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

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58limited

58limited

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Port Arthur, Texas
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.

http://www.fox23.com/content/flashp...ntent_id=c8e90818-65e4-470e-92ba-c70d11f48bea
 
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.
 
My parents bought a 1957 Plymouth two tone. It was red with a white top and had push button automatic transmission. It was a bomb so my parents bought a 1959 Ford Country Squire station wagon in black with simulated wood siding.

Ross
 
No way you can restore this one, bro'!

I spent most of Sunday night reviewing the pix of the Tulsa Plymouth. The rear end was sagging as if the frame had rusted or broken off at the body mounts or the rear spring mounts.

I remember seeing trade magazines for body-and-fender repairmen (which my dad was for any years) advertising patch panels for front fenders, rocker panels and rear fenders of 1957 Plymouths (Dodges, DeSotos, Chryslers, and Imperials, too) as early as late 1957. The '57 Chrysler products were years ahead in styling, but by the time "Suddenly it's 1960!" was actually 1960, they looked like they'd been on the road since 1860...
 
I think that they should put it in their local museum just like it is. As far as the "near perfect chrome" the news story mentioned, I would think that it is the stainless trim, the real chrome is probably as bad as the body.
 
This car is actually in much better shape after having been buried all these years, than non-buried Aspens and Volares of the middle 70's were two years after they were made.
 
Country Squire

Ross, do you remember the old joke about those Country Squire wagons? "Nice car. When are you going to take it out of the crate?"
 
We had a '58 Plymouth Plaza (the cheapest of the Plymouths then). The right headlight assembly fell out of the car while crossing a bridge in Joliet,IL. The back up light fell out when going to Bloomington, IL. The reverse button fell into the box that held the transmission buttons while I was on a date at the local drive-in theater; holding up lines of traffic until I used one of her hairpins to get the plate open and retrieve the button. (Ok, I was trying the girl dating thing then, mmm, that didn't work either). lol The main bearings spun while my mom was in Fairbry, IL getting groceries. (You should have heard the language on that one)! The upholstery had huge holes in it and only after 3 years of use. What a junk heap that car was and I had to take my first driver's license test in it too.( the left signal wouldn't signal unless you moved the lever by hand to blink it! How I passed the test with that car is still a mystery?lol
Dad sold it in '65 for $50.00 and bought a new '64 Galaxie instead. I have never owned a Chrysler product of my own, I am sure because of that car. "They sure don't make cars like they used to." Thank God. lol Gary
 
You'd think Chrysler (and my mom and dad) would have learned. My parents bought a 1997 Chrysler LHS with all the bells, whistles, and candy. The car was very luxurious to look at, but it amplified the road noise so badly, you couldn't hear the special Bose radio at speeds much above 40 MPH. (Road noise issues have been a "special" offering from Chrysler from clear back in the fifties, right along with their clunky, stiff-riding torsion bar suspension.) The car deteriorated rapidly, looking like a hoopty after only one year. The check engine light came on 2 weeks after the car was purchased, and no one, including Chrysler, could figure out why. It's still on. The sun roof cover fell out just as the car's warranty expired. It has gone through two AC compressors, 1 alternator, and 1 transmission. The leather seats are about the only thing that has held up. The car comfortably seats 5 people who don't care if they can't converse over the road noise when they are riding. Oh, the rear exhaust system fell off the car when it was less than a year old as well. I'm told this is one of the better experiences owners have had with the car.
 
Thats too funny Gary! My dad traded our 57 Plymouth for a 1964 Galaxie too! And the reverse button fell into the trans selector box when my mother was trying to park on a busy street downtown with four kids in the car. She got the screws out of the selector box somehow, and pushed the button back on, and we drove home from our dentist appointment with the selector buttons only supported by the shafts. What a POS those cars were! Remember how the rear view mirror was mounted? On the dash top, down low.
 
My First Car...

...was a '57 Plymouth Plaza four-door sedan. Three on the tree and two-tone paint in white and green. That car was given to me by an uncle who wanted to get rid of it (for good and sufficient reason, I found)- and it never did run properly.

Someone mentioned upholstery and the old saying, "They don't make 'em like they used to". In the 1950s, many auto upholsteries were rayon or a blend of nylon and rayon, heavy on the rayon. Nylon was still expensive stuff back then, used more for its advertising value than to create a more durable product. Many cars' upholstery wore through in six months or so, to be replaced with seat covers from Western Auto or a local trim shop.

I got that Plymouth in 1968, when it was 11 years old. Its paint was faded and rust was everywhere. The interior was rags. Things were broken, falling off, and otherwise pretty much shot. By contrast, I now drive a twenty-year-old Volvo 245 wagon, whose paint and upholstery are in very good shape.

Maybe they shouldn't make 'em like they used to. A ten-year-old car used to be a fairly sorry sight. Engines used to require valve and ring jobs at around 75,000 miles. And warranties? Ninety days on low-priced cars, for most of the Fifties.

Take it from someone who was there- the decade wasn't all roses.
 
Ok..
My first car was a 1981 Buick Skylark. Given to me at age 14, because i said i liked it... Oy! What a crap heap... It was white with a green insides... It had 98K miles... No wonder my aunt gave it too me. If you tried to turn the power steering when cold it wouldn't go... The cruise never worked, the windows did not work right, nor did the power locks (it would usualy keep everything locked)..It leaked oil like a sieve, the transmisson slipped, the carb was wacko... I had it 3 months (as it was supposed to be what i learned on) until it burned up. I got $600 for it from my insurance and got an 86 Sentra with nothing on it, which i really liked and had until this past september with over 250K miles.. It finally died of a bad sensor and i do miss it.. But i did not need 3 cars.. LoL.. The antiques of my age

6-19-2007-16-38-34--exploder3211.jpg
 

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