Tag: GM Heritage Center

GM to move its historical archives and vehicles out of Sterling Heights – Jamie L Lareau @DetroitFreePress 

GM to move its historical archives and vehicles out of Sterling Heights – Jamie L Lareau @DetroitFreePress 

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Interesting article here for me having been lucky enough to visit this amazing place in it’s current location a while back.

Visit to the GM Heritage Centre (Center:))
Original article

General Motors will move its Heritage Center — which holds its archives and historical vehicles — from Sterling Heights to a bigger property it owns in Grand Blanc.

The move will happen in phases as GM renovates the Grand Blanc facility, which was once the automaker’s Customer Care and Aftersales headquarters, GM said Thursday.

A line of cars in the collection of the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights.  
MANDI WRIGHT, DETROIT FREE PRESS

“We do not have a start date for the renovations yet,” GM spokeswoman Kristen Sullivan said. “This move will take place in a phased approach, and the Heritage team will need some time in the new space to determine how best it can be renovated to fit their needs.”

In March 2021, GM moved about 900 workers from its Customer Care and Aftersales offices in Grand Blanc to the Global Technical Center in Warren, effectively vacating the Grand Blanc facility. At the time, GM told the Free Press it was unsure what it would do with the facility in Grand Blanc.

The GM Heritage Center, which first opened in 2004 to preserve GM’s history, had been leasing the facility in Sterling Heights, off Mound Road near Metro Parkway. It housed a portion of the GM Heritage Archive, as well as GM’s historic vehicle collection. It is not open to the general public, but does conduct tours and host events.

In the last few years, GM searched for a larger, permanent facility to display the growing number of archives, vehicle collection, product catalogs, sales brochures, press materials and promotional records the Heritage Center housed, GM said in a statement.

GM’s former Customer Care and Aftersales offices in Grand Blanc will soon house its Heritage Center.  
PROVIDED BY GENERAL MOTORS

The decision to move it to the Grand Blanc facility brings GM’s heritage operations closer to the automaker’s location of origin: Flint and Genesee County. GM’s Flint Assembly campus is known as Factory One because of the company’s birthplace there. GM builds its hot-selling Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra heavy-duty pickups at Flint Assembly plant.

Read on

2022 Detroit Concours Weekend Mega Gallery | Kicking back with classics – Joel Stocksdale @autoblog

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(Note from the Ed) – I have a special interest in this article, having seen both of these marvelous vehicles up close during a visit to the the GM Heritage Centre a few years back (article here)

Capping off a wild week with the North American International Auto Show was an equally car-filled weekend thanks to Hagerty. The classic vehicle insurer hosted a few events over the weekend as a part of its move to make the Concours of America the Detroit Concours d’Elegance. This includes hosting the events in downtown Detroit, with the concours at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Cars and Community, a combination of Radwood and Concours d’Lemons, at Comerica Park. Each event attracted more than 100 cars, and we’ve assembled photos of a large number of the cars at all these events for you to peruse.

The headline even was certainly the Detroit Concours, and it attracted some truly phenomenal classic cars across a wide spectrum. Showstopping classic concepts such as the Buick Y-Job, General Motors LeSabre, Ford Mustang I and Chrysler Turbine Car all made appearances. There were sections for classic hot rods and mid-century customs such as the Dodge Deora pickup truck. And of course there were other pre-war and post-war classics from America and Europe

From kiddie Corvettes to Baja-bound trucks, the GM Heritage Center’s video stash is wonderfully diverse – Daniel Strohl @Hemmings

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One gets the impression that the GM Heritage Center’s YouTube channel exists not so much to entertain as it does to simply provide a repository for films that the center’s staffers happen to find while excavating storage closets and other forgotten spaces spread across the corporation’s many properties. There’s some old TV commercials, like this one for a kiddie Corvette available at Chevrolet dealerships.

