Released from the military in 1972 after four years with the Navy Seabees, serving in Vietnam and Cuba, Dan’s long interest in old cars was rekindled. His father gave him two boxes full of old service manuals that he had acquired when he had attended General Motors Institute (GMI) in Flint, Michigan during the late 1940’s. These, coupled with the purchase of a small but nice collection of 1920’s and 1930’s auto catalogs from an old collector in late 1972, launched Dan into a small hobby business. Soon his first “literature for sale” ad appeared in Hemmings Motor News (HMN).
The response from friendly old car people from all over the U.S. was so satisfying that he began to look for manuals and literature in earnest, setting up as a swap meet vendor for the first time at the 1973 Sloan Museum Summer Fair in Flint, Michigan.
Throughout the 1970’s Dan was familiar sight at swap meets in Michigan and Ohio, sometimes turning up at far-flung shows such as Hoosier at Indy, Fall Carlisle in 1974 and the first Spring Carlisle in 1978. In those days he routinely ran ads in HMN, Cars & Parts Magazine, and many display ads in Old Cars Newspaper, all under the moniker of D. Bower’s Auto Literature.
The difficult economics times of the early 1980’s caused Dan to drop his advertising and focus most of his time on his job at AC Spark Plug in Flint, Michigan. During this time Dan only vended at a few shows per year until 1987 when the chance purchase of a very large manual collection and time cutbacks at his job increased his attendance at more shows. The “DBA” business name of Factory Automanuals was created at this time to better define what the business stands for.
Today Factory Automanuals’ business has grown beyond a one-man operation, enlisting the help of family and friends. In spite of time constrictions, he remains very active at his church, South Flint Tabernacle UPCI, serving as a volunteer bus mechanic since 1989, with his wife Deianna as a manager of his church bookstore (Word-Aflame Bookstore) since 1986. To all interested readers, please visit the website of Dan’s church.
Dan welcome you to this website and hope they can be of service to you in some way. They bring to you many years experience and refreshingly lower prices on factory literature than you see most anywhere. In fact, late model manuals are often less than HALF the prices that you’ve been quoted from The Big Three.
“Serving the old car hobby and repair trade since 1973”