OT: Tulsarama - '57 Plymouth buried 50 years ago unearthed

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58limited

58limited

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As part of the Tulsarama celebration, a fifty year old time capsule was opened today. Part of this is a '57 Plymouth Belvedere that was buried under the courthouse lawn. The car is out but will not be uncovered until 7pm. Unfortunately, water got into the vault and the car is probably rusted pretty badly.

Back in 1957, citizens could guess the population of Tulsa in 2007, the person who is closest (or their decendants) gets the car. All of the names and answers are on microfilm in the car. Actually, I hope they put the car in a local museum, reguardless of its condition. No one knows where the keys or title are located.

 
lol! My dad had a 57 Plymouth and it was a rust bucket! He traded it for a new 1964 Ford Galaxy, so it was only 7 years old when it was traded. The floorboards were out of it, you could see the street! The headlights were falling out of it, the fenders rusted so bad. I can remember seeing Chrysler products of the late 1950's as a child, and can recall that they all rusted to hell! I can only imagine what one looks like after being buried in a wet grave for 50 years! We shall see. <:
 
ohhhhhh

dontya think they are prolly giving it a detail job ? LOL. I can't imagine an event where a rusted ole car gets unveiled. Can you imagine the looks on peoples faces. ** imagining what the grinch was thinking - about all those people in whoville waking up to no christmas** <p>" POOH POOH TO THE TULSANS he was grinch-ish-ly humming <p> They're finding out now, an old chrysler is rusting<p> They're just going in, I know just what they'll do<p> they're mouths will hang open a minute or two<p>Then all of the Tulsans will cry boohoo" <p> Very neato though, I would love to be there and see. If I'd a known a head of time I would have ventured that way. Only a couple of hours away.
 
"Buried with the car 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."
 
Yep, Chrysler stole everybody's thunder with their "Forward Look" styling in '57, but in the rush to get products out the door they apparently skipped rust-resistant primer for the paint jobs. This is a reason why '57 Chrysler products are relatively rare today. I'd be real surprised if there is any floor pan left on that '57 Plymouth after years of standing in two feet of water.
 
keep us posted...

on what the car looks like, and all the other stuff in the capsule.. this is terrific to see... look forward to an update.. thanks for sharing..
 
Remind me to NOT hire that company to build my nuclear blast proof shelter. The ancient Chinese built several hermetically sealed tombs, but the Tulsa time capsule engineer couldn't keep something safe for 50 years.
 
Well, the decision to bury an entire car, rather than just the capsule, was decided only two days in advance so they didn't have a lot of time to work out the details : ) I also read the car was not cosmolined like everyone thought it was, which is a bit of a disappointment.

The unearthing at noon today was a lot of fun if you caught the live feed, but I can understand some of the sour grapes about opening the tomb and checking things out in advance of "the big event", then unveiling the car in private for only a select few before giving the public a glimpse. A bit like opening the xmas gifts the night before then sticking the bow back on for the morning.
 
The Tulsa Plymouth was gold with off white trim.

My fathers 57 Plymouth was off white with gold trim.

The fifties cars were heavy into two tone paint combos. Painting the trim another colour made it cheaper to produce a "two tone" paint job,as the trim was painted prior to being installed on the car. A Plymouth was the BOL car of the Chrysler line.
 
I may be wrong....

but it seems to me that the car was submerged. 2 feet of water wouldn't have done so much damage.
 
I think that the vault leaked for quite a few years,perhaps even from the very beginning. The water level may have been over the car at times. It certainly looks like it was to me also.
 


This "major breaking news" made the front page of today's Los Angeles Times (Saturday), with a large color photo right at the top of the page.
 

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