The ceremonious unveiling of a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that had been buried, brand new, 50 years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma as a time capsule, turned out to be as big a bust as Al Capone’s empty vault.

I’m not sure which would be more embarrassing. Opening an empty vault live, on national television, or unveiling a rust bucket instead of a pristine 50-year old car that you’d brought famed hot rod builder Boyd Coddington to start as part of the ceremony. The only thing Boyd had to say was, “I’ll tell you what, she’s a mess.”

Okay, the Al Capone vault fiasco has this one beat, especially after the huge build-up that idiot Geraldo Rivera laid on us for 2 hours, but you’ve got to admit, this one is pretty damn funny too. Imagine the disappointment Dave Stragand felt when the clay covered tarp was removed and a pile of rust in the shape of a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere was revealed, when only moments before he’d commented that, “It’s our King Tut’s tomb,” he said. “It’s like a fairy tale.”

The car had been buried in a vault that had been built to withstand a nuclear attack. Unfortunately, it wasn’t impervious to moisture. Too bad they didn’t just park it in someone’s garage.

In the video a man says he’s sure the car will come out in pristine condition in 50 years because they took every precaution. Huh? You see the guys sweeping the water out of the vault before they lower the car in? Apparently, waterproofing wasn’t one of the precautions.

In the next video we see the unveiling in front of a large crowd and they actually managed to find two people in the audience that didn’t think it was a huge fiasco.

Source: CBS News

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