VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 writer got it wrong on gm book

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I have seen it mentioned a few times , that a person wrote a book about history of Chevrolet cars and had many things wrong in the book . That he has been taken to task about on this forum.

Question who was the writer of the book and what was the name of the book ?

mike lynch

Are you talking about the "Standard Catalog of Chevrolet" by John Gunnell?

junkyard dog...................not really sure.

But the writer has been slammed here in past posts as getting things wrong. A couple of people had slammed him pretty good on this forum.

I am having a discussion elsewhere about the ubiquitous 1933 Chevrolet standard series being called the MERCURY SERIES. We both know there is no factory literature to substantiate the Mercury name that's freely used, rather than the correct STANDARD SERIES. CC

He , the writer , is quoting the name Mercury in a 1980 publication called the CONSUMERS GUIDE. I do not have the writers name just the publication.

mike lynch

I have a Large book called Chevrolet Chronicle A pictoral History from 1904 by Arch Brown, Pat Chappell, Bob Hall, and the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide. Copyright 1991.
On page 24 is a picture of a 1919 Model 490. The caption reads "This 490 based pickup was built with a strange conglomeration of parts: Roadster body, clincher rims, sedan fenders, and a cargo box of unknown origin. The authors are correct about the strange parts. This "490" is built entirely of Model T Ford Parts.
I'm guessing the authors pushed some researcher too hard and this photo is payback. Why do I think this? Because this particular photo, in it's original form, shows this car with Ford Motor Company painted on the side of the bed. Ford did not make a pickup until 1925 and this car is 1921 or earlier. It was built for factory use and proudly wore a giant Ford script logo on the sides.
It is obvious that the photo has been altered to remove the name.
When I find something like this in a book, it makes me skeptical of the entire work.

Mike

I have yet to see a book of Chevrolet history that did not have errors. This even includes some things Chevrolet has published.
The 60 Years of Chevrolet (and 75 years later) by George Dammann is another example.

George Dammans 60 years of Chevrolet book came out in 1972 and refers to the 1933 Standards as Mercury series. I wonder if there is any earlier American reference to this name. The reason I ask this is because his book contains material referring to Australian bodies and he was obviously in contact with people in Australia. As stated in previous posts there is information to suggest Holdens were using the Mercury name in 1934-5. I wonder if some of the information they supplied included the Mercury name and George ran with it thinking it referred to the 1933 Standards.

This was dscussed here on the chat site and even in the G&D and no one came up with any facts where Chevrolet used the Mercury name.

That's what I keep telling people and they still argue.. Straight out , I ask them find me GM literature with the mercury name being referred to and I shall salute you to the highest place there is and so will this site and all inhabitants. But no need to worry, they will find space aliens and big foot along with Hoffa first .

mike Lynch

The question I asked was, is there any reference to the Mercury name prior to the 60 years of Chevrolet book by George Dammann published in 1972 ?

The first reference to Mercury I have is in the 1933 and up N.A.D.A. used car m price guide book. It lists 1933 CC -Standard-Mercury.
The 1938 Red Book price guide just has Standard as does the Motor Manuals.
Often after market parts catalogs have the Mercury/Standard names together.

Thank you for that information.

all very interesting but until somebody comes up with a piece of GENUINE literature from Chevrolet GM, then no such thing as a Mercury in 1933..

mike lynch

Me too.

Posted for 345chevy ***See photos in next posting

Thanks Bill, I tried to post these photos of Holden body ID tags for 345chevy, I am sure he will chime in later.
I wonder what the MERC and the MCY stand for, I don't think it is for Mercedes or Mercy.

its for something that does not exist in north America.

That doesn't make sense , when nobody seems to have Auzzie holden SALES literature with reference to a 33 MERCURY.

That would cement it for me.

mike lynch

Thanks Bill and Chevrolet 6 for posting the pictures.The bottom photo reads Body no 176 , Model no. Chev Merc. Series Tourer. This plate is on an unrestored 1934 Std Tourer.
The other 2 plates are from a private collection so I am not sure what year they are off. The fact that the sedan body number is 530 makes me think it is 1934 as I doubt they made that many sedans in 1933. The roadster plate is a very low body number and coupled with the fact that it is stamped a little different could mean it is from a 1933 but there is no way of telling.
As I have mentioned in previous posts GM in Australia were using the Mercury name in these years but I believe it was just an internal code name for the Std series.
I have never seen it used in advertising. The fact that the Mercury name also comes up in North American literature makes me think it may have been the same situation there as well.

AUSTRALIAN CKD ( complete knock down ) PASSENGER CHASSIS.........STANDARD SERIES 107 " WB No mention of Mercury

CHEVROLET MODEL # 254 INTERNAL CODE....................SHIPPED 901

What did australia GM HOLDEN build with these 901 CKD.. : coupes , coach, roadster, phaeton. Roadster pickup UTE ?
Exact numbers of each produced by Holden ???????

mike lynch

Ron, Have you read your PM's?

Have not received any thing yet Jon. My email address is rondaw1@bigpond.com.