http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/12/corvette-museum-sinkhole/54 17171/
Well that's gonna ruin someone's day!
When we first moved to Florida in 1969 we went across the Anclote river bridge (Hwy 19) about 10 pm at night.
The next day we found out that a sinkhole had collapsed many of the bridge pilings later that night killing several motorists as the bridge failed. Almost ruined our evening!
Good thing I drive a Ford Model T.
Good thing they were just Corvettes. Would be a shame if real cars were damaged like that...
Reminds me of the Vintage Auto Museum fiasco here in Point Pleasant N.J. After looking for a spot for years they finally got a nice building near the water. They opened 6 weeks before Sandy hit. Car owners who couldn't remove their cars were told to raise them up on blocks about 24" as through 2 other storms, in the 60's & 90's, the water never got that high. Of course it was an all T display. The water reached an estimated 56". 4 were removed and 7 T's were partially under water and all the other displays were wrecked. I haven't been back there but I understand they re-opened a while back.
Im not sure why they cant recover the cars, It says the hole is only 30ft deep, A good cran can go that far very easy. Just hook up a cable to the frame of the car and lift it out. Iv removed cars from 40ft of water before when they broken through the ice and its not that hard.
I think they are first making sure that the building isn't about to collapse, then they probably have to remove part of the building to get a crane over the hole. What a mess!
Will-- The way I read that they will be recovering the cars, but are waiting until the integrity of the building is assessed. Wouldn't want it collapsing on anyone while trying to recover the cars.
I guess Chris responded a little quicker than I did!
Looks like good fill to me. A few more gm parts should do the trick. Scott
I'm just glad they didn't lose any '53 models.
The only loss imho was a '62, the others were 1984-2009 models, too modern to care much about - they woulden't have looked better with more age.
Thanks guys! I needed the laugh. it has been a difficult week.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
Corvette or Model T; its still a shame. What would we be saying if it happened to the Model T museum in Richmond and GM enthusiasts were making fun of our loss?
Terry, I am sure it's just all tongue in cheek.
Well Terry, I suppose we would be as upset with them as they probably are now with us. So, all things being equal...
Not funny when anything gets swallowed by a sinkhole
Jim
I read that 70% of all Chevrolet pickups ever built are still out on the road. The remaining 30% still run and were able to make it home.
As the owner of a Model T and three Corvettes I think it is a shame to lose any of these cars.I hope they are all removed and repaired.
I have owned both Chevrolet's and ford's over the years and loved them all. Not sure why some of you guy's jump in and bad mouth the Chevrolet when ever it comes up?
I would love to have a 57 Corvette but They are way out of my price range. I think that the Corvette went down hill styling wise when the double head lights came in in 58.
I was in High School in 1954 when a friend of my father, my old scout master, came by with a new Corvette. He worked for Western Electric in New Jersey and borrowed it from a friend for a fast trip home. He picked up three speeding tickets on the way out. I can still remember the ride he gave us, he and my dad up front and me behind the seats under the top,
out Pennsylvania ave where the new Riverside California UCR was being built. I was a skinny little kid then. I would never fit today.
The three carburetors sounded great.
John,
I hear ya'
I am an equal opportunity hauler ...
Jim
This unfortunate act of God is a shame even if one doesn't care much for the Corvette.
Corvettes do represent a remarkable study in one American car company's view of the modern sports car, some iterations better than others. But a car, none the less, worthy of respect.
I have learned the hard way never to criticize another man's(or woman's) choice of automobile.
Of course the jury is still out on my dear wife's Prius. But that's ALL my fault because I refuse to learn how to "drive" it. You see, I keep forgetting one must first step down on the thing that looks like a brake peddle before moving that silly thing that looks like a shift lever into an imaginary position that mimic's a gear selection before depressing the "Hello Kitty-esque" thing that looks like an accelerator... before ever expecting the "feature" that is often referred to as a "power plant" to move the "earth saving" thing some call a car, forward. Believe me, attempting to move backwards is even more surreal!
Darn lucky we all discovered Model T's when we did!
Boy, am I dead if my wife reads this!
Naw,I cant laugh at this.makes me sick,hope they can recover them
I pick on my dad all the time about his old dodges,
but there are lemons in all of them.
My old Chevy has took a beaten over the years.Total lossed once ,because of cost of repair from being hit, and even after bounceing out a ditch this morning,still brought me home safe.
So Yea,I have a several fords.But I have a chevy to haul parts for them.It hauled everything for my TT except the dump bed useing a trailer.
