Not that I can think of as the buick coupes always where longer. Also the different divisions basically protected their own brands turf and it took a corporate order to transfer technology. Seldom occured if originating inside of any one car label division.

Sub divisions like ac delco of course provided spark plugs,generators and starters etc for all the divisions. But each divisions units where not interchangeable.

They really knew how to make money back then. You brought a buick you needed buick parts no matter which sub division produced them. Buicks division got the profit on replacement parts they purchased from delco. A chev dealer for instance would have no access to buick parts at true wholesale.

Remember back then a gm label dealer really meant wealth for the outlets owner.By the nineteen fifties it was equivilent to a licence to steal.

Both the chev and buick bodies sheet metals where pressed by a division of Gm called fisher bodies. Both cars had a plaque like my 39 buick proclaiming body by fisher. Of course the bodies where assembled on the buick or chevrolet brands assembley lines.

The basic stripped core passenger shell may have arrived complete to a division. This I have never heard one way or another but it would make sense. Remember there where no unibodies either until decades later at GM.

This cross sharing of technology and the sharing of components was still a long way in the future in 1941.Direct competition between the divisions of GM was a fact. To run a division back then you could not fake it or hide behind joint decisions. You got decent renumeration but where personally accountable. You also had to prove you where really fit for the job before you got it.

The management style changes may be what was primarily responsible for what was once the wealthiest corporation mankind had ever known hitting the skids. Management by concentious is a great way to carry deadwood. No individual is held responsible for a given bad decision. You just keep patting each other on the back and stuffing money in your pocket as the ship sinks under the dead weight.

Perhaps the best way for gm of today to save itself is to revert to past methods of management. It is obviously a slam dunk that the so called progressive central overall management system replacing it failed totally.

Also hiring the american firm that taught the japanese how to make cars. Gm refused to years ago. That was again a joint corporate decision. By then a divisions manager no longer had the power to do so themselves. It really was americans who taught the japanese how to build a better car. It turned out to be a real disaster for the big three north american auto producers for them to be so short sighted. Our cars could have been vastly superior to the japanese. At it's time that 41 buick was certainly amoungst the best cars in the world. Plus it was good value for the money.