Buried car unearthed in Tulsa after 50 years

Hope they used a Space Bag

any pics of the car unwrapped yet?

 

Let me guess...there's plans to sell it on ebaY! It's pretty interesting, especially since my dad used to own one, it was a '57 Belvedere sedan painted with black as the primary color and gray as the secondary color.

 

From http://www.buriedcar.com/tulsarama.asp

...According to event chairman Lewis Roberts Sr., the Plymouth was chosen because it was "an advanced product of American industrial ingenuity with the kind of lasting appeal that will still be in style 50 years from now."

The contents of a women's purse, including bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers, cigarettes and an unpaid parking ticket, were added to the glove compartment of the car shortly before burial.

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It's quaint that the bottle of tranquilizers were included, I think, in the contents of the "women's" purse...perhaps says more about American Industrial Society than the car itself...?

 

Well, they could put air in the tires but they couldn't get it to turn over. There's some shiney chrome on the bumper but generally the car seems to be rusty. Not much of a prize for the person that wins. Too bad they can't pay to fully restore the car before they hand it over to the "lucky" winner.

Here are a series of pictures.

Here are some more with a little news.

And some more.

 

Jury's still out. The news articles report the fins are rusty. But it's possible they weren't close enough to determine if it's rust or dirt.

The interior looks pretty bad, though. And the engine didn't look so hot either.

 

Still...pretty keen.

 

The only way we'll know is when the car is cleaned up. Still, if all that is rust, then the only thing they can do is sell 'er for scrap.

Personally, I'm partial to the idea that it's really cosmoline that got everywhere on the car and, mixed in with a lot of dust, made the car look incredibly disgusting - and rusty. I'm with efusco on this one.

 

Auto worship - amazing how far and how much effort we put into the worship of automobiles!

 

Yes, it's rust.

Here's an article with a pretty good pic of the rust along the body.

Apparently Tulsa did the same thing with a Prowler in 1998. There's a movement to get the Prowler out now. I think it's probably too late for that car too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Jun 16 2007, 01:38 PM) [snapback]463046[/snapback]</div>

It doesn't seem like enough thought goes into burying this stuff. My guess would be that a lot more prep work needs to be done, largely depending on the topography of the proposed burial site. Maybe if they buried a car encased in concrete out in the desert somewhere it might stand a better chance of surviving. Although anything made of rubber would dry out, at least there'd be no chance for water damage. 1957 Chrysler products weren't exactly known for their body integrity, anyway, and with it sitting in several feet of water for god knows how long, I'd guess that thing is pretty much a goner.

I've heard that car collectors who are really intent on preserving a vehicle do (at the very least) stuff like putting the car up on jackstands to unload the suspension and remove the wheels and tires. Of course, it wouldn't be quite as dramatic to see a vehicle in pieces put into a container on the news as an assembled vehicle right off the showroom floor.

Just putting a car into a concrete container, then burying it into the ground for an extended period of time in an area that has any kind of humidity and ground seepage doesn't seem like too good of a recipe for the vehicle to be in any kind of shape when they finally get around to digging it up.

 

It's a shame a perfectly good car was wasted in a half assed stunt. Did the 50 year old gasoline turn to varnish? If the car survived intact it would either be an inside display or a trailer queen. The engine would have to be rebuilt so it could run on unleaded gas.

 

they should bury the prius concept car, you know the one with the "energy management system" for 100 years...

 

I think burying as a form of preserving a car is pretty much a no brainer as to effectiveness. It's not going to be preserved no matter how much 'vaseline' you slather over it or how many layers of plastic you wrap it in.

They'd have done better to put it into a "crypt", I.E. seal it in a room in a building and brick it up.

Personally, I think they're best bet would have been to put it up on blocks in a museum in a glass display case. That way everyone could see it and any conditions that would effect it negatively could be addressed.

But I suppose NOT being able to see what was happening over time was the magic they were looking for.

Apparently they anticipated the problems the Belvedere might have in that they've entombed the Prowler in a Crypt rather than a plot. Rest in Peace

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(JimN @ Jun 16 2007, 07:20 PM) [snapback]463152[/snapback]</div>

That's pretty much seems to be what it was. It's worth noting that that the styling of the 'Forward-Look' 1957 Chrysler products was a radical departure from any previous car models and a huge sensation when they were introduced. In fact, the slogan used was 'Suddenly, it's 1960!' in their ad copy. Not to mention that the success of the tail-fin styling of the 1957 Chryslers is the reason the styling of the 1958 GM cars only lasted for one model year. GM instituted a crash program to completely restyle the 1959 car lines to get tail-fins on them when the popularity of the '57 Chryslers became apparent.

I have no doubt that all of this contributed greatly to someone in 1957 coming up with the idea of burying a car with styling seemingly years ahead of its time. It's too bad that only four short years later (and not the fifty years someone apparently thought they would last), tail-fins on cars had all but disappeared from the automotive scene, never to return.

Well, except maybe for Cadillac, which has always managed to hang onto some vestige of a tail-fin on at least one model.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rudiger @ Jun 16 2007, 02:09 PM) [snapback]463057[/snapback]</div>

I am with you on that one, makes me wonder about how safe nuclear waste of the era was stored and buried!

Should have been done Egyptian style! For a good mummy you took out the brain, guts etc and put them in separate jars and that stuff stayed somewhat preserved for 3 to 5k years.

To make it work today a good stainless steel box lined with an epoxy coating inside and out, take apart all the pieces and wrap them in plastic and seal them in metal drums. Vaccume out all the air and either leave it as a sealed vacuum or fill it with an inert gas like argon after welding it shut, then weld the gas fill value you used to fill it with argon or vacuumed sealed. Keep it away from water!!!

In theory it should be ok.

They should have consulted a competent geologist at the time. This is how we learn. I wonder how the time cap a class I was in in Jr High is doing.

Best would be to launch into space.

I am impressed how much though was put into it back in 57, I would not have figured they would have guessed gas to not be around by now....So tell me, how did we lose that thinking as a culture???