On June 15, 1957, a brand new Plymouth Belvedere was buried in a cement vault to celebrate Oklahoma’s 50th birthday. A capsule of other time related items were placed in the vault under ground as well. Fifty years later in June of 2007, the vault was opened and the Belvedere was lifted out. It was then that they discovered the cement vault was, in fact, not water tight. Seems that back in 1973, a crew working in front of the Tulsa Courthouse near where the car was buried struck a water main and severely flooded the area...unaware that they had also flooded the cement vault that the Belvedere was resting in. The water remained in that vault, and the car, until it was unearthed in 2007. Needless to say, nearly three decades under water was not kind to the poor Plymouth that had just four miles in the odometer.
The interior had been reduced to a pile of rust and the body and even the suspension suffered major damage. Hopes to restore the car back to new were dashed when the total extent of damages were revealed. The car was sent to a restorer as a last ditch effort, but it was soon realized that just retaining as much the appearance and by placing a subframe with wheels would allow the car to roll. Surprisingly, once all the silt and rust was washed away, most of the original body color remained and tires held air once new inner tubes were placed in them. Sadly though, that’s as good as it gets. The story is now worth more than the car. Darn shame, as it seemed like a good idea at the time.
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