Autopia Restoration

The most popular post on my blog is the one featuring the classic Disneyland opening day attraction Autopia.   Autopia has been an attraction that has faced the test of time has has been the must ride attraction for many kids and adults. Since Autopia has been around now for 57 years it has needed many updates on the vehicles as they sooner or later start to become outdated. But what happens to the old Autopia cars the Disney doesn't use anymore? Well many of things can happen to those vehicles. For instance Disney can give them to employees who want one, but there are so many cars that most of them just get sent to the landfill or the recycling yard. It is a sad but true story as most of us Disney lovers would cry to hear a fate like that as most of us would love to have one of those cars to drive around our back yard, but the actual chances of a regular person being able to own an Autopia car is just about impossible. Except for a person whose name is Shaun. One day while I was looking through my email I spotted an email address that I've never seen before but the subject bar said Original Autopia Mark VI. I was immediately interested and what I was surprised to see was that this guy actually found an Autopia car (I don't know exactly where or how, but it looks like at a house that would be found on the show American Pickers). He is now currently restoring it, because it has seen way too much weather and very little love where it previously was, and it is turning out very nice. He has sent me pictures of his car and I was so moved and amazed by this I had to share it with the other Disneygeeks out there. Below are pictures of the car when he first found it.

It looked pretty rough didn't it? Well look where he currently is on his restoration job below.

That is quite a beautiful car and it would make any Disney fan jealous so keep up the good work Shaun.

(Photo above is from the amazing blog GORILLAS DON'T BLOG)

Now I am going to give a brief history on the Mark VI Autopia car. Autopia as you may not know is an opening day attraction at Disneyland, opening July 17, 1955. Autopia is located in Tomorrowland above The Submarine Voyage and right next to The Disneyland Railroad. Autopia is the most changed attraction in all of Disney history and if you want to learn more about the attraction please visit my Autopia post here http://thinkdisney.blogspot.com/2010/05/autopia.html. Now the Mark VI cars were introduced to the track in 1964 and were a huge design change from the previous Mark I, II, III, IV, and V cars that basically kept the same look. Also the Mark VI car was the fist car to run along the famous and infamous central guide that was installed in 1965 and still remains there today in every incarnation of the ride around the world. Below are pictures of the Mark VI car in Disneyland.