C1 Corvette

By: David Palmeter 

Several members of the Hobby Heaven Bulletin Board have debated the accuracy of the slope of the side trim on the AMT 1:25th scale Corvette model. An article many years ago indicated that the trim sloped down from front to rear.

1953 Corvette Diagram

Above – This diagram is from "Corvette – America's Sports Car" by the Editors of Consumer Guide published in 1989. The rocker panel appears to slope sharply upward to the rear.

Above – This is the AMT promo which appears to have the same side trim tooling as the kit. The rear wheel well looks high but the trim appears level. The lower edge of the rocker panel slopes up from front to rear.

1955 Corvette

Above – This photo is also from "Corvette – America's Sports Car" by the Editors of Consumer Guide" published in 1989. The side trim and  rocker panel lower edge appear almost parallel but measurements verify a very slight decrease in the dimension from front to rear.

Conclusion?

AMT may have slightly exaggerated the rocker bottom to side trim angle but the real problem seems to be the wheel well depths. On the actual car the vertical distance from the side trim to the top of the wheel wells seems to be the same front and rear. On the AMT, the rear wheel well seems to be too high and the front a little low.

Do I have too much time on my hands or what?

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