RE: Why can't we find "cool" cars with miles like this

[Greg Myers]

437 miles

[Junkman]

Possibly the lowest mileage '57 Belvedere in existence:

[BKcustoms]

lol! the buried belvedere!

[Mike Kucaba]

Possibly the lowest mileage '57 Belvedere in existence:

" It's not too bad,That'll Buff Right out!!"

[sjordan2]

The exhumation of the Belvedere was very sad to me. I was growing up in Tulsa when it was buried in a "time capsule" as part of Oklahoma's 50th anniversary of statehood celebration, and it got a ton of publicity back then.

[Junkman]

On a more serious note - would it not be a good idea to rename this post into something like 'hardy survivors with extremely low mileages' and whoever comes across one posts it here?

They'd make excellent reference material for replica stock builders, no?

[jw78z28]

the belvedere doesn't look that bad for being buried for 50 years. It looks better than some of the cars in ohio that have set in a field for 20 years.

anybody know what happened to the car? from what i read the car was to be given to the person who guessed closest to the population in Tulsa OK.

[Harry P.]

the belvedere doesn't look that bad for being buried for 50 years. It looks better than some of the cars in ohio that have set in a field for 20 years.

anybody know what happened to the car? from what i read the car was to be given to the person who guessed closest to the population in Tulsa OK.

The car is currently in the process of being cleaned up. They are removing the surface rust and gunk and stuff, but they will not restore the car to "as-new" condition.

[Harry P.]

They plan to use a Savoy as a donor car and do that, also the electrical system is totally shot so they will be replacing that.

From Wikipedia:

As of June 2008, the preservation process was still underway, as shown in a video posted by the New Jersey Star Ledger, with the stated goal to preserve the car as an artifact, not to restore it to roadworthy condition.

In December 2008, Ultra One deleted all the topics in their forum regarding Miss Belvedere. Attempts to contact Ultra One for comment went unanswered. The vehicle condition and state of repair have been presumed unknown until May 2009, when Dwight Foster of Ultra One participated in a podcast and provided details and new pictures, showing the Belvedere's restoration to be still underway, the car's exterior having been virtually freed of its rust and mud concretions^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Belvedere#cite_note-4]}. In that same podcast, Foster noted that he has purchased a rust-free 1957 Plymouth Savoy as a donor car to replace needed parts to keep Miss Belvedere from further deterioration. The frame and trunk underframe will be used from the Savoy to replace the weakened parts in the Belvedere. Miss Belvedere's ignition system is totally fused into a useless lump of metal, so the Savoy will provide replacement parts for this as well.

Foster stated that be believes Miss Belvedere's engine may be salvageable; however, they have not yet tackled the drivetrain. He was confident that Miss Belvedere can be returned to a condition that would reflect her state had she not been exposed to the damaging moisture that caused such extensive deterioration of the car's condition.

[Longbox55]

That kind of contradicts the whole "preservation, not restoration" thing, doesn't it. If they were going to go as far as using a donor car for repairs, they might as well go ahead and restore her to factory new condition.

Notice I said "were". From what I can find, all work ceased on her sometime in '09, Ultra One even pulled all updates from their site. Seems the owners of the car ran out of funds for the preservation, and the city of Tulsa are not willing to help. There is a rumor that someone offered to at least bring her back to Tulsa, free of charge, but was turned down. There are also rumors that once the cleaning was done, she pretty much fell apart under her own weight, and the comapny covered it up. I've also seen where she's supposedly in a storage container somewhare on the comapnies property. Hard telling what's the truth on this, but it seems most likely that Miss Belvedere will never see the light of day again.

[Harry P.]

That kind of contradicts the whole "preservation, not restoration" thing, doesn't it. If they were going to go as far as using a donor car for repairs, they might as well go ahead and restore her to factory new condition.

There are also rumors that once the cleaning was done, she pretty much fell apart under her own weight...

That's why they were talking about replacing the frame. Not for restoration, but because the original was so rusted that it wouldn't hold the car anymore.

[Harry P.]

I've been checking around. Apparently the money to keep the preservation process going ran out, they couldn't find any corporate sponsors, and the car is sitting in storage somewhere with no plans to continue the work as of now.

[Longbox55]

I understand where you're coming from, and I see whay they're dong it. But it seems to be a bit of a waste to put a donor car frame under a car that's never going to get driven. Since they're going more for a static display, all they really need to do is reinforce the frame in areas not seen when displayed, maybe even solid mount the axles to the from with struts to take the load off the springs. That way, the original car is still intact. By replacing the frame, ignition, etc., the car is no longer "original", and they really should go ahead and do a full restoration.

But that's just my own opinion, and what I would do if it was mine.

[Longbox55]

ultimately, who is the owner of the Belvedere?

in my opinion there's two directions to go with this, either restore it using as much of the original car as possible, if that's even possible or crush it into a cube Christine style and be done with it.

Appearantly, the winner of the contest passed away back in the '70s, his sisters were awarded the car. I don't know if any other relatives are involved.

If you check out some of the comments in the video that was posted, most of them are saying the same thing, restore it all the way, or crush it and be done with it.

[Junkman]

Why not put in a running engine and gearbox and banger race it? Let it go off this world in a final blast of glory.

[Longbox55]

Anyone that is suggesting the "they should restore it" option needs to take a closer look at the car.

I just got back on here from doing just that. You're right, she's too far gone to restore.

[Jon Cole]

The "lucky" winners...

For my Miss Belvedere file, see: My link

[Joe Handley]

I saw this car in person a few years back down in Branson, one of the guys that worked for that museum has had a number of people who asked if that car was Miss Belevedere since there was a poster next to it of it at the unearthing event

[Harry P.]

For my Miss Belvedere file, see: My link

Where did you get those photos?

[Joe Handley]

Thanks Mark!

[Rick Schmidt]

Joe it may be the same car that was at the show with Miss Belvedere. I talked to the fellow watchin over it and he said the rock gaurds and Anttenas were the only differences if I remember right. Miss Belvedere was a very errie sight to see, also very sad to see.

[Joe Handley]

Joe it may be the same car that was at the show with Miss Belvedere. I talked to the fellow watchin over it and he said the rock gaurds and Anttenas were the only differences if I remember right. Miss Belvedere was a very errie sight to see, also very sad to see.

The guy at the museum said it was the car used for the "what She's Supposed To Look Like" model at the event.

[Jon Cole]

Where did you get those photos?

Just Google searching. Sometimes I pick a title or model, and search. I like collecting photos. It's a hobby. I was going to build a model of Miss Belvedere, but decided I would rather have a clean custom '57 or '58. Like so many others, it sits in the box with a good head start.