My collection of Haynes manuals

[Blake's Den]

Hi all

I have been collecting Haynes manuals for some time now. It started off with buying one from Halfords for my first car. Then people passed their old ones onto me and the collection began to grow. Now I always look out for them in charity shops and second hand book shops and add them to my collection.

The current stats are:

• Total Haynes workshop/owners manuals = 337
• Duplicates = 94
• Total without duplicates = 244

On top of this I have the following:

• Haynes books (such as build your own sports car, caravan manual etc) = 27
• Non Haynes manuals (Autobooks, Autodata etc) = 57

I've put together a video giving an overview of my collection 

Is this a world record? There is another huy on Youtube who had about 150.  I'm sure that the Haynes museum must have a few.

Why do I collect these? I really like the old hand drawn artwork in the early manuals. The section views through gearboxs are something to behold! Plus they give me great insights into cars that I'm never going to afford to own.

I'd be interested in your thoughts. Does anyone on here have more than me?

[lesapandre]

In quite a few cases there will be now more manuals in existence in the UK than the model of car they relate to.

[Dyslexic Viking]

On car models I do not want to own again, I have left the book in the car for the next owner.

So I don't have many.

[Blake's Den]

23 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

In quite a few cases there will be now be more manuals in existence in the UK than the model of car they relate to.

In the video you will see that I have a manual for a Lancia Beta and it is still in its original sealed packaging!

[eddyramrod]

I still have probably a dozen or so Haynes, plus the same again under other names, that I take with me to the Motor Museum every month.  I also have maybe a dozen or so that I'm holding onto for various reasons, even though I'll probably never use them.

[sheffcortinacentre]

I've ai full set of pre 2000 ford Haynes manuals.

Cortina I have the different versions of Haynes plus ones from around the world from various authors.

[sierraman]

I’ve got a load of then in one of my sheds, not entirely sure why but I can’t bring myself to bin them. The drawings as you say are fascinating, the oily thumbprints a legend of a Sunday spent taking an engine out. 

[castros_bro]

I had some but now an charity shop has.

 

 

 

 

 

[blackbart]

What an interesting collection mate, are there any rare ones you need etc. Like all collections there's always a holy grail item lol. 

[sierraman]

35 minutes ago, blackbart said:

What an interesting collection mate, are there any rare ones you need etc. Like all collections there's always a holy grail item lol. 

I’ve always wondered if there was some super rare one that only a few were made of as well? 

[Blake's Den]

6 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I’ve always wondered if there was some super rare one that only a few were made of as well? 

I have recently acquired a first edition of Haynes manual number 1 from 1966. It is in the video and it looks a bit different to the later manuals.

Haynes also did one for a Porsche 911, that one seems to go for a lot of money.

[blackbart]

I'll look out for the porsche on then, you never know as I've got loads in my garage doing nothing. 

[HMC]

I Wonder what the most expensive/ rarest vehicles published. The 911 is probably up there in relative terms, as there needs to be enough of the model to make it viable.

Iso Grifo 7 litri (1968-70) owners need never know that reassembly is a reversal of the removal process. 

 

[Blake's Den]

2 minutes ago, HMC said:

I Wonder what the most expensive/ rarest vehicles published. The 911 is probably up there in relative terms, as there needs to be enough of the model to make it viable.

Iso Grifo 7 litri (1968-70) owners need never know that reassembly is a reversal of the removal process. 

 

Thats a great question!

I guess that we would have to consider the value of the car when new. I have manuals which cover the Lotus Cortina and the Mini Cooper S both of which are £100k cars now.

[DavidB]

I had one for mk1 MR2 and I think I sold it for about £50. 😲

[Blake's Den]

3 hours ago, DavidB said:

I had one for mk1 MR2 and I think I sold it for about £50. 😲

Ooooff! I'll have to look out for one of those. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

I feel a little bad now that I've left manuals in cars that have gone to the baler.

[Lankytim]

I had about 300 odd a while back but slimmed my collection down when we moved house. They live in the loft and are pretty much forgotten about. 
 

I started collecting then when I was 9 or 10, buying them from jumble sales. Very occasionally (and I mean very) I actually own one of the cars I have a manual for and need to dig it out to help me with some obscure job. 

[lesapandre]

5 hours ago, HMC said:

I Wonder what the most expensive/ rarest vehicles published. The 911 is probably up there in relative terms, as there needs to be enough of the model to make it viable.

Iso Grifo 7 litri (1968-70) owners need never know that reassembly is a reversal of the removal process. 

 

Haynes were active in the US? Were there any US specific manuals? In that case one of the more lairy muscle cars may be the most valuable?

I wonder which manufacturers turned them down or made life difficult so it was not worth doing one. RR Silver Shadows were pretty numerous but RR would have been very sniffy. Likewise there is not one for the Mercedes S Class? Or G Wagen?

E Type and Austin Healey if they exist wd command a good price.

[HMC]

There are these- which look similar on the cover but presumably are far removed from the spirit of the originals. Certainly not what Lucien Bianchi referred to after he stoved his car in whilst leading the 1962 tour de france.

 

[lesapandre]

Haynes got a bit desperate towards the end - in that the original business model began to fail so they then produced a series of novelty manuals. Nothing wrong with that but less detail.

[Dyslexic Viking]

3 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

Haynes got a bit desperate towards the end - in that the original business model began to fail so they then produced a series of novelty manuals. Nothing wrong with that but less detail.

Like this?

[lesapandre]

And the Starship Enterprise etc...

[lesapandre]

5 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Like this?

Yup - leads the the famous phrase...

'Not tonight darling - I can't find the manual...'

[DavidB]

I had one for an MGF but the inside was just excerpts from the bible, prayers and about 20 adverts for the Samaritans.

[Blake's Den]

I've just realised that I should have called this a collection thread 🤣

[AnthonyG]

Would love to know the ones that gave them the lowest returns. They got ridiculously specific on Japanese stuff in the 1970s, so a book on something pretty marginal over here like the Toyota 1000 or Mazda 818 probably only made money on ‘export’ sales - I know they did American ones, albeit I think they were written & published over there - but I assume the British ones were sold to any English speaking country that wanted them? 

[sierraman]

On 02/12/2024 at 19:13, lesapandre said:

Yup - leads the the famous phrase...

'Not tonight darling - I can't find the manual...'

Just trying to think how doing everything in reverse order would work after it reaching it’s logical conclusion? 😂

[AnthonyG]

In terms of the most valuable car now that they did a proper manual for, I expect it was the Jaguar E-type. 

People who owned Alvises, Armstrong Siddeleys etc weren’t really expected to work on their own cars, even when they were 10+ years old. And if they did, they would have shelled out for the factory publications. 

[lesapandre]

And the 'rarest' UK sold car for which there is a manual?

I'd guess...there can't me more than half a dozen.. 

The Nissan Stanza? 😂