Maverick/Comet Factory Body/Assembly/Installation Manuals Finally Made Public

I have contacted both the Director of Licensing at Ford Motor Company as well as the Ford archive office (where I was able to get some hard to find manuals). Hopefuly they can assist in getting access.

Since we (Forel Publishing Comany) are already licensed by Ford, the copyright is not a problem. Just for information, even with a license agreement each and every product we produce must be approved by Ford before we are allowed to make them available.

I will keep posting the status on this thread on what is happening. Since the Maverick community made the discovery, my commitment to you is to develop the Maverick line of manuals before the other models.

One concern is the quality of the manuals in the archive. Some of the manuals in the Ford archive were in very poor condition which has made it very hard to develop. Anything we publish, we like to offer as top quality. At times it make take up to an hour or so to "clean" each page of stains, smudges, etc. and when you multiply this by a few thousand pages...well it become a huge cost. Hopefully, the manuals in the Benson Center are in excellent condition. If so, we can produce these much quicker.

Anyway, thanks again to the forum for the help.

 

These will make a nice addition to everyone's Maverick Automobilia collections. Thanks!!

 

I would totally buy one!

 

I would be more than happy to assist any efforts in "cleaning" any pages. If pages are line drawings, I could easily re vector everything rather quickly to produce high quality 'prints'. Any assistance in helping the community get access to this information is greatly appreciated by all!

If you need any help please do not hesitate in contacting me below,

Thank you again for your dedication in helping the Maverick/Comet Community!

Levi Zoesch
Lzoesch@gmail.com
509-901-4887

 

Just to keep everybody informed, I am working with the Benson Library and Ford on the copyright/royalty issues with re-producing these manuals. The second hurtle is scanning the material itself. The reproduction equipment available to the public is not adequate for large scale jobs like this. As a result, I am trying to coordinate the reproduction through a licensed/approved by Ford third-party scanning company. Nothing is easy but where there is a will, there is a way!

Meanwhile, I want to move forward by asking your help in selection which set of manuals for the Maverick/Comet you want developed first. The two PDF links at the start of this message board thread are the start point. I would ask that you specify the year(s) to develop first. It will be difficult to develop "everything" at the same time so I would like to work on one model/year at a time.

Even better would be stating the manuals themselves- something like:
- Assembly Operations Manual Collection, Box 3, 1972 Maverick-Comet
- Assembly Operations Manual Collection, Box 4, 1973 Maverick-Comet
- Installation Manuals Collection, Box 2, 1971-1972, Pinto (Special Maverick), Mustang-Cougar, Maverick-Comet, Ford-Mercury-Meteor
- Installation Manuals Collection, Box 4, 1973, Mustang-Cougar, Maverick-Comet, Torino-Montego, Lincoln, Pinto, Mustang-Cougar
- Installation Manuals Collection, Box 21, .............etc.

Anyway, I am anxious to push this effort forward. However, I want to develop products that the Maverick/Comet community really want and need.

Also, Levi thanks for the offer to help clean some of the pages. Vectorizing the images are by far the best quality output - much cleaner crisp line art! The downside is that every page would have to be converted which could take a lot of time. Hopefully, the manuals are in good condition and will not require too much cleaning so maybe they will not need to be vectorized. I do appreciate the offer and may take you up on some pages.

Thanks again,
David

 

Thank you for the update David.

You have brought up a very good point: Which years, and types of manuals, should be produced first?

I my opinion, this is something that ultimately should be driven by supply and demand, but it may be difficult to accurately gauge what the true demand is for each year. Maybe we can start a poll, or something similar.

Other approaches could be to just start at 1970, and go up in year...and it could be done randomly too.

I'm sure you will get more than one opinion, so ultimately, I think the Maverick/Comet community will be happy with whatever year/manual type that you decide is best to start with, based on your publishing experience.

We are just happy that there is a chance that these manuals will be made available for our cars finally.

As I stated in the very first post, I am the most interested in the year 1972 Maverick, for the Assembly or Installation manual that gives the best Illustrations and information for assembling the 72 Maverick. (and I will purchase from you)

Thank you again for pursuing this historic project!

 

Roger,
Thanks for the info. My thought was to start with 1970 and then work my way up but I wanted the forums input for the reasons you stated about supply/demand. I don't want to waste time and resources on products with low interest.

Everything has come to a standstill during the holiday's but I will push forward after the New Year.

Thanks again,
David

 

I too am interested in the year 1972 for the Mercury Comet, I assume in the same manual as the 1972 Ford Maverick?

We thank you both (cactusgrabber & Forel Publisher) for all your efforts!

 

I'd be in for a 72 Assembly Manual, too.

My suggestion for a development plan would be:
- start off with either 71 or 72
- 69.5/70 could be next
- one of the later years, 74-77
- 73 as a transition year

 

I too am interested in a 1972 set and I am also willing to purchase it. Thanks for all your hard work.

Tom

 

Since I have a 74 that looks like a 72, I'd be interested in 1972 also. I don't think the 72 would be that much difference than a 71 or 70 that anyone who is mechanically incline couldn't figure out the difference.

 

Id like to see 69.5 --

I just need to know the overall length of the chassis from the rear of the tail pan to the tip of the front frame rails.

 

Any news on this? This would be a great addition to our info collections!

 

That car is so cool looking . I would buy two of those , instead of one car today .

 

which car?