Foo - They dug up the car :(

They dug up the 1959 Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa 50 years ago. When they opened the vault it had 4 feet of water in it. Boyd Coddington and crew had volunteered to work on it but he pretty much pronounced it junk. If Coddington can't help her, nobody can. So sad. :( :( :(

Ah damn, that sucks. I'd heard that the crypt was full of water, but that the car itself might still be sealed. Sigh.

How cool it would have been to pluck a dusty but otherwise immaculate car from beneath the soil.

On the bright side, at least it wasn't spent nuclear waste! :)

They dug up the 1959 Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa 50 years ago.

I hate being the math guy, but it's not 2009 yet, is it? Sorry. :o

... Brad

I hate being the math guy, but it's not 2009 yet, is it? Sorry. :o

... Brad
SoonerBent's clearly from the future newb!

I read quite a bit about the car as that model and make is perhaps the most beautiful of all the late 50's. Was saddened to see the crypt was under water as well. The papers never said anything about the vault being "sealed" from moisture or was it just set in a large septic tank type vault? Don't understand the reason for the gas can and Schlitz beer. Womans purse? To spend that amount of money for a cornerstone project, I think the city Fathers were drinking to much of their own Schlitz at the time.

They dug up the 1959 Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa 50 years ago. When they opened the vault it had 4 feet of water in it. Boyd Coddington and crew had volunteered to work on it but he pretty much pronounced it junk. If Coddington can't help her, nobody can. So sad. :( :( :(
'57

Chip Foose could do it He could make a cool car if all that was in the vault was water.

.....Don't understand the reason for the gas can.......

They were concerned that gasoline would be obsolete in the future, and wanted to make sure we could start it up.

They were concerned that gasoline would be obsolete in the future, and wanted to make sure we could start it up.


True...Remember the Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines from the late 50's? Well, I guess you have to be an old fart like me to remember those. But they were always loaded with articles and pictures of what the "future" would be like. "Man living in colonies on Mars by 1990", "Automated kitchen for the Housewife" and articles like that always fascinated me.Television and automobiles were the big topics of conversation for the boys and men, while the ladies were thrilled with the new frozen food products, appliances, and household gadgets. I would dream of buying a future car and being the coolest! What kid growing up in that era would not dream of these things? That is why this cornerstone opening has such an appeal for all of us from that decade.


http://www.classiccar.com/articles/cars/1957_Belvedere.asp

They dug up the 1959 Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa 50 years ago. When they opened the vault it had 4 feet of water in it. Boyd Coddington and crew had volunteered to work on it but he pretty much pronounced it junk. If Coddington can't help her, nobody can. So sad. :( :( :(
Oh man....that's so sad. I was anxious to hear your report on it too. :(

I hate being the math guy, but it's not 2009 yet, is it? Sorry. :o

... BradBad typing. I hit the 9 instead of the 7.

Burying a cool car and hoping it will be in good shape half a century later. Sheer idiocy.

I read quite a bit about the car as that model and make is perhaps the most beautiful of all the late 50's. Was saddened to see the crypt was under water as well. The papers never said anything about the vault being "sealed" from moisture or was it just set in a large septic tank type vault? Don't understand the reason for the gas can and Schlitz beer. Womans purse? To spend that amount of money for a cornerstone project, I think the city Fathers were drinking to much of their own Schlitz at the time.The vault was supposedly sealed pretty well with tar in "57. What they believe went wrong was the proximity of the vault to a major four lane street. About 20 feet away. Thus the 50 years of vibration caused by trucks, busses, road repair, etc. broke the seal.

