supplement to the '58 manual, which itself is simply an update from the '57 shop manual for the minor body changes from the 55-57 manuals

the reason the 'copyright' on the book is Golden State, is that the founder of that parts vendor, Seth Doulton, was very focused on the TF trucks and made an effort to collect a lot of the info available to you today, as well as the engineering specs for many parts that he reproduced or contracted reproduction of, and tons of NOS parts from dealers that were a large portion of his business in the 70's and 80's

Bill

Some years back I remember year specific assembly manuals for Task Force, they came and went, then all that was available is the one titled 55 to 59, which is untrue. Like you say all dates are 54 and 55 on the drawings in the manual. Its better than no assembly manual, and basic sheet metal is pretty much the same through out the years. Exceptions are beds, gas pedal attachement, some holes in fire wall, hood hinges etc. And I suppose wiring as well.

The "'47-'54" assembly manual is for '54s.

It took me a while to figure this out. I'd look at a diagram and think, "That's not how it came apart". I finally noticed the page date was 1953. I don't think the factory would wait until the last year of production to write assembly manual that was supposed to cover model years 8 years earlier. Has anyone seen an earlier publication that has just not been mass produced? My guess is when it was mass produced they decided to title and say it covered back to '47 to increase sales. A bit deceptive.

there isn't much 'deception' involved in saying the manual covers the entire series if you consider how little change there was over the life on any series - and if you have any idea of how these trucks were built and worked on back in their day

there really never was an assembly "manual" for any year or series, there was a collection of engineering drawings for every part and procedure, likely in loose leaf binders, and as I mentioned above, any changes as production progressed over the months and years resulted in another sheet[s] being sent out as an update to the "manual" - these additional sheets were regularly issued as running changes and the line supervisors were tasked with ripping out the old page and inserting the new .... GM didn't waste money printing whole new books every time some fiddly change happened, these were documents for the assembly line, not for the general public, or even body shops or dealers

the repro manuals are what someone later collected of the assembly instructions to have reprinted for sale to hobbyists, NOT just a reprint of a GM original book .... the 55-59 manual was first collated by Seth Doulton [and maybe partially or fully purchased from GM], and my copy says "Golden State Pickup parts Inc. All Rights Reserved - Copyright 1993" on the back, although I didn't buy it from them [also says 'reproduced by permission of GM corp' in the front]

if you really want the spec drawing for some specific item of your specific year you can cruise all the swap meets and check all the vintage literature dealers and you may someday run across a collection of change sheets - you could even come up with a collection of assembly instructions for your own exact year and have it printed and -after paying GM for repro rights- start selling it

Bill