The 1953 Corvette, America’s first sports car, was originally shown as a concept at the 1953 New York Motorama. Designed by Harley J. Earl, the Corvette was fast-tracked into production after overwhelming positive response from the general public. You could have any of the 300 1953 Corvettes produced in any color you wanted, as long as it was Polo White with a Red interior and all were fitted with a heater, a signal-seeking AM radio, a black canvas convertible top, and a 2-speed power-glide transmission.
AMT introduced its scale model of the famous sports car in the mid-1970s and it has remained relatively unchanged since that time with vintage race parts and custom wheel and tire combinations.
Opening the box, you will notice the individually bagged parts trees and decals. Inspection reveals that the age of the molds and the parts show severe mold seams, ejector-pin marks, and flash.
The 1953 Corvette used most of the running gear from the then-current Chevrolet lineup including the Blue Flame Stovebolt 150-horsepower inline 6-cylnder engine as its only powerplant option. AMT provides a chrome valve cover as the only upgrade. Overall, the engine builds into a convincing representation of the Corvette’s motivator, but all of the parts required considerable flash removal. The fan on my kit was short shot and only had one fin attached to the sprue, so the engine was built without a fan for this review.
The interior presented few hiccups once I dealt with prominent ejector-pin marks, sprue attachment points, and flash. I was pleasantly surprised to see a decal for the gauges and radio. Nice!
The body proportions are pretty good, but the shell — like most of the parts in the kit — is marred by prominent mold lines and flash. The windscreen glass does not fit into the windshield frame and looks to be a scale 2 inches thick. The external body parts and trim fit snugly but removing the chrome parts from the tree left some awful divots and blemishes that I touched up with a Molotow chrome pen.
The chassis parts were rough and did not fit; an experienced modeler can overcome these issues with major modifications. The front suspension sits way too high making the car look more like a Gasser. Again, experience will lead the way to modify the parts for a better stance. I got the suspension and chassis together with multiple steps of fit, sand, and repeat. Completed, it looks like the 1950s technology the initial Corvette was built on.
Fitting the engine, chassis, interior, and body together was an exercise in patience. Initially, the body wouldn’t sit properly over the other parts; I sanded the engine bay inner panels top and bottom for fit.
The bumpers lack locating holes or marks, so you are on your own to align them with the other bumper parts. The hood fits tight, so make sure you sand to compensate for paint buildup to have it close fully.
With a little bit of sanding around the rough edges and sometime fitting the AMT 1953 Corvette can build into a respectable shelf model. It is showing its age and is not recommended for novice builders, but I applaud AMT for releasing this in the USPS collector box. I will display it prominently with the built model.