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

[rinso]

It's true, cars are not made as large, beautiful, and stylish as they used to be, probably because of aerodynamics and fuel efficiencies.

I loved the styles of the decades of the 50's and 60's but they were also the years of divine maintenance.

Tires rarely lasted more than 12,000 miles
Mufflers were shot after a year
Frequent tune-ups were necessary
Drum brakes easily overheated and made for long, uneven stops
Shifting type automatic transmissions such as Ford-O-Matic, Hydra-Matic, and Powerglide, shifted so roughly, that I'm surprised that no whiplash injuries were reported. They didn't last any too long either, and their gears whined like an old school bus.
Lets not leave out the deathtrap quotient of those cars either.
No,overall, I think autos are better made today, but then one pays a lot more for the improvements as well.

 

[abcomatic]

Rick and Rinso and everyone. Yes, the cars looked great in the 50's but not so good. Talking about deathtraps. That '58 Plymouth we had had a metal dashboard, painted to look like vinyl, a metal steering wheel that would cave in your chest if you go hit hard enough etc.
I have a beautiful '59 Lincoln Continental Mark 4 with most of the bells and whistles on it. When I bought the car a few years back, the guy that I bought it from gave me a grave warning. He showed me his right lower arm that has a long gash, maybe 7 inches or more? that he had to have sewed up at the hospital. Sitting on the hood of this monster is a beautiful crome emblem with very sharp points! He was washing it and forgot it was there or whatever, but his arm was sliced open as he slide his arm over the emblem. Lots of crome too inside,to bash out your brains with in case of a bad accident.
This was Ford motor companies best car that year and the quality of that is pretty good, Even the seats are not torn etc. Of course it has a 430 hp engine in it and shoe brakes which really to sort of pull one way. The transmission shifts effortlessly and the car rides like you are sitting on the sofa at home. No road feel at all in the power steering; I really don't like that but what are you going to do. With 10 mpg, I don't fill the 22gallon tank up often. Bye for now. Gary

 

[58limited]

And the winner is:

From Foxnews:

"R.E. Humbertson, wherever you are, you are the winner of "Miss Belvedere," the rusty 1957 Plymouth hauled from its leaky vault last week after being buried for a half century.

Humbertson, born July 1921, or his or her closest living relative, has five years to claim the two-door hardtop that drew international attention when it was unearthed, organizers announced Friday.

When the car was buried in 1957, hundreds of people submitted guesses on what Tulsa's population, which was around 250,000 in 1957, would be in 2007. Humbertson's guess of 384,743 was only slightly off the official U.S. Census count of 382,457.

There were more than 800 guesses, ranging from zero to 2 billion, written on a paper list and postcards inside a time capsule buried in the concrete vault, supposedly tough enough to withstand a nuclear attack."

 

[bongobro]

Mr. Humbertson's nephew????

Heard this morning both Mr. and Mrs. Humbertson have since passed away; supposedly there is a nephew who will receive the '57 Plymouth...or what's left of it...

 

[danemodsandy]

Link To Story

Here's a FOX News story about the nephew:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,286437,00.html

 

[cadman]

I take exception to rough-shifting...

Hydramatics; they are extremely smooth creatures. In fact, the only shift you can feel is 2-3, if that. I had trouble convincing parts-store folks that it's a 4 speed. They assume anything GM from the 50's is a PowerGlide.

Some of you guys might recall Ben and I driving the '59 Coupe Deville to Omaha. New brakes/exhaust/tune-up for its maiden voyage after a 30-year hiatus. That car wanted to run at 70MPH all the way there : )

 

[bongobro]

More high dramatics...

Hey, cadman, the only rough-shifting Hydra-Matics were the ones that were low on fluid!

Hydra-Matic, BTW, was the favorite automatic not only with Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac buyers, it was the only automatic you could get on early Chevy and GMC pickups...and the automatic of choice for Nash, Kaiser, Frazer and even Lincoln(!)...that had to be wild to early customers who saw Hydra-Matics in their Lincolns and Caddies!

Powerglide was good for what it was--a cheap transmission for GM's cheapest car line--but neither Buick's various versions of Dynaflow nor Chevy's Turboglide had the cojones to keep up with Hydra-Matic!

Buick didn't refer to Hydra-Matic as Hydra-Matic until the Turbo Hydra-Matic was brought on-line in the late 1960s...they called them "Super Turbine 400" transmissions....

 

[kenwashesmonday]

A lot of the oddball GM transmissions from the late 50s were developed in a hurry when the Hydra-Matic factory burned to the ground.

By that time, AMC and Ford were using the Borg-Warner, Ford used the 2-speed Ford-o-matic only with the smaller motors.

Ken D.