One of the first pictures taken of it:
Posted on 06/11/2007 5:05:42 AM PDT by battlegearboat
How was it? I watched it on TV and it looked cool coming out of the vault. But, it looks absolutely terrible wrapped in whatever they have around it. And it’s too bad that there was so much water in the vault. I guess everyone will be watching around 7 PM tonight...
Ooooh...., let’s hope not... :-)
Actually, when they lifted it out of the vault, today at noon (saw it on TV), I was wondering if the tires were still inflated. I kinda doubted that they were, but I couldn’t tell, since the car was still all wrapped up and was to remain so, while in public, this afternoon. It’s supposed to be worked on this afternoon and shown to the public tonight at 7PM. We’ll see then what it looks like... LOL...
Unfortunately that picture I posted was not too far off.
Actually, what you'll find out is that the "display condition" was a conscious choice of the City of Tulsa, to leave it as it was in the vault and not even touch a single thing on the car, before the contents were examined. So, don't be influenced too much by that particular decision that they made.
And, a restoration project on that car would be a piece of cake for those people who do it all the time. In fact, I'm sure that there are lots of people and/or even television shows, that would like to do it, for its historical and publicity value. Heck, there are a bunch of people that take scraps and hunks of metal, that used to be cars and restore them, without any problem. The actual technical problems are really no problem. It's only a matter of someone picking it up.
And as I said, the interesting thing is that the City of Tulsa, before they do the announcement of who the winner of the car is, decided to do absolutely nothing to it, as their choice in displaying it. They could have, very well, cleaned it up and also clean it up for the future viewings. But, they decided to leave it exactly as it was -- as their preferred choice. That's what they announced on the Friday night showing.
So, actually, what we saw was more the result of their choice of not touching it, leaving it historically accurate -- versus -- doing clean up and a bunch of other cosmetics to it -- for its display on TV. What you're seeing is more the decision not to clean it up, for historical accuracy, rather than the true underlying and fundamental condition of the car.
My guess is that once the winner is announced and they accept possession of the car, it will end up going to some person or outfit who will restore it to its original condition, and then have it on display at a museum or for sale to a collector. That will most likely be the end-result of this car. I doubt anyone is going to let that car go into oblivion without a restoration. There's just too much interest in it for that. In fact, it might just be something that a group of citizens might want to do for the City of Tulsa, and have it on display somewhere.
As a side note, I don't know if you noticed or not, just one area that they "cleaned up" while it was on TV and on display to the world for the first time, was a tiny portion of the bumper. That chrome bumper shined through like it was new, simply by rubbing off the dirt and residue -- nothing more than that. Heck, I would imagine that a simple "hosing down" would almost get it to the point of looking like a completely different car than was displayed on Friday night.
Regards,
Star Traveler
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