The car was mounted on steel skids and wrapped up before it was buried. 
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."
They need someone who restores classics, not someone who will chop it into something different.
I read somewhere, maybe here - this guy said that he ran a car shop a long time ago, and his father or somebody basically sealed up a nice car in the walls of the shop. It was later sold but they went back years and years later and it was still there.
You “can”. Lol. I found a beer in the back of my pickup that was about a year. Eau de garage’.
They said that the guys from the TV series, American Hot Rod, on The Learning Channel were hoping to get the car running by tonight. But an examination of the engine, this afternoon, told them that they weren't going to be able to do it.
I'm sure that whoever ends up owning the car, tonight, will have something worth around (at least) $25,000 and maybe more. Who knows..., maybe those in that TV show, American Hot Rod, will buy it from the new owner -- and restore it.
And..., going along with the "Centennial" (in Oklahoma) and thinking about it, it's amazing that Oklahoma was only "Indian Territory", back before 1907. The "Five Civilized Tribes" (also the Five Civilized Tribes from Wikipedia) from back then wanted to keep Oklahoma (at least their territory) as a group of Indian Nations. They tried, but too many "white people" from "Oklahoma Territory" (it seems.... :-0 ...) wanted their land.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Back then, had I thought gasoline was going to become obsolete, I would have buried a formula rather than the actual fuel.
With a hardened valve and valve seat job, the car ought to be able to run on modern race grade unleaded or even some modern unleaded premiums.
No worries, 3.2 is still the best we're trusted with drinking (Only Utah and Oklahoma, I believe).
The bottom wrapping might have gone high enough to keep out the liquid. But the condensation would be awful.
If you drank it, I bet you were sitting on the John all day day the next day. LOL
That is the funniest line from a normal cartoon I’ve ever heard!
The car was mounted on steel skids and wrapped up before it was buried.
Reminder: next time install sump pump.
From the stains on the wall, it looks like the water got half way up the car for sustained periods.
Time to get online and see the event...
The show opens up with “church sounding music” — like we’re in a Sunday morning service... LOL...
The car is covered up with a clean silvery covering, getting ready for the unveiling...
Dick Thomas from Kennedy Car Cover, Shelbyville Indiana, gives a speech about their cover for covering the 1957 Plymouth Belvedere. He’s talking about how it’s a special material to protect the car from water and rust. This guy was 31 years old when it was first made for covering the car in Tulsa. He’s there for the unveiling.
Boyd and Jo Coddington are on next. They’re from that American Hot Rod show on The Learning Channel.
The cover is about to come off...
They are saying that they intend to leave the car in the present “state” that the car is in...
It’s coming off..., so get online and watch...
drum roll.... and removing the cover...
Looks muddy and cruddy..., says can’t get it running because the motor is rusty and stuff...
They put air in the tires and it’s holding...
The guys from American Hot Rod says they were hoping to get it running, but they said “Miss Belvedere is a little bit far gone...”
Mayor of Tulsa said that most people wanted to see “Miss Belvedere” just as she was..., so they decided to leave it all alone — mud and rust and all...
Getting ready to open the hood now...
Next, they’re gonna open the doors for the first time, too...
[commercial break now... :-) ]
Talking about the things that are buried with the car...
A black and white TV (someone said), a wedding picture, a woman’s purse full of her stuff, a case of beer in “tin” cans (not aluminum cans)... and a bunch of other stuff.
They’re getting ready to open the trunk to see what’s in there...
Hmm..., that trunk is sure rusted up, it seems... saying that gasoline was 24 cents a gasoline back in 1957; gas in glass bottle in trunk. Talking about the Schlitz beer; guy is talking about “cans” of beer that he put in there...
Beer cans are pretty much rusted over; can’t tell what it is, other than they’re telling us what it is.
They’re looking for the oil that was put in the trunk, but they’re finding more beer cans instead of oil... LOL...
Do you have a link?
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