Undoubtedly, what’s there is just a sampling of all the film and videos GM has produced over the last century-plus. Here’s hoping the Heritage Center keeps adding more vids as they find ’em.

Read on

The Buick Y Job, The First Concept Car

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A few years ago I was lucky enough to visit the limted access GM Heritage Collection in Sterling Heights Michigan as a Birthday present.

Trip post here

A recent edition of Jay Leno’s Garage featuring the Buick Y Job reminded of how lucky it was to have been up close to this ground breaking car.

The Buick Y-Job was the auto industry’s first concept car, produced by Buick in 1938. Designed by Harley J. Earl, the car had power-operated hidden headlamps, a “gunsight” hood ornament, electric windows, wraparound bumpers, flush door handles, and prefigured styling cues used by Buick until the 1950s and the vertical waterfall grille design still used by Buick today. It used a Buick Super chassis, indicated by the word “Super” located above the rear license plate. (read the full article here at Wikipedia)

The Y Job is one of the few cars that I have on display at home.

GM Heritage Center S10 Pickup Restoration Kit Online Documentation

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The excellent GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights Michigan,  (which I have been lucky enough to visit see previous post here), has excellent online documentation to assist with restoration or anything else you’d like to know about your GM product.

S10 Xtreme

My Chevy S10

 

Obviously my interest is around the S10 for which the documentation can be found here

GM Vehicle Information Kits

You can search the whole of the GM vehicle information kit range  here

 

We Owe Modern Automotive Design To Harley J. Earl

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I’m a great lover of the designs of Harley J Earl, having seen a number of the cars up close at the GM Heritage Centre I have even more respect for his work.These are some pictures that I took during my birthday visit

Buick Le Sabre GM Heritage Centre
Buick Y Job GM Heritage Centre
Buick Y Job GM Heritage Centre
Buick Y Job GM Heritage Centre
Buick Le Sabre GM Heritage Centre
Buick Le Sabre GM Heritage Centre
Buick Le Sabre GM Heritage Centre
Buick Le Sabre GM Heritage Centre
Buick Y Job GM Heritage Centre
Buick Y Job GM Heritage Centre
Buick Y Job GM Heritage Centre
Buick Y Job GM Heritage Centre
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There is a great article here from Rod Authority by Jake Headlee on Earl and his impact on automotive design.

 

My Chevy S10 Xtreme

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This is my Chevy S10 Xtreme that I’ve now had for a couple of years, not imported by me, purchased from a nice couple in Penzance.

I’ve changed out the Lexus style rear lights for a set of LED based units with side marker lights from LMC Truck in the States.

The load bed has also been coated with Line-X which I think has improved the look as the bed was pretty scratched.

I’ve got the original invoice for the vehicle which I obtained via the excellent GM Heritage Centre. The truck was originally supplied to a dealer called Schramm & Cox in Wentzville Missouri, you can see the options in the picture gallery. Some of the options that you would perhaps expect aren’t present such as, power windows and locking.

The previous owner had installed 20″ rims with spacers, I’m trying to locate a set of the original alloys to put it back to stock, These I think will have to come from the States.

As you can see it’s in pretty good nick, I eventually purchased a good quality cover imported from the States to protect it as it lives outside, the cheap covers just fell to pieces!

The cover was purchased from Ultimate Finish here in the UK, and the truck is featured here on their website,

Sarah at Ultimate was very helpful with the sourcing and supply of the cover.

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Visit to the GM Heritage Centre (Center:))

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My better half arranged a birthday visit for me to the excellent GM Heritage Centre in Sterling Heights Michigan. a while back

The collection of vehicles at the centre is superb, some photos can be seen in the gallery.

All of the famous concept cars such as the Buick Y Job, Buick Le Sabre, Mako Shark, and the various Firebirds.

Most of the GM output of the last century across the various brands are well represented, in either restored or original form.

There is a great neon advertising display, along with a comprehensive engine and transmission displays.

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