They dug up the 1959 Belvedere that was buried in Tulsa 50 years ago. When they opened the vault it had 4 feet of water in it. Boyd Coddington and crew had volunteered to work on it but he pretty much pronounced it junk. If Coddington can't help her, nobody can. So sad. :( :( :(
boyd never said it was junk id like to see that statement, only thing he said was that its doubtfull that it would start

boyd never said it was junk id like to see that statement, only thing he said was that its doubtfull that it would startJunk was my wording. What he actually said was that there isn't a metal part on the car that looks salvageable, except for the stainless trim. A lot of places where there should be aluminum parts there's just empty space. A lot of the body panels look like swiss cheese or are heavily bubbled with rust. That falls into my junk category.

Its salvagable. Sounds to me like they need a new car to put under the radiator cap.

Why didn't they purge the vault, overfill it by like, 1-2 psi with nitrogen, then weld the thing shut?

Welding + gasoline = KABOOM!!!

Welding + gasoline = KABOOM!!!

The gas would be sealed. And it's in a nitrogen atmosphere..

Killjoy! :p

It would have been something if it started.

I betcha I could get it started. All I'd need is a 50 gallon tank of starting ether...

Killjoy! :p

Ok fine it's sealed and everything but the inside is full of powdered lithium and sodium. So the moment they open it in the humid air, BLAMO!

The 'crypt' was supposedly 'atomic bomb proof' . . . but did not say waterproof.

The 'crypt' was supposedly 'atomic bomb proof' . . . but did not say waterproof.

NOthing is water proof. I just learned this after having the wettest may on record here.

Nothing??? What about ice?

Junk was my wording. What he actually said was that there isn't a metal part on the car that looks salvageable, except for the stainless trim. A lot of places where there should be aluminum parts there's just empty space. A lot of the body panels look like swiss cheese or are heavily bubbled with rust. That falls into my junk category.
didnt says that either only thing he said that was destroyed was the interior. ill call Davin at BH and see wat the word on the car is. it might be junk to you but then agan you ride a bike so anythng with 4 wheels and rust is junk but to a classic car person that baby is a gold mine

NOthing is water proof. I just learned this after having the wettest may on record here.

The technical term is water resistant.

4 feet of water? Too bad, the frame is probably swiss cheese too. Car would have been better off in the corner of a garage somewhere...

ive seen cars pulled out from lakes no rust

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/06/15/buried.classic.ap/story.before.ap.jpg
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/06/15/buried.classic.ap/story.mud.ap.jpg

And a bunch of guys in the desert could keep a body preserved for 5000 years...

Judging by the picture on the bottom, it actually doesn't look that bad. I mean, I don't see any massive rust holes, or anything. It would certainly be a lot of work to get it looking like the top picture, but it might be doable. (And oh so worth it.)

didnt says that either only thing he said that was destroyed was the interior. ill call Davin at BH and see wat the word on the car is. it might be junk to you but then agan you ride a bike so anythng with 4 wheels and rust is junk but to a classic car person that baby is a gold mineFunny thing for for someone on a bike forum to insult someone else for being a bike guy. However, I've pulled more old cars from barns and fields and built them into hot rods than I can count on all my fingers. I'm a car guy too!
Edit: Maybe was a car guy is more accurate. I still love old cars but it's been 15 years or so since I built one.

i guess jimmy hoffa wasn't in the trunk...

Nothing??? What about ice?
Ice melts in water... Not waterproof.

didnt says that either only thing he said that was destroyed was the interior. ill call Davin at BH and see wat the word on the car is. it might be junk to you but then agan you ride a bike so anythng with 4 wheels and rust is junk but to a classic car person that baby is a gold mine


Just sayin'... A little punctuation here and there sprinlkled with some capital letters would help us readers distinguish this forum from 'BMX' forums. Something like the above paragraph [?] is difficult to read and only aids the reader in skipping over it.

But I do agree with you on the "gold mine" referral.

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/06/15/buried.classic.ap/story.before.ap.jpg
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/US/06/15/buried.classic.ap/story.mud.ap.jpg

And a bunch of guys in the desert could keep a body preserved for 5000 years...
I bet if they actually washed her, she would about half of that stuff gone.