The chevy with over 350,000 miles on it,250,000 of them with me driveing it, has never left me stranded from home.What can I say?
We were watching this on the news and it said the cars disappeared in thirty seconds. In my natural humor, I said to my wife "Well I guess they always claimed they were fast" she about spit her coffee out laughing, telling me I ma bad! Seriously, I am glad they weren't an individuals car
Lol Dan wins the thread.
The cars may have been privately owned. A friend of mine told me that one of the local Corvette club members had a car on display in the museum for a year and just brought it home last November.
Yup, The devil reached right up and grabbed those 8 Corvette's right to hell, just like that! I guess the dammed will be fighting over those for several eturnities to come! Personally I think grabbing a few snow cone machines would have made more sense!
Reminds me of the old lawyer joke.
What do you call 8 corvettes in the bottom of a sink hole? A good start.
Speaking of Lawyers
So why does New York have all the lawyers and New Jersey all the landfills? New Jersey got first pick.
What's the difference between a dead lawyer lying in the middle of the road, and a dead dog lying in the middle of the road? You won't find skid marks in front of the lawyer.
What do you call a lawyer with an I.Q. of 50? Your Honor.
A wealthy lawyer is taking a relaxing drive through the country-side when he notices two men sitting along the road eating grass. Directing his driver to stop the limousine, he asks the men why they would be doing such a thing.
"Begging your pardon, sir, but we have nothing to eat and no money to buy food!"
"Well, then," the lawyer says, "come with me!"
"But, sir, I've got a wife and three kids!" says the first man. "I've got a wife and six kids!" says the second.
"That's great," says the lawyer, "bring them along!" So they all crowd into the lawyer's limo and start driving back to his mansion.
As they're driving the first man turns to the lawyer and says, "I've just got to thank you, sir, for your incredible kindness... taking us all in off the street and..."
"Oh, think nothing of it!" interrupted the lawyer. "The grass at my house must be at least two feet high!"
What's the difference between a lawyer and a trampoline? You remove your shoes to jump on a trampoline.
How can you tell when a lawyer is lying? His lips are moving.
Why have scientists started using lawyers in laboratory tests instead of rats? There are some things even a rat won't do.
Why do medical researchers use lawyers in lab tests instead of rats? They found that they were getting attached to the rats.
What should you do when you find a lawyer buried up to his neck in sand? Get more sand.
How do you get a lawyer out of a tree? Cut the rope.
How do you save a lawyer from drowning? Take your foot off his head.
If two lawyers were caught in a burning house, and you could only save one of them, would you go have some lunch or read the newspaper?
What's the difference between God and a lawyer? God doesn't think he's a lawyer.
What's the difference between a catfish and a lawyer? One's a bottom-dwelling scum-sucker and the other is just a fish.
What's the difference between a dog and a lawyer? Eventually, the dog will stop chasing an ambulence.
What's the difference between a vampire and a lawyer? One's a blood-sucking manifestation of absolute evil, the other is only imaginary.
Did you hear about the terrorist who hijacked a plane full of lawyers? He threatened to release one every hour unless his demands were met.
What is brown and black and looks good on a lawyer? A doberman.
Why did the post office recall the new lawyer stamps? People couldn't decide which side to spit on.
Jay -- I've heard just about all of those before, but they never get old!
Memories....
In 1969, I bought a Corvette that was totaled and rebuilt it. The funny thing was that it was broad sided by a 57 T Bird. The T Bird head light rim was setting on the passenger seat when I bought it from the wrecking yard. That was the last fiber glass car that I rebuilt! Enjoyed the Corvette while I had it.....turned out great. And...Yes, I'm sorry that I do not have it today.
I did not enjoy the itching caused by grinding/sanding fiberglass. Most all my cars have been salvage vehicles. Doing my thing for the environment.
In all seriousness, I would never wish such a loss of cars on anyone. Not even GM. I have actually come close to buying a Corvette a few times myself.
I have always found the whole Ford/Chevrolet feud amusing (and often quite enjoyable). My own family leaned heavily toward GM cars (I have my dad's '68 Chevy 3/4 ton pickup). I have had more Fords than Chevys and play either side of that feud game.
That morning was a tough day, the humor expressed by others did help me. Thank you all again for that.
If nobody was killed in the tragedy (of any sort), we should try to find humor in everything.
As to Lawyers. Thank you Jay for a wonderful list of Lawyer tales. I needed that wonderful and heartfelt laugh!
Let me add one more.
