66 Owners Guide

[Kent D.]

How do you tell the difference between an original 66 Owners guide and a reproduction?

[Peter L.]

Re: 66 Owners Guide

Kent - I would not expect the repro to have the Owners Card insert although I have seen some original GM guides w/o the Owners Card. Most apparent is the quality of the black/white pictures. On originals you can make out the details in the pictures but in the repros the detail in the pictures is lost and in general the pictures are much blacker with less contrast. Also, many reproductions now indicate such on the back cover. Pete

[Dave S.]

Re: 66 Owners Guide/Broader perspective

Kent,
The presence of a "full" Corvette news card often but not always indicates a Helm, Inc. re-issue manual. It is not a traditional reproduction but one printed by the original manufacturer (Helm, Inc.) for service use. These are OK quality but as mentioned above the quality of the photography is not what originals are. If you held one of each side by side you would have a better idea of what I am saying. I happen to prefer 1/2 card manuals as many are originals. Be careful not to pay original manual money for a re-issue manual. A knowledgeable paper afficinado will be able to detect an original. Most of the Ebay auctions end up that way, meaning that full price is paid for a re-issue manual especially in the case of 1965, 1966, and 1967 manuals. Traditional reproductions are easy to detect and have no quality at all.