1954motoramacorvette.com

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All sorts of interesting stories collected about the motorama corvette from the past 37 years. Story # 1 The original steering wheel from the 1954 motorama hardtop corvette. Was it? Just meant to be ?
Wednesday, 02 April 2008
In British Columbia Canada, a person used to be able to simply phone the motor vehicle branch in Victoria B.C. and request a copy of any documents that had ever been written on a particular car. This was long before privacy of information such as exists today. A matter of fact it was about thirty some years ago that I made such a call and requested any information about my 1953 corvette serial number E53F001260 that they might have. As a result of that call I received about thirty documents on the corvette in the mail. They were copies of every registration or state title on the car. One for every person that had ever owned the car. What a score. I now have every name that ever owned the 1954 motorama corvette after it was purchased from general motors in 1957. I now proceeded to try and contact all of the owners and interview them if possible. That became a real challenge. First of all when you look up a name in the local phone book, you usually don’t find one name under Brown, but you find many. I needed a line to ask when calling them, so I asked the person that answered the phone if they had any relatives that ever owned a 1953 corvette. I told them that I owned a1953 corvette and that I was trying to restore it and that I needed help in documenting it. My line always worked. One persons answer was, yes my father used to own an old corvette. I think it was an old G.M. show car. I asked her if she would give me his phone number and she did. I phoned her father and asked him about the car. He said yes I owned a 1953 corvette. It was the hardtop corvette from the 1954 motorama. It seems that every previous owner knew what car I was talking about. This owner told me that everything under the hood was chromed, including the valve cover, hood hinges ect. He then went on to tell me that it had a special steering wheel on it and when he sold the car he put the steering wheel on his 1940 ford. I asked him if he knew who bought the 1940 ford. He said that it was about twenty years ago and that he didn’t remember. He asked me why? I told him I would like to see if he still had the 1940 ford so that I could try and buy the steering wheel. He said Hell I knew it came off a special car and when I sold the 1940 ford I removed the steering wheel. He said I think its still in my basement. I just about came unglued. I was in my car in about two seconds driving to his house to help him look for it. I got there and we went to his basement and it became obvious to me that this guy was a packrat that never threw anything out. He had boxes of old license plates and all sorts of other collectables to someone, stored there. We looked through many boxes any finally there it was. The original steering wheel off the 1954 motorama corvette, along with the original horn ring. The horn cap was missing but he told me that maybe it was in his dad’s garage because he never throws anything out. He said I will phone you if I find it. About one week later I got the call. He said I had to go through all my dads’ jars that are hung from the ceiling of his garage and finally there it was. I asked him how much he wanted for the complete steering wheel. He said, if it is going back on the motorama corvette I will sell it to you for $50.00 . It took me about 2 seconds to reach in my pocket and wip out $50.00 . The complete original steering wheel is now reunited to its original 1953 corvette. Again was it just meant to be?

Story # 2
Was it just meant to be ?
How I obtained the original bill of sale.
In Canada, G.M. has a lot of documentation on early corvettes, and other cars as well. All you need to do is phone G.M. in Oshawa Ontario and request information relating to a desired serial number, pay a fee and approx. 1 week later you have a copy of the original window sticker as well as a lot of production numbers and other documentation. It was on one such telephone call from myself to this department that would bring about some amazing results. I was speaking with the receptionist at G.M. and asked her if they had any information on E53F001260. Her reply to me was, we do not have information dating back that far. As we were talking, a gentleman named Jim Patterson walked past her desk and overheard the conversation and asked what kind of car I had. She told him a 1953 Corvette. He asked what the serial number was ,so I told him it was E53F001260 . His response was overwelming to me. He said ``I dont believe it, thats my old Corvette`` Thats the 1954 Motorama Hardtop Corvette. Needless to say I was in a state of disbelief. What are the chances that this guy would be walking past that desk at the same second that I was talking on the phone with his receptionist about a car that he had owned decades ago. Was it just meant to be? I listened to the countless stories about the car, how it sat idle in the G.M. proving grounds for about three years. He told me that G.M. wasnt supposed to sell the Motorama Corvette. He told me that it took him three or four years to convince, the powers to be, at G.M. to sell him the Corvette but only if he signed a waiver of responsabilty for G.M. to supply parts for this Corvette. He then said to me. I think I still have the original bill of sale from gm. At this point I was almost histerical. I spent years searching for the original purchaser and registration documents, and over many years I have collected copies of just about every registration paper ever assigned to the Motorama Hardtop Corvette. This was the only document that I didnt have. Now that I have that document, the trail of history for the 1954 Motorama Corvette is complete! From the first sale to the present owner. See 1954 motorama corvette registrations in the above files and see how G.M. assigned a funny serial number and what the numbers meant.

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