1957 Plymouth dig up

[T-Town Now]

What concerns me most is the photo of the water in the vault before they started pumping it out. That means the interior of the car was full of water, at least halfway.

The rear fin doesn't bother me that much, because we don't know what's dirt, what's cosmoline, and what's rust. The tail light lens looks almost the same as the fender, and we know it won't be rusty. I would have really expected to see more serious holes near the bottom of the quarter panel if it had been rusting for very long.

Who knows, just as the clouds parted, the rain stopped, and the sun came out for the Belvedere's first trip in 50 years, the car may rise from the ashes and drive onto the stage tonight under its own power.

Almost any car can be restored, and even moreso one that has this much notoriety. I guess it all depends on who ends up with it.

Although it looks like there's little chance of a shiny car debuting tonight, there may still be life left in her yet. I've got an old car in my garage right now that looks better and runs better than it has in decades, so it can be done.

[jiminy]

Steve gone now? []

Well, first they said it was real bad, now they're saying it's not as bad as they thought.  Which I guess is still bad.  Or somewhere between bad and good.

[Conan71]

Door seals are generally designed to keep road spray and rain out.  Ever notice how car interiors flood not long after people drive into standing water?  Interior is likely to be pretty nasty unless they sealed around the door jambs anticipating something like this happening.

[jof]

I am through for today, in Germany it's 10.44 PM now and I am going to bed. When I wake up tomorrow, there should be more news...

Regards Jörg

[Lister]

quote:Originally posted by jof

I am through for today, in Germany it's 10.44 PM now and I am going to bed. When I wake up tomorrow, there should be more news...

Regards Jörg

By the time you are up you should have more than news. You should be able to catch the entire unveiling on the Internet. Whereabouts in Germany are you? Spent some time there and loved it! German food is some of the best on the planet.

[T-Town Now]

I just had a friend remind me of a 1963 Thunderbird that sat in a flooded alley for at least 10-20 years with water standing up inside the floor of the car.

The interior was very moldy, and was stripped out and thrown away. The floors, while appearing to be very rusty, were in fact pretty solid and were sanded down and repainted.

The water covering them prevented air from reaching them, so the corrosion process was interupted. Possibly, this could also be the case with the Belvedere.

[Chris]

This is slightly off topic but I've been wondering what precautions were taken with the Plymouth Prowler that was buried in '98? I was there and I'd hate for it to turn out like this.

[T-Town Now]

I remember reading that the Prowler was in an aluminum tube that had been pressurized.

Didn't they have to move it a few years after it was buried? Maybe they should do some checks every decade or so to ward off problems.

But I guess that would take away from the time capsule somewhat.

[cannon_fodder]

Chris, it is in a welded aluminum vault as I understand it.  It's sealed better than a can of spam - from what I read anyway.

[dbacks fan]

The one thing I noticed in the pic's of the water is that the water is relatively clear. So it would appear that that water had not been in there very long. I'm wondering that if over the years, it had filled to various levels then drained out, if thats what caused the tear in the cover. also if you look at the tear in the pic's it looks to have happened recently. If you look at the highlited areas you'll notice that they are clean.

[TulsaSooner]

When I saw the car before they moved it inside the CC, there was water all around it....somebody said they had sprayed some of it off.  That water was very rusty looking to me, but it also could've just been mud/sediment but it did have that rust color to it.

We'll find out soon I guess.

[brunoflipper]

quote:Originally posted by dbacks fan

The one thing I noticed in the pic's of the water is that the water is relatively clear. So it would appear that that water had not been in there very long. I'm wondering that if over the years, it had filled to various levels then drained out, if thats what caused the tear in the cover. also if you look at the tear in the pic's it looks to have happened recently. If you look at the highlited areas you'll notice that they are clean.

look at the water rings in the photo below, i think it is obvious that the water has been up and down at various levels over the years...

[rwarn17588]

To those who think this whole Belvedere thing is a failure just because the car isn't in pristine condition:

Look at the number of posts on this thread. Look at the total number of views on the buriedcar.com Web site. Look at the thousands of visitors from all over the U.S. and several foreign countries to our city.

The Tulsarama people in 1957 were as crazy as a fox.

[tulsa1603]

Whoever suggested that they do a display with a cutaway section of the vault, and the car in as-is condition, I think that's a great idea.  This car is part of our history, rusty or not.  To restore it would be historically dishonest IMHO.  In fact, if they had opened that vault, and the tarp had been in pristine condition, I don't think it would be nearly as interesting...We'd know exactly what to expect.  Now with all the speculation of "just how bad is it?", we're having some fun.

[restored2x]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

To those who think this whole Belvedere thing is a failure just because the car isn't in pristine condition:

Look at the number of posts on this thread. Look at the total number of views on the buriedcar.com Web site. Look at the thousands of visitors from all over the U.S. and several foreign countries to our city.

The Tulsarama people in 1957 were as crazy as a fox.

Yup - not only here (and I joined in part because of the info about the car on tulsanow) - but here, too

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/15/tulsas-buried-belvedere-sees-the-sun-again/

The New York Times - about 200 comments. You can't BUY that kind of publicity and PR.