I read mine from cover to cover, and this is the most enjoyable issue of any magazine I have ever read! It doesn't hurt that the 1971 - 1973 Cadillacs are my absolute favorites, and Superior was my favorite coachbuilder.
But the writing was superb, and the subject matter was covered so thoroughly and comprehensively. And, the color photos are just stunning...most of which I have never seen before. The factory photographs of many 1971 - 1972 Superiors in various stages of production at the Superior plant were so good, and so fascinating to look at!
One big takeaway that I never realized before is that the 1971 Cadillac ushered in the "longer, wider, and lower" Cadillac which is evidenced by the wide space between the dual headlights. It's also interesting how in addition to so thoroughly covering the 1971-1972 Superiors, Tom also compared the differences between Superior, and its two rivals M-M and S&S. I love how he explains why the fiberglass roofcaps were used (to lower the vehicle's weight, lower the center of gravity, and improve handling plus eliminating the possibility of rust problems in the fiberglass areas), explaining the problems the 1971 workers' strike at GM affected production and overall sales figures, and also explained how the 1971 ushered in the look of softly rounded corners.
And finally, as Ed pointed out earlier in this thread, it's fascinating to see how the nose of the chassis seemed to be pre painted by GM (in various colors which appear to have had nothing to do with what color the coach will eventually be). One thing I don't get is why do they pre paint the body, but then oftentimes having to sand, apply primer, and then sometimes completely repaint the entire coach once it's completely assembled? Wouldn't it make more sense to paint the entire coach after the body drop is completed but before the hardware is installed so the entire coach is painted at once? I understand that they would need to do some touch up and repair work once everything is done, but it seems like in many cases they had a pre painted chassis nose from GM, they would paint the body before it was dropped on the chassis, and then they would have to repaint the entire coach all over again once assembly was completed?
Why did GM even bother to do any painting at all, why didn't they just have them all primered and that's it because they knew the coachbuilders would repaint the entire thing? Or is it necessary to still paint the chassis because in shipping, and then storage in the coachbuilder chassis yard for who knew how long they might start to rust? But if that's the case, why didn't they just paint them all the same color instead of various different colors?
Such a great issue that really got me to thinking and wondering about how these things were done. But it was so cool looking at all these amazing color photos of these mouth watering brand new Superior coaches being built. Now I'm curious if they had the same new car smell that regular new cars have when brand new!
Abe