Everybody lists this one as 1972. This copy tells on itself.

The V8 Affair is Ray Miller's year-by-year history of the pre-war Ford V-8 — volume 3 of the Ford Road series, photographs by Glenn Embree. The copyright is 1972, which is the date most sellers put in the listing because it's the date on the page. Open the front of this copy and the printing history reads FIRST PRINTING March 1972, THIRTEENTH PRINTING July 1997. That's what this is, and there's a photo of the page so you can read it yourself. Same text as the first printing. Not the same collector book, and you ought to know which one you're buying.

What you're buying it for is what's inside. A chapter for every model year from 1932 through 1942, somewhere near a thousand black-and-white photographs, most of it pulled from original Ford material. It's put together for identification — hub caps, fuel pumps, generators, carburetors, radios, dashboards, and what changed from one year to the next.

The back half is where it earns a spot on the bench instead of the shelf. Page 189 carries a simplified wiring diagram and a phantom electrical layout for 1938, alongside the note on the 24-stud head arriving and the water temperature probe moving ahead of the water outlet. Page 302 is a table of glass sizes by body style and model — windshield, vent, door, quarter, back — for '41 and '42. That's the kind of page you copy and hand to the glass shop.

FEATURES AND DETAILS

• The V8 Affair, by Ray Miller — photographs by Glenn Embree
• The Ford Road series, volume 3 — Evergreen Press
• 303 pages, softcover, roughly 8 1/2 x 11
• ISBN 0-913056-02-2, Library of Congress card number 70-174898
• Thirteenth printing, July 1997 — photographed, not assumed
• One chapter per model year, 1932 through 1942
• Close to 1,000 black-and-white photographs and illustrations from original Ford sources
• Production figures, specifications, wiring diagrams and reference tables
• Body styles covered right through the convertibles and wagons

WHAT'S COVERED

• Ford V-8 passenger cars, 1932 to 1942 — the flathead years, one chapter at a time
• Detail identification: hub caps, fuel pumps, generators, carburetors, radios, dashboards, trim
• Electrical reference including simplified wiring diagrams and phantom system illustrations by year
• Appendix tables including glass sizes by body style and model
• Useful to restorers chasing correctness, and to anyone dating a part by the year it changed

CONDITION SUMMARY

Used, and it reads used. The covers carry wear at the corners and along the edges, with some soiling along the top edge of the front cover and light scuffing on the back — all of it photographed. The interior pages shown are clean and bright with sharp print. The spine is tight and the pages are tight with it, nothing cracked and nothing loose. No inscriptions, names or writing noted. This is a reader and a shop reference rather than a collector-grade copy — the 1997 printing and the cover wear both say so. Sold AS-IS. Please look through all the photos.

BUYER NOTES

Look at every photo before you buy — the covers, the title page, the printing history and sample interior pages are all shown, and the photos are part of the description. This is the softcover thirteenth printing from 1997, not a 1972 first edition and not one of the early hardbound printings. If you want the hardcover, this isn't it, and I'd rather say so here than hear about it later. Questions are welcome before purchase. Sold AS-IS. There's more early Ford material in the store if you're building a shelf.