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[SIZE="5"]Workers are dismayed to find water in Belvedere's container [/SIZE]

The vault in which Tulsa buried a Plymouth Belvedere 50 years ago was built to withstand a nuclear attack.

Water, apparently, not so much.

Workers lifted the vault's lid Wednesday morning to find about 2 feet of standing water and indications the vault may have been filled to the rim sometime during the past half-century.

Despite the discovery, organizers said late Wednesday that they think the car may be in reasonably good shape.

"It's not a rust bucket," said Art Couch of W.N. Couch Construction, after he and Jim Taylor of Taylor Crane examined the steel skid on which the car rests.

"We felt the sides of the car and it's solid," Couch said.

The Plymouth will remain encased in several layers of purportedly water-tight material until Friday, when it is taken from the vault east of the Tulsa County Courthouse and to the Convention Center Area.

On Wednesday morning, its trademark tailfins were clearly visible under the coverings, but hopes for recovering the car in something like pristine condition faded.

"It's sad, really," said Tulsan Jim Brewer, who attended the Belvedere's burial on the courthouse lawn in 1957.

The condition of an accompanying time capsule, which in appearance resembles a small propane tank, was not clear on Wednesday.

On Thursday, one of Taylor's cranes will be installed on Denver Avenue and several practice lifts conducted. Couch said the steel skid under the car appeared to be sound, but a second rig will be installed for safety's sake.

Discovery of the water was particularly difficult for the scores of volunteers who have worked for more than 18 months on the car's excavation. Their chairwoman, Sharon King Davis, wiped away a tear as she surveyed the vault.

She brightened a few minutes later, though, and said, "The party goes on!"

In addition to Friday's unearthing and unveiling activities, two Tulsarama car shows featuring 500 classic automobiles and a Saturday night sock hop are scheduled for the weekend.

The possibility that water might have made its way into the vault was, in fact, not a surprise. When discussions about excavating the car began in late 2005, some sort of water damage was considered likely.

As more was learned about preparations for the car's burial in 1957, though, expectations began to rise. They were given another boost in April when an exploratory dig to one corner of the vault found no sign of damage.

And, in fact, the vault shows no obvious signs of failure. Vertical lines suggest water may have come in under the lip of the lid but don't explain why the water level shifted over time.

"I don't know how that much water got in there," Couch said. "We've dug trenches 30 feet deep in this area and not found water."

Two out-of-town visitors -- Mark J. Hash of Sutherlin, Ore., and Mark Sandwith of Victoria, Australia -- were undeterred by the Belvedere's amphibious habitat.

"I always thought it would be not perfect but not a rust heap, either," Hash said. "It looks like it's going to be somewhere in between."

Hash's 1957 Plymouth Fury -- somewhat rare because only 7,000 were made -- is entered in the invitational car show at the Civic Center.

Sandwith and his friend Andrew Sharpe have built a five-week holiday around their stop in Tulsa. They picked up a 1961 Chrysler Newport in San Francisco and plan to drive as far east as Nashville before returning to the West Coast.

"It's still a good trip," Sandwith said.

"Even if it turns out to be a rust bucket, I guess there's a moral to the story," said Tulsan Steve Walter.

And that would be?

"Something about burying your treasure," he said, a reference to Matthew 6:19: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy."

"Either that," Walter continued with a twinkle in his eye, "or the value of good French drains."