Alliance, Neb. ? Damage caused by vandals to Carhenge, the automobile replica of England’s Stonehenge, has been repaired.

Friends of Carhenge Vice President LaVern Faber spent eight hours cleaning, sanding and painting a vehicle that was damaged Dec. 31 when someone used a Molotov cocktail to set the car on fire.

Samples of the material used in the vandalism have been sent to a crime lab, and State Fire Marshal Investigator Mike Turner is investigating.

Faber said he was angered that someone would target Carhenge.

“It’s just foolishness,” he said. “There’s no sense in it.”

The tourist attraction two miles north of town has been hit by vandals on numerous occasions, he said.

For example, the vehicles originally were displayed with glass in the windshields. Sheet metal replaced the glass after vandals began breaking it.

A signpost also has been burned, and the original donation box stolen. A new post and box were installed, this time embedded in concrete, but that didn’t deter potential thieves.

Not long after the cement foundation was poured, thieves attached a chain to the post and a vehicle and tried to pull it up, Faber said.

It didn’t come out of the concrete, but it did move about an inch, Faber said.

Faber said other vandals actually moved it back into place by accident when they rammed it with their car.

Artist Jim Reinders created the Stonehenge replica in 1987 as a memorial to his father who lived on a farm where it stands.

A circle of 38 half-buried and stacked American automobiles make up the attraction at what is known as the Car Art Reserve.

As many has 80,000 tourists from around the world have been known to visit Carhenge in a year, but those figures have decreased since U.S. Highway 385 was moved four miles west in 2000.