Portrayal Press going out of business

[m37jarhead]

A full page ad in the latest issue of Military Vehicles Magazine says Portrayal Press is going out of business.
Oct 2012, Isuue 156, page 36.
Now might be a good time to get the manuals you need.
JB

[rickv100]

I had a feeling this was coming. not sure if anyone will carry on with the advent of the internet.

Rick

[refit1701]

I bought the manuals for my truck I didn't have, along with the huge Dodge Master Parts book for WWII vehicles. I like having the M37 stuff on cd so I can print out pages that I can then cover with grease but having a physical book to look through is still a big deal to me. Plus the photos it the Portrayal Press books are superb.

I have found that the Cd versions are not always complete.

[PortrayalPress]

Greetings Gents:

Just a quick introduction. My name is Patrick Tipton and I am the new owner of Portrayal Press.

I too saw the "going out of business" ad in several magazines last fall and, as a GPW owner with a desire for nicely printed and bound manuals and being a lifetime gearhead (tractors, cars, motorcycles, even a little aviation), I thought I would see what I could do to buy the company. I won't tell the whole story here, but Dennis Spence (former owner) and I started working right after Hurricane Sandy and I took the helm in early January. It has been a busy couple of months, but there are great people in this hobby so the work has been very enjoyable.

To Rick's point, the Internet has indeed changed the business, but I also agree with Refit1701 that thumbing through the manuals works a lot better than trying to dig through a pdf for many things. There are benefits to each and Portrayal will start offering several options (spiral bound, our traditional "just like original" reprints and pdfs) for the manuals. We also have a ton of material that is not widely available and I am focused on getting the information out to folks who can benefit from it - in whatever format they want. Please feel free to give us a call at 855-332-0392 if you have any input.

I also happen to be a huge Dodge fan - particularly the WC/M37 series. I don't currently own an M37, but one is on my quest list and Dennis had one for many years so Dodges are well represented in the Portrayal catalog.

I look forward to participating.

Regards, Patrick

[DAP]

I to was disappointed when I read Portrayal was going out of business so I am very very happy to hear someone is picking up the mantal from Dennis. Thank you for carrying on and thank Dennis for all the years he has made manuals available to us. I have owned an M38A1 (since sold) and now own an M37B1 and really enjoy it. It does all I want it to and I can honor veterans also. Get one as soon as you can. They are great trouble free trucks if maintained right and they don't take tons of maintenance so you have lots of time to enjoy it,

[vtdeucedriver]

Hi Patrick,
Glad to hear the news. Out of all my manuals I only have one Portrayal copy in the bunch. I am sure you will hear a bunch of us "Old timers" HMmm Im 41, that prefer a good hard copy over a PDF. I have been a aircraft mechanic for almost 20 years and a MV owner for almost as long. In todays industry where I work, our manuals are mostly online and thought when it comes to parts search, its much easier as you can click on the picture and automatically it highlights a part number. Thought these little features are handy sometimes and I would probably LOVE to have a parts book of all my trucks in PDF. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty of maintenance, I get all my manuals dirty and just having them rest on the fender of my M-37 or M-54 brings me a smile instead of a computer screen with a greasy keyboard or loose printed papers.

Welcome to the G741.

BTW, where will the business be located now?

[PortrayalPress]

Thanks again for the welcome.

The business is staying at the same location. Part of the reason that Dennis and I were able to make it work is that Portrayal is located about 20 minutes from my house in NW NJ. I will eventually relocate to a facility a little closer, but no rush on that front. We do have a new post office box, but I am still checking the old one as well.

Like folks have said, it is nice to be able to print out a a few pages from a PDF and then toss it when it gets messed up. We will start rolling out PDF's later this year after the new website is up and running. As an aside, part of the reason most PDF's of older manuals are not so great is because it is a lot of work to clean up the scans and keep the pictures clear. Every page needs to be corrected to really do it right and most of what is available hasn't been done that way. Part of the reason is its hard to get paid back on the work, but that is another whole issue.

We may offer other alternatives as well - still in the testing phase.

Regards, Patrick

[DJ]

Thanks , Patrick, for keeping Portrayal going!

[Cal_Gary]

Amen-Patrick, thanks so much for keeping our hobby history alive, and welcome aboard!
Gary