Pete Phillips Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 (edited) A friend from Italy gave me this owner's manual. It has no copyright date on it anywhere, and I have read the whole thing but can find no mention of a year for the cars. It covers the 40, 50, and 70 series Buicks (Special, Super and Roadmaster only); no Century and no Limited series. So, my guess is maybe 1946, since there was no Century or Limited then. There is an added page just inside the front cover that addresses "Synthetic Tyres and Tubes". This page mentions the availability of rubber "before the U.S. entered the war", and of course the war was over by 1946. Could it be a 1942 export manual? Is anyone familiar with this piece? It is all in English, but capacities are listed in liters and wheelbases are listed in meters as well as inches. If anyone is interested, make an offer--I have no use for it. Pete Phillips, BCA #7338 Leonard, TX Edited November 11, 2016 by Pete Phillips (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 PM sent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Phillips Posted November 11, 2016 Author Share Posted November 11, 2016 Owner's manual is spoken for, thanks to "Bleach". Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted November 11, 2016 Share Posted November 11, 2016 This is a tricky one.........the reference I found says the picture below is a 1946 note the speedometer is higher than the other gages that are in front of the driver, your manual shows the gages in a row....like 40-41, but the wheelbases listed fit 46-48 cars....any chance the 40-41 instrument cluster carried over to 46 Specials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesBulldogMiller55Buick Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 sometimes the illustrations in the owner's manuals don't match the car for the same year. For example, the '55 owners manual shows AC ducts in the ceiling. The ceiling ducts were ,not present on the '55 AC jobs 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1953mack Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 (edited) 17 hours ago, Pete Phillips said: Based on the following, I would say that this Owner's Manual was written specifically for the 1946 Buick Models, prior to the production run and while synthetic tires and tubes were still available: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/syntheticrubber.html Al Malachowski BCA #8965 "500 Miles West of Flint" Edited November 12, 2016 by 1953mack (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrEarl Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 Now that was an interesting read Al, thank! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 I'm wondering if it might be for Canadian models. Once I have it, I'll see if I can figure it out. Though the thing it came from Italy make me also think it was for export. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
91vert Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 It wouldn't be Canadian as we didn't go to metric till '67 I believe. Cal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleach Posted November 12, 2016 Share Posted November 12, 2016 You're right about that. I forgot when Canada went metric. The text of the manual uses UK English spelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney Eaton Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 I was thinking along those lines .....as they spell tires ...TYERS 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancemb Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 I would bet this was wartime manual for use in U.K. with some Buicks in military use 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50jetback Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 4 hours ago, lancemb said: I would bet this was wartime manual for use in U.K. with some Buicks in military use I agree. The capacities are given in U.S. gallons etc and Imperial gallons etc ( British ) Imperial gallons are larger than U.S. gallons - U.S. 5 gallon jerrycans used during WW2 are referred to in the UK and other areas using Imperial measure as 4 gallon jerrycans. I see the heading for a separate page giving metric capacities but can't see the full detail if it goes through all the same capacities. I also see someone has handwritten +32 = F which is the calculation to convert Celsius heat reading to farenhiet. Regardless it would appear to be a wartime production for use in the UK, 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thriller Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 Not to change the topic but metro fiction was introduced in Canada in 1970, and then like all government projects, took decades to implement. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Canada It just seemed to me that 1967 was a bit early...then again, the length of time it took meant I would have grown up with the conversion regardless. It seems I'm one of a small generation here that is "fluent" in both systems. I never really got Fahrenheit but am more comfortable with Imperial lengths. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry Schramm Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 (edited) Being a science/math major, I am fairly fluent in both English & Metric systems also. Nature of the jobs that I have been in working on world wide projects. Edited November 13, 2016 by Larry Schramm (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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