VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - GENERAL Mechanical - Engine, Trans, etc Chevrolet Master Parts Catalog, are they for real?

Not exactly sure what forum this should fall under, it certainly does apply to all of them so I hesitate to put it in the General Discussions (For off-topic subjects which Chevy people might find of common interest.) not to many people have the time to check there everyday if ever, my self included. I only have time to take a look there maybe once every couple of weeks, since I’m mostly interested in restoration and not BS’ing.

Even though I can’t afford to buy Master Parts Catalogs I still look for them in the book vendors inventory at the swap meets. Several of the Chevy parts rooms in my area keep a corner in the attic reserved for NOS, I suppose they’ve been able to pick it up cheap when old dealers and warehouses close down, you know, insider trading! Anyway I stopped by a couple this past Summer looking for a part that they might have for my 3600 and the parts man hauled out from under the counter, copies of the Chevrolet Master Parts Catalog for the period.

I worked as a Chevy parts man for several dealers back in the late ”˜50’s and early ”˜60’s bout five years between high school and the service. The catalogs that we used at all of the counters were about 6-8 inches thick, loose leaf in post binders. We had to go through all of our books swap out the revisions about every month, I wish I had keep all of the revisions, I could have put together some real nice parts books out of them.

Now to the point! I never saw one of these 1-2 inch thick bound copies of The Master Parts Catalog that we are seeing everywhere now days at any dealership that I worked at. And I have yet to see one of those original 6-8 inch thick parts books that we actually used back in the day. My question is, what are they leaving out of the thin bound Chevrolet Master Parts Catalogs? It would appear that a lot is being excluded. I do remember that there were illustrations and breakdowns for just about everything and every year. I recall this vividly because being a young man with a big interest in cars but a bad memory, that’s how I faked it for five years. Could those illustrations account for the missing 5-6 inches of parts listings??

I’ll bet Gene’s got a handle on this, with a memory and reference library like his, he is sure to have a few of the old post binders around. Think I might post this over at the Bolt and see if there are any old parts men over there who haven't gone senile and can still remember the good old days.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I have lots of original parts books from 1924 through the early 1980's. Most of my parts books are bound and some of the later parts books are loose-leaf. The earlier they are the thinner they are because there were less years to deal with, less models to cover, thus less parts, less illustrations and etc. My later loose-leaf books are really thick because of the years covered, there were more Chevrolet models covered, lots and lots of illustrations, a bigger index, more general information covering engine codes, serial numbers, abbreviations, and the list goes on. Basically, the more information they contain the bigger the parts book is going to be.

Anyway, to answer your question......yes they are for real!

:) :grin:

I also have a fairly extensive collection of Master Parts Price Lists or Parts Books. As the dog wrote the thickness is proportional to the number of parts available at the time. I have several "loose leaf" books some in the post binders, some held together with bolts or machine screws and one on the metal stand. It is real convent to use but takes up 1/2 of a desk top so it rests on the floor most of the time and is a tripping hazard.

Another point is that some editions were bound for repair shops and other non-Chevrolet facilities when the Chevrolet parts department used the loose leaf stands or microfiche (remember them?). I even have a microfiche reader but only a few of the plastic sheets. Anyone have any more of them?

What are we going to do for parts information from the computer age? Anyone have a idea?

As a person that worked out of a Chevrolet parts book every working day from 1951 to 1977 I have only memories. Never thought they would once again play a part in my life.
I can't remember if the books we used in the early '50's were bound or loose leaf. I do have at this time a loose leaf 1959 catalog. I know the bound versions wer available then also. I do have a bound 1964 full size car catalog.
In 1960 there was a bound book just for Corvair. In 1962 the Chevy II was combined with the Corvair and in 1964 the Chevelle was added, I have those catalogs.
In the later years the bound catalog was more or less for handing out to your good wholesale customers.
I remember changing pages in the loose page books. If one minor change, revision or price change was made a new page was required.The later books had over 1000 pages and perhaps 50 or 60 pages would be up-dated.
Yes, there were also body only books at one time aimed at body shops.

Also in later years they had two seperate books, one for illustrations and one for part numbers.

DD

Then there were separate books for "Parts History", "Price Schedule" and "Catalog Code". I have at least one of each. Amazingly I have found occasions to use each of them.

Ya, the good old Price Schedules! Man, I used them a lot years ago......got at least 100 different editions on the shelf. By using those books I was able to order many rare Chevrolet parts from my local dealer who had no idea that the parts were still available.

:) :grin: