Rob Loszewski
You can now buy the bucket seats from the very first Corvette prototype on EBAY
If you happen to have $90,000 burning a hole in your pocket, head on over to EBAY and make an off for a set of original bucket seats from the very first Corvette prototype ever built.
Although they’ve seen better days, these seats came out of the very first Motorama Waldorf Corvette show car prototype in 1952.
From the listing:
This auction is for the original Harley J. Earl GM-Styling hand-cut-and-sewnGM-Styling, mirrored image Driver Left and Passenger Right Seat Back & Bottom Seat Cushions, (four cushions) and the hand laid-up Driver Left and Passenger Right fiberglass Buckets.
These originals were designed, made and installed in the EX-52 Project Opel at GM Styling in December 1952. The EX-52 Opel was named the “Cougar”on December 5, 1952. The name was then changed to “Corvette” when the EX-52 debuted at the 1953 GM Motorama Waldorf-Astoria on January 16, 1953 when these seat assemblies were inside the Motorama Corvette Show car.
The EX-52 Corvette Motorama Show car and the EX-53 little know Second Corvette Show car then traveled the USA as the main attraction of the GM Parade of Progress from March through June of 1953.
On June 15, 1953 the EX-52 Motorama Corvette Show car and EX-53 were secretly moved to a small Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan for improvised external makeovers with production 1953 parts to appear as a production Corvette.
The EX-52 in its made-over 1953 Corvette production appearance was the “Stand-in” Corvette (presumed VIN #1) for the staged fake roll-out on June 30, 1953. EX-53 was the presumed Corvette VIN #2.
The low GM-Styling Project Opel/Corvette windshield was replaced with the taller 1953 Corvette production windshield, the body was repainted, all chrome trim including emblems, bumpers, wheels, tires and hubcaps were replaced with production parts and the 1953 Corvette lower side mouldings were added. A new production designed folding top mechanism and canvas was installed.
The EX-52 and EX-53 Motorama Corvette interiors were gutted and replaced with 1953 Corvette production equivalent carpets, door and kick panels and new soft dash trim above a new Speedometer, Tachometer, Clock, Radio and four auxiliary gauges.
This Auction’s prototype Corvette seat cushions and fixed fiberglass buckets the bolted to the Corvette fiberglass floor pan were removed in the mid-June 1953 make-over and replaced with significantly re-proportioned 1953 Corvette production seat cushions and metal floor tracks.
Most all of the EX-52 and EX-53’s Motorama Corvette Show car removed parts were returned to either engineering and/or the manufacturer for durability and fatigue analysis and these original GM-Styling components have survived the test of time.
A thorough chain of possession of these seat cushions and buckets is known and may be provided to the successful bidder.
These historical First Corvette Seats are the perfect conversational element for the finest Automobile Collector’s Man-cave (or She-shed).
Photos include pages from Ken Kayser’s 2017 “CORVETTE Legend or Myth Volume I – The “Real Story” of the 1953 Corvette & Zora’s Passion”.
I took my Corvette Seats to Corvettes at Carlisle 2019 where I arranged to show them to the ultimate Corvette historian, author and publisher Kenneth W. Kayser.
Mr. Kayser brought the original GM computer images from his book’s inside cover and pages 180, 181, 182 and 183 where he could blow them up to compare the fine details of my seats to the EX-52 and EX-53 interior photos.
Ken Kayser discovered several proof positive visual characteristics that matched the historical GM photos.
Now if you were truly the Corvette enthusiast that you believe to be, you would purchase these valuable pieces of Corvette history and donate them to the National Corvette Museum where they really belong! 😀