If you put all the lawyers in the world on to a rusty old hulk of a ship, let it float out to the middle of the ocean and sink. The tragedy would be that maybe three decent, innocent, human beings would have died.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
any update as to rather they got any out or not?
Jay... Darn FUNNY!!!
Les You and I are a lot alike I believe!
On Corvettes I too built my share of wrecks. Bought a few new ones too years ago! What you do is buy yourself a Binks oiless fresh air system. It has a whole head mask and about a 30 foot hose. Place pump unit up high and inside a clean place with cool air. Buy yourself a chemical suit. The plastic woven and breathable material kind. I got mine from Army Surplus. Impervious to the pulverized glass fibers. Use rubber or Nitril gloves. Do all of your grinding in the suit. Have someone hose you off while you are in the suit. Hang it up on a clothesline to blow in the breeze for 24 hours. Take a hot shower and then a cold one the last 3 minutes. Lay on a sheet all night and do NOT scratch. In the morning you'll be fine. I was allergic to the glass and resin so I had to learn how to compensate early on. I wasn't when I started doing glass though but your system will let you know when it has had enough!!! Different for everyone. Had 25 of those things. I wish I had several of the one's I had back then. Worth a lot now. But who knew????? 1954 thru 87. Good times and the bad. Always easy to sell if they were right.
Jay I am still laughing!!
There is hope....Chevrolet to the rescue..
http://autos.aol.com/article/chevrolet-to-oversee-restoring-sinkhole-corvettes/? icid=maing-grid7%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl11%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D443189
Take a look out on CNN this morning. There's a video of a small drone down in the hole video taping the cars in the pit.
It's a money-pit! Not uncommon in the Corvette world.
Joe: One more fiberglass trick that works. Before doing any work with fiberglass. Get in the showner and cover youself head to toe in talc powder. Rub in in to your skin as much as you can. You are tring to fill the pores of you skin with talc instead of later filling them with fiberglass. I was taught this trick by our construction insulators that used fiberglass and rock wool on a daily basis. It does work. Not perfect but does away with about 90% of the itch. As to the Ford / Chevy feud I look at it like a high school football team rivalry. It should be done in jest. Lord knows, I have given my fair share of grief to those poor Chevy Folks. But all joking aside, I hope they can get it all fixed up and save the cars. A loss for anyone (even insurance companys) is a bad thing.
I should have said, "get in the shower, without the water running" I would think that would be obvious, but in todays world of diminishing "common sense" I thought I should clarify it.
Hehehe, I fiqured out without the water running.BUT if this were posted on a forum with a different class of people you would have to clarify alot further.
My wife also learned when I work with fiberglass, my work cloths get washed separately....followed by several wash loads of other items before the underwear goes in. I have, on occasion, just tossed my cloths in the trash after grinding fiberglass.
The grinding dust is hell with fiberglass. I have taped my shirt sleeves, around the neck.....it still finds it way in. In a couple of days, life gets back to normal. Smile!
Oh boy...thread drift
I once had a situation where unbeknownst to me...the woman of my life at the time who never argued but whenever miffed with me would do my laundry (underwear) in the same washer load with those early 1970's fiberglass drapes that hung on our windows.
When caught she said she was making her point...but I never found out what that point really was.
Nice gal otherwise, but she had to go...deemed too devious and clever
Sorry Wayne,
That ship could not have sunk. Too much Hot Air on board.
Cary
Cary A,
Good point!
The joke about the PO stamps wouldn't make sense to Kids today--they've only known self-adhesive stamps!
A cruise ship with a lawyers convention on board sank in shark-infested waters, but no lawyers were lost--the sharks showed them professional courtesy!
I am not a Corvette guy in any way, shape or form but a couple of the car's lost were one of pre-production and/or concept cars. That is a real loss even if you don't care about them. JMHO
An update:
http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/crane-retrieves-first-three-corvettes-sink hole
i am proud of 3 model t,s and 5 corvettes, i worked at corvette for 18 in st louis
Just goes to show that God is a Ford follower.
Im waiting to see what the new Chincavette is going to look like when they come from China.
Corvettes from China??? :>0
I aint sure I want to see that!
Hi Mack, the world news service over here showed the head guy of GM kissing the behinds of the Chinese and the new Chinese managers of GM china with a range of the new models being assembled in the Chinese plant with the gold bow tie badge on them, Sedans and sports cars so new just watch your dears lots, in another news item they showed the new jeeps being made there as well, its a worry but I would not buy a GM product anyway. Ray
That has got to be the ugliest museum building I've ever seen. I tried to figure what it reminds me of:
Yes, I think it is the barnacle!
TH