Uh Oh...better get Maaco!
Posted on 06/15/2007 12:26:27 PM PDT by Kaslin
TULSA, Okla. - Hundreds watched Friday as a crane lifted a muddy package from a hole in the courthouse lawn: a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere buried to celebrate Oklahoma's 50 years of statehood.
The wrapped car — a gold and white two-door hardtop — appeared brown and red as it came out of the hole, but it was unclear whether the color represented dirt or rust. A bit of shiny chrome was visible on the bumper.
The car spent the last half-century covered in three layers of protective material and encased in a 12-by-20-foot concrete vault, supposedly tough enough to withstand a nuclear attack.
But event officials already had to pump out several feet of water from its crypt.
The car was placed on a flatbed truck so it could be unwrapped, spruced up and officially unveiled Friday evening at the Tulsa Convention Center. Spectators packed the streets to glimpse its journey.
Whether the car will start was unknown. Those who gathered to watch it being pulled out of the ground did not seem to care.
"I just need to see it," said Marc Montague of Auckland, New Zealand, among the couple hundred spectators amassed at the downtown site Thursday afternoon. "I've been waiting 15 years for this."
Also buried with it were 10 gallons of gasoline — in case internal combustion engines became obsolete by 2007 — a case of beer, and the contents of a typical woman's handbag placed in the glove compartment: 14 bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers, a lipstick, a pack of gum, tissues, a pack of cigarettes, matches and $2.43.
There was also a spool of microfilm that recorded the entries of a contest to determine who would win the car: the person who guessed the closest of what Tulsa's population would be in 2007 — 382,457 — would win.
That person, or his or her heirs, will get the car and a $100 savings account, worth about $1,200 today with interest.
Thursday afternoon, legendary hot rod builder Boyd Coddington inspected the vault and what he was able to see of the car with his crew.
The task will fall to Coddington, host of the TV series American Hot Rod on The Learning Channel, to try to start the thing up at a ceremony Thursday evening. Tens of thousands of tickets were sold for the event.
"We're optimistic," Coddington said. "I'm really concerned about the rust on the bottom of the car."
Back on the day the Belvedere was buried, all Bixby resident Marlene Parker wanted to do was find a photographer for her wedding. Catching a glimpse of the car being lowered into the ground was the last thing on her priority list.
Unfortunately, not for the photographer: He was shooting the burial.
This weekend, the 70-year-old will celebrate 50 years of marriage and may come downtown to see what all the fuss was about back then.
"Probably across the pond people know about it," Parker said. "If nobody knew where Tulsa, Oklahoma was before, they do now."
It was a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere....
Sweet. I have a 1966 Pontiac LeMans convertible that I’ve hot rodded. Don’t think I’ll ever bury it.
Belvedere, I say Belvedere come here.
Yeah it says so in first paragraph.
"What's this I hear about you whippin' slaves?" - BB as AL
Well, I couldn’t make it down there, but, at least, I watched it on TV. I was probably in Tulsa about that time that they put it in the vault. I can’t be sure, as I was young at the time and I was either in Houston or Tulsa.
My first car I ever bought was a “lemon yellow” 1960 Plymouth Belvedere with a slant-six engine in it, with the “push-button” automatic transmission (shift gears by pushing buttons on the dashboard). I got that car in 1968. It was a great car. I always liked the slant-six engine after that. It ran great. Those fins were giant ones on that car, too...
It would be interesting to know how it came out
Uh Oh...better get Maaco!
Believe it or not, for a while (last year) the city of Tulsa didn’t know where the car was (i.e., where the “vault” was and where to dig). But, they apparently and finally found out where they buried it. I thought that was funny when the officials said they weren’t sure where the car was... LOL...
ROFL! Pontiac - Plymouth ... all the same to Yahoo!
Do their headline writers have green cards?
It was wrapped in some kind of material to, supposedly, protect it over a long period of time. But, when they first opened the vault, a few days ago, there was several feet of water in the vault, so that wasn’t so good. The material the car was wrapped in looked awful, absolutely terrible. It looked like it was all rusted, but, that was on the outside of the wrapping.
The car was not unwrapped and no one had seen what it was actually like, underneath the wrapping. So, when the car was lifted out of the vault, at noon today (local time), it looked bad, from the outside of the wrapping.
Someone is going to be prepping it for a showing today, at 7 PM, unwrapped and clean up a bit. If the water and rust has had a “go of it” over the last 50 years, then it might not look that good tonight. But, we’ll see.
I think they are going to actually “start it up” tonight, with the original gasoline left in the car when it was buried. We’ll see how it works out...
Christine rises from the crypt.
No way. That gas has turned solid as a brick by now.
Ford, Chevy; what's the difference?
[Ducks and covers.]
“Show me.”
One of the greatest lines/scenes in horror cinema.
I can’t imagine the car will actually run without a complete restoration. It’s been underwater on and off for 50 years.
I know, but they’re claiming that they are going to “start” it. We’ll see by 7 PM tonight...
not a good sign........
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