Steve Magnante's 1001 Corvette Facts. Steve Magnante

or pickup-truck application. Tricksters have come up with epoxy-enhanced cheater heads, but the revised digits are not magnetic. General Motors changed the casting number to 3836241 in 1954, so there’s no relief there. Looking on the bright side, at least the Corvette’s inline 6 only takes one of these hen’s teeth head castings.

BODY AND INTERIOR

      26 The Corvette’s iconic dual-hump instrument panel was designed to emulate the siamesed cowl effect seen on the British MG TC sports car. Chevrolet interior stylist Joe Shemansky was responsible for adopting the layout.

      27 As with other Motorama dream cars, many of the Corvette’s styling features trickled down to lesser, more pedestrian GM offerings. Shemansky’s MG-inspired double-hump dashboard layout reappeared inside every one of the 1,775,952 Chevrolet passenger cars built in 1955, as well as each of the 1,623,376 cars built for 1956. It also reappeared inside every Corvette through 1967.

      28 Before 1956, the only Corvette with roll-up side-window door glass was the 1954 Motorama hardtop show car. All others had empty doors without any glass whatsoever. Poor-weather protection called for stopping the vehicle, then extracting the door curtains from the trunk compartment and clipping them into place. Like the manually operated canvas soft top, the Corvette was still drafty and suffered from water leaks around the side windows.

      29 Although technically an extra-cost option, heaters were installed on all 1953–1955 Corvettes, adding $91.40 to the retail sticker price. A non-recirculating design, it was simply a miniature water-to-air radiator mounted beneath the dashboard. It warmed the existing air inside the cockpit with no blending of fresh outside air.

      30 The non-recirculating nature of the heater resulted in stale, dry, and stuffy cockpit conditions. With the folding canvas top erected into position and the side curtains in place, refreshed cock-pit air was only available by opening a door, at speed, to access the passing airstream. When the cowl-mounted flip-up interior air scoop appeared in 1956, Corvette occupants rejoiced.

      31 Like the heater (RPO 101A), the signal-seeking AM radio was technically an option (RPO 102A). Radios were installed in all 1953–1955 Corvettes, adding $145.15 to the retail price.

       Lacking the Conelrad 640- and 1240-kilocycle markings added to radio faceplates in early 1954, the owner of this Corvette received his duck-and-cover instructions elsewhere.

      32 Instead of the traditional retractable mast-type radio antenna fitted to most cars of the time, the 1953–1955 Corvette used a rectangular meshed-screen antenna that was embedded into the underside of the trunk lid. Trapped between layers of fiberglass matting and resin, they were durable and theft proof.

      33 In 1954 the signal-seeking AM radio was the same as that used in 1953 except for the addition of Conelrad National Defense System signal-identification markings on the faceplate at the AM 640 and AM 1240 positions. Established by the Truman administration in 1951, Conelrad stood for Control of Electromagnetic Radiation and was intended to be a reliable source for public safety information in the event of war. Conelrad was replaced by the now-familiar Emergency Alert System on August 5, 1963. A handful of early 1954 Corvettes were built with leftover non-Conelrad radios from 1953.

      34 Because GM’s go-to body supplier (Fisher Body) had no experience with fiberglass construction, Chevrolet went to the Molded Fiberglass Company (MFG) of Ashtabula, Ohio, for the Corvette project. Not surprisingly, MFG was already working with the Kaiser-Frasier auto company on its fiberglass-bodied Darrin 161 sports-car project. MFG supplied Kaiser with 10 of the 13 major fiberglass parts used in each body. A miniscule competitor in the grand scheme of things, General Motors allowed MFG to fulfill its obligations to the Kaiser Darrin program while simultaneously supplying bodies for the new Corvette.

      35 In a move reminiscent of Henry Ford’s plastic-bodied Ford test car from the previous decade, Chevrolet built a fiberglass-bodied Bel Air convertible in 1952. However, although Ford’s body relied on soybean-sourced material, the Chevrolet was made of more traditional glass-fiber matting and resin. Neither vehicle proposal made it to the showroom floor.

      36 One unfortunate side effect of Corvette’s fiberglass-body construction was a lack of occupant protection from exploding flywheel and clutch assemblies. The stock cast-aluminum clutch housing was not capable of containing failed cast-iron flywheels at the elevated RPM levels sometimes achieved after hot rodding. Many a drag racer suffered foot and leg injuries due to the burst trajectory of flying shrapnel passing through the fiberglass firewall and floorpan. Fortunately, this hazard didn’t affect the automatic-only 1953–1955 models (excepting approximately 75 1955 V-8 cars equipped with the new 3-speed manual transmission).

      37 Although all 300 Corvettes built in 1953 were painted Polo White with red interiors, black canvas tops, and red painted wheel rims, the color palette was expanded for 1954. Of the 3,640 second-year cars built, approximately 300 were Pennant Blue, 100 were Sportsman Red, and 4 were Black. The remaining 3,230 were Polo White. Unfortunately, factory documents indicating precise shipments are lacking, and because the Corvette’s trim tag lacked any sort of body–color data up until 1962, verification of factory-applied body color on 1953–1962 cars is only possible via the original window sticker.

      38 Although General Motors was collaborating with MFG to produce the massive matched-metal dies used to produce 1954 Corvette bodies, the slower, more labor-intensive hand-lay vacuum-bag method was used in 1953. However, when Corvette production was transferred to St. Louis, the conversion process to matched-metal dies wasn’t complete. As the 1954 model run progressed, more and more fiberglass subassemblies transitioned to the superior molding process. This created a situation in which the early 1954 models contained numerous hand-lay panels; the final 1954 models had almost none. Modern-day restorers must take the lengthy transition process into account before condemning any 1954 as being flawed for containing lumpy body panels.

      39 The largest one-piece fiberglass panel in Corvette’s makeup was the floorpan. It weighed 75 pounds and measured 9.5 × 6.0 × 2.0 feet. Combining the base of the firewall, transmission tunnel, passenger footwell and seat platforms, rear-wheel houses, spare tire well, and trunk floor into one piece, this huge part was also the last component to transition from the hand-lay technique to the use of matched-metal dies. 1954 Corvettes built between December 28, 1953 (first day of production), and early July 1954 received the handmade pans.

      40 Period photographs show MFG employees at the Ashtabula, Ohio, plant working up various exterior body panels on huge 15-foot-tall rotating platforms. The male sides of the body-panel molds were rendered in fine meshed screen that allowed suction to be drawn through the surface. Chopped fiberglass bits mixed with resin were blown under pressure onto the rotating screen mold for even coverage. The resulting fuzzy-textured panel was then boxed inside an oven and finely woven fiberglass matting was applied, along with more liquid resin. Then the panel was placed between the metal dies (steam heated to 220 degrees F) and compressed at 120 psi. The cured panel emerged 7 minutes later, ready for trimming. The method used on all 1953 bodies required 24 hours for curing.

      41 Subjected to rough handling by service-station attendants and under constant attack from gasoline fumes, the Corvette’s hinged fuel-fill door was one of the very few body parts not made of fiberglass. It was a conventional steel stamping painted to match the body.

       Corvette’s only stamped-steel body panel hid the fuel filler cap. A spring-loaded over-center hinge held it open while in use.

      42 Although all 300 examples of the 1953 Corvette were fitted with two hood-release latches (one on each side of the cock-pit), Chevrolet sought to simplify the mechanism in 1954 with a single latch. That said, the two-part 1953-style latches were