Original 1953 Steel Hood?
From the December 2016 edition of "Hemmings Classic Car" magazine:
Steel Vette?
All corvette bodies are fiberglass, right? Maybe not entirely, according to a story related to us by reader Edmond Ray of Labertville, MI.
Ray's father, also name Ray, worked in Chevrolet engineering during the Fifties and had the enviable position of helping launch the first 300 Corvettes in 1953. During the 50th anniversary celebrations for the Corvette in Bowling Green, which both Rays attended, Ray the younger overheard an interesting tidbit about one of those 300 cars:
"There was a lot of concern about engine bay heat and the fiberglass hoods, so they had a steel hood built for testing purposes," Ray wrote. "Nearing the end of the production run, they were short a hood so they painted the steel one, installed it and shipped the car."
We'd put this down as an urban legend were it not for Ray senior's time with Chevrolet. So, did any 1953 Corvette owner ever discover their car's mixed-materials body?
What do you think? Would this car lose any points in Flight? If you read carefully, the article doesn't say Ray senior is the one quoted. So the piece is a bit ambiguous.
Steel Vette?
All corvette bodies are fiberglass, right? Maybe not entirely, according to a story related to us by reader Edmond Ray of Labertville, MI.
Ray's father, also name Ray, worked in Chevrolet engineering during the Fifties and had the enviable position of helping launch the first 300 Corvettes in 1953. During the 50th anniversary celebrations for the Corvette in Bowling Green, which both Rays attended, Ray the younger overheard an interesting tidbit about one of those 300 cars:
"There was a lot of concern about engine bay heat and the fiberglass hoods, so they had a steel hood built for testing purposes," Ray wrote. "Nearing the end of the production run, they were short a hood so they painted the steel one, installed it and shipped the car."
We'd put this down as an urban legend were it not for Ray senior's time with Chevrolet. So, did any 1953 Corvette owner ever discover their car's mixed-materials body?
What do you think? Would this car lose any points in Flight? If you read carefully, the article doesn't say Ray senior is the one quoted. So the piece is a bit ambiguous.