Those of you who knew me when recall that I was pretty obsessed over Miss Belvedere, the brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere encased in a concrete vault as a memento of the 1957 Tulsarama! celebration. The intent was, of course, to open the watertight vault in 2007 and present the world with immaculately preserved artifacts of the late 50's. Except that when one plans on underground preservation, airtight is the required standard and a watertight concrete vault will, in fact, revert to the swimming pool it do closely resembles. Fast forward to 2007 when the ruins of a cruelly drowned and devastated 1957 Plymouth were unearthed, displayed, and celebrated.
Don't misunderstand, I'm mad about Miss Belvedere. Not so much for her ruined condition, but for the can-do attitude that swept a bunch of Tulsa businessmen into thinking that they could create this remarkable time capsule. The fact that they really couldn't is more of a footnote.
Okay, so two years later, where is Miss Belvedere? I had read that she was in the care of a company called Ultra One, that makes a rust removing product. They were going to attempt to stabilize her and get some good PR in the process. Along the way they discovered that the frame is ravaged, the rear springs crumbled and the axle was fused. They have removed most of the red clay and even gotten portions of her to resemble an automobile. Enough suspension components were replaced to make her push-worthy, but the realization has dawned that she is an artifact with the structural integrity of a potato chip.
Follow this link to an update in today's New York Times about her saga since 2007, complete with a photo slideshow.
I have been checking on this story for the past couple of years, and for the last 2 years Ultra One has not given any real information. When i call, my calls are never returned. When I e-mail, they are not returned. In fact the last time I tried to e-mail Dwight Foster his e-mail address didn't work anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think the car is mostly destroyed and they are just hoping no one will remember.
I remember the story of Miss Belvedere when I was a kid growing up in the 70's. My best friends dad was infatuated with the '57 Plymouth's. In fact he owned 2 of them during the late 80's early 90's.
DeleteI sincerely hope that one day we will be able to hear what happened to her and hopefully something can be done to at least preserve her as a museum piece.
I think it is safe to say that Ultra One must have fallen short of their promises. Any company that will not return messages is NOT a company that I will ever do business with.
The last I heard, the car is in storage and it will be 2 or 3 years before anything more is done. Everyone from the Tulsa people to Ultra One lost in this deal. Ultra One actually did a decent job of cleaning it up, but has or will have to put the frame from another Plymouth under the body to keep it from crumbling even more. That kind of defeats the intent of having a totally original car. Some things just can't be fixed. As for Ultra One returning phone calls and emails....it would be nice if they did, but in reality, they have no obligation to do so unless you're the owner of the car.
ReplyDeleteToo bad the car was not put in a bove ground vault and locked shut. If that was done the car would look brand new today
ReplyDeleteSince it's been so long since the car's journey has ended....I'm gonna guess that is has simply fallen apart...with all the best attempts, I'm sure to resurrect it. It would just be nice to know what happened to the car? I'm sure that everyone involved did their best, considering the project was an enormous challenge.
DeleteI'm gonna guess since it's been so long...(and I think somebody wrote earlier about this)...the car has since either fallen completely apart, or just simply fell apart from being touched and handled....after all, something as frail as a potato chip can stand only so much handling before it breaks apart. My personal opinion: just bring to light the entire facts and truths of the car....if the restoration wasn't a success...so be it. And if it was? Where is it now? There is no harm in failure...especially when the project seemed doomed to begin with. I just feel that there are a lot of followers of the car that would like to know.
ReplyDelete