Miss Belvedere headed Illinois auto museum

[medium_jon]

I saw this story on my personal AP wire feed. I thought it might interest some members of the group. For some reason, they buried a 1957 Belvedere in Tulsa and then dug it up in 2007. Now it is restored. 

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/ten-years-after-being-unearthed-in-tulsa-miss-belvedere-finally/article_c470b9b4-194a-5d63-866f-866389e95027.html

There are 20+ photos to the left of the article 

Edited June 27, 2017 by medium_jon

[Young Ed]

Glad she has found a home. I wouldn't exactly say restored though. More like thoroughly cleaned up. 

[Worden18]

Glad they got it out of there.  Can't believe someone would "time capsule" an awesome car like that.  To hell with the museum, someone needs to drive it!!

[Young Ed]

8 minutes ago, Worden18 said:

Glad they got it out of there.  Can't believe someone would "time capsule" an awesome car like that.  To hell with the museum, someone needs to drive it!!

That car is paper thin. It would disintegrate on the first pothole!

[dpollo]

Such a shame it was not simply rolled into the city hall basement........ paper thin or not, it is in better shape  now than the Belvedere hardtop I sold back in 68.

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

1 hour ago, Worden18 said:

Glad they got it out of there.  Can't believe someone would "time capsule" an awesome car like that.  To hell with the museum, someone needs to drive it!!

at the time it was put in the time capsule, just another daily driver built car.....to repair this car would require everything on the chassis and body be replaced except may the keys....even those may have been eaten away, they were aluminum then.

[Worden18]

1 hour ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

at the time it was put in the time capsule, just another daily driver built car.....to repair this car would require everything on the chassis and body be replaced except may the keys....even those may have been eaten away, they were aluminum then.

I realize this, just a spur of the moment pipe dream I had 

[Young Ed]

7 hours ago, Worden18 said:

I realize this, just a spur of the moment pipe dream I had 

I remember thinking about this car frequently as a kid thinking how cool it will be when 2007 finally comes and a new car will be dug up. When the time finally came I decided I couldn't afford the trip down there and canceled my room. As far as the car goes I didn't miss much. 

 

[rcb]

They didn't consider that the vault would be breached. They could have sunk it in a huge vat of cosmoline but cleaning it would have been a nightmare. Even an above ground vault would have been cool and a visual reminder.

[Eneto-55]

10 hours ago, Young Ed said:

I remember thinking about this car frequently as a kid thinking how cool it will be when 2007 finally comes and a new car will be dug up. When the time finally came I decided I couldn't afford the trip down there and canceled my room. As far as the car goes I didn't miss much. 

 

I was about two years old when this car was buried, living 16 miles north of Downtown.  I heard about this car all through my early childhood, and wanted to visit back home when it was brought out, but didn't make it back there.  My grandpa owned a service station back then, and when I was 5 or so, we moved a storage shed from the service station to the place we were living.  In a loft in that building was a whole stack of brand-new commemorative 'license plates' that said 1907 Visit Oklahoma 1957 across the top, and OKLAHOMA in large letters in the middle.  I think there is only one left, and my Dad has it.  (I had it for a while, but thought I should give it back to Dad, although I'm pretty sure it was me that saved it when it was the last one around, probably in the early 70's.)  When it got close to 2007 I had an idea to make a bunch of them just like it, but with 2007 in place of the 1957, but when I found out how much the dies would cost, I gave it up.  Afterwards, seeing what a big 'circus' the whole event was, I think it would have been a good investment.  But maybe it would have been better yet to leave it say 1957, I don't know.

[Robin (UK)]

7 hours ago, Eneto-55 said:

I was about two years old when this car was buried, living 16 miles north of Downtown.  I heard about this car all through my early childhood, and wanted to visit back home when it was brought out, but didn't make it back there.  My grandpa owned a service station back then, and when I was 5 or so, we moved a storage shed from the service station to the place we were living.  In a loft in that building was a whole stack of brand-new commemorative 'license plates' that said 1907 Visit Oklahoma 1957 across the top, and OKLAHOMA in large letters in the middle.  I think there is only one left, and my Dad has it.  (I had it for a while, but thought I should give it back to Dad, although I'm pretty sure it was me that saved it when it was the last one around, probably in the early 70's.)  When it got close to 2007 I had an idea to make a bunch of them just like it, but with 2007 in place of the 1957, but when I found out how much the dies would cost, I gave it up.  Afterwards, seeing what a big 'circus' the whole event was, I think it would have been a good investment.  But maybe it would have been better yet to leave it say 1957, I don't know.

Great story about the license plates.
A quick google search threw up this eBay listing...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1957-Visit-Oklahoma-Semi-Centennial-Front-License-Plate-Tag-MINT-/162530284719?hash=item25d78f54af:g:of4AAOSw53NZARsh

[Eneto-55]

3 hours ago, Robin (UK) said:

Great story about the license plates.
A quick google search threw up this eBay listing...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1957-Visit-Oklahoma-Semi-Centennial-Front-License-Plate-Tag-MINT-/162530284719?hash=item25d78f54af:g:of4AAOSw53NZARsh

Yep, that's it, but that one is in better shape than the one we have.  Originally they were still all in paper wrappers, but you know, children will play.  (And it was only 6 or 7 years later when we found them, so no one thought about what they might be worth later on.)

[BobT-47P15]

The car looked like this when it first came out of the time capsule.

 

[BobT-47P15]

The P15-D24 Forum was represented at the digging up of the Belvedere.

First car belonged to Pete aka "Blue Skies" from Montana (as I recall.  anyone feel free to correct me)

The engine was very highly modified and looked great.

 These cars were all driven to the event.

Then, we had John Smeltzer (on R)  (Me on left) from Colorado with his 1949 Plymouth

My 47 P15......from Missouri

Then there was Mr Don Coatney from Murfreesboro, Tenn (now of Indiana) in his blue P15 with a

DeSoto flathead engine.  There was a little "street race" between Blue Skies and Don since both had

been extolling the virtues of his respective engine build.  A fun event for sure.

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by BobT-47P15