That'll buff right out

[greatbear]

Finally some pictures are surfacing of the unearthed '57 Belvedere. While no car would look good after being immersed in water for 50 years, it has survived better than I had expected. Since the site is being hammered, I snatched these pictures from KOTV to give everyone a chance to see the car:


Still has those classic lines


The interior fared much worse


The engine will never run again

The tires were flat. They were inflated, and held air. The whitewall tires still showed the signatures of people who were there when the car was placed in the vault. Even in a seemingly sad condition, the car has a presence. There appear to be no plans to restore the car in any way. To me, that's the way to go. This is what time and history returned to Tulsa, and the world.

KOTV.com has a video of the unveiling. It's unwatchable at this point as the site is overwhelmed with viewers. Give it a day or so and you'll be able to watch it. From what I saw of it, though, there was no shortage of enthusiasm and love for Tulsa's "Miss Belvedere".

Comments

[wrascalism.livejournal.com]

Seems to be the same condition as Plymouth car division today!

[greatbearmd.livejournal.com]

This car is still around. The same can't be said for the Plymouth division. Nature was kind as to what it did to the old 'Dere, compared to the cold machinations of the boardroom that did in Plymouth.

[envirobear.livejournal.com]

You know, even in the drowned condition that old '57 Belvedere is in, it would probably run better than my '82 Horizon did. The best thing I can say about it is that at 3am on the deserted streets of a sleeping Midwestern town, if you got it up to 60, you could manage to coast it about a mile into its parking spot when it stalled...

[sfmini.livejournal.com]

I expected to motorgeek out on the car. I expected to have some curiosity about the time capsule. What I didn't expect was to be witness to the pride and excitement of a whole town, state, whatever. The unveiling was about as corny and folksy as the burial, it was no LA production. It was a community sharing something important. I was touched. I didn't expect that.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

It really has transformed into an object of art. Love it!

[theevilnub.livejournal.com]

Imagine how different things would have been if it was kept in a bank-like vault above ground... at least something that would have been tornado-proof. Sure the weather stripping would have dried-out, the tires would have gone flat, but it might have been spared all that water damage.

[theoctothorpe.livejournal.com]

Oh, the pain!

[rockybear02.livejournal.com]

I really can't believe they are not even talking about chances to restore the machine.

And the fact that some of those tires still hold air amazes me.

I saw similar pictures this morning on AOL - very sad indeed.

[pagerbear.livejournal.com]

I'll bet people would pay for the opportunity to try to restore it!

[danthered.livejournal.com]

"Restoration" would miss the point altogether.

[sparkygearhead.livejournal.com]

*weeps*

[werecub.livejournal.com]

I bet my car would look like that after only 5 years underground.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_angry_alan/]

It's just a little rusty!
It's still good. It's still good.

[mhkrabat.livejournal.com]

Had there been no prelude to this and only the photos, I'd deduce it got dragged up off of a lake bottom.

Regretably (for me at least), looking at these pics reminds me of some urban folk lore which may in fact be true, about a California lady who, when she died, was buried in her nighty and posed sitting at the wheel of her Ferrari.

[mhkrabat.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_West
I guess it's not Urban Folk lore at all!

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to see the optimism for preservation the people who buried the car showed turned out not to hold up. It certainly should be possible to store a car for that long without all that damage, even underground. It would just have to be more seriously protected against water, and perhaps stored in a non-reactive atmosphere (argon, say).

[beastbriskett.livejournal.com]

Wow--that's a purty mess...