RE-CAP
Back in October 2008, I picked up a 1985 SSP Mustang from the gym teacher at school. He claimed the car used to be a California Highway Patrol car (1 of 155 Mustangs the CHP bought that year). He owned it for about 10 years, having bought it from his brother in LA. The car was slightly modified, and needed paint, body, and interior work.








The seller had zero verification that the car was what he claimed, although I was fairly certain that it was an SSP. The 2nd Buck Tag was missing, but the trunk release button was moved to the right of the steering column, the a-pillar trim had holes for spot lights, it had the 140mph speedo, and it used the single key for all locks. The 6-digit DSO (an SSP-only clue) on the door tag was consistent with other CHP Stangs. After purchasing it, I found the CHP unit number ghost-written on the side glass -




Locating the number was the first step in learning more about this car. SSP's are rich in history, and doing research is a huge part of the attraction of these vehicles. Knowing the unit number, I contacted the CHP via several methods and was VERY LUCKY to get a copy of the CHP Assignment Card directly from CHP Motor Transport:





I learned that my car served at Quincy, California Station #165 for about a year and a half. Afterward, it was repainted silver by the CHP and sold at auction for $4,650.00. The history afterward gets a little fuzzy, but along the way it was repainted "Toyota Gray". By the time it came into my custody, the car's specifications/modifications included:

- Carbed 5.0L with 5 spd (tremec)
- Hurst shifter w/ stock handle
- Centerforce clutch
- CARB-legal JBA shorties w/ full cats and 2.25" dual 3-chamber Flowmasters
- 93 Cobra 8.8" rear-end w/ disc brakes
- 87&up 11" front disc brakes
- Racecraft suspension with KYB shocks and aftermarket springs
- Aftermarket panhard bar
- Subframe connectors (welded)
- 225/60R15 (front)
- I painted the rims black, and added larger 255/60R15 BFG's out back.


As a point of reference, below are a couple of pictures of my car's twin, CHP #E408397, which was restored by a gentleman named "Andy" on the SSP forums. It should be noted that Andy's restored SSP does NOT get driven on the street in this form - the police lettering, symbols, and lights are obscured when driven on the highways.







MOVING FORWARD

In the middle of February 2009, I put the car into John's Body Shop in Wilmington, DE. Work did not begin until they finished up a 1962 AutoCar fire truck ahead of me. Here's a pic the day it went into the body shop (note the silver paint under the removed side molding)




The plan is to rebuild it as a fun driver that looks like an all-black, unmarked Fox cop car. Authentic CHP lights and antennae are in-hand. I need to update this thread to show the progress that's been made and the arrival of new parts. The car should be finished before the end of June.

 

SOME CHP PARTS ARE IN

The gentleman who found my Assignment Card at the CHP is able to sell the obsolete CHP parts that were on many of their SSP's, depending on vintage. These parts were certainly not cheap, but highly necessary for an accurate build-up.

Below are the a-pillar spotlights. California law still requires that their police cars have a steady-burn red light as part of their emergency lighting. The red spotlight meets that requirement, and will again be mounted on the driver's side post after reopening the original hole. I plan to make these functional, and cover the red one while driving to conform to the letter of the (Delaware) law.




The rear emergency lights sit atop the rear package shelf (as shown in the 1st post of this thread). These will not be wired up, in order to keep the local police from being concerned while I drive around. I also plan to buy some off-road light covers to keep everyone happy. Here is a video clip of an SSP Mustang with these lights.




The final CHP parts (for now at least) are the spring-ball base for the long antenna on the passenger rear 1/4 panel, and the shorter roof antenna.




Down the line, I will probably purchase the original radio equipment and locking shotgun rack. (Side note: Andy's restored car in the first post has a rubber Remington 870 that he uses for display purposes, but it looks real enough!) I figure the CHP-specific parts will only become more difficult to find as time goes on, so I will pick them up as opportunity and funds allow.

 

Well, I knew my CHP Mustang had lived a hard life. The Assignment Card listed that the car had been wrecked while in-service, but the car was not sold as a wreck. They repaired the car prior to it going to auction.

When originally equipped by the CHP, they would cut a hole in the bottom of the plastic front bumper cover for the loud speaker/siren, but my car had no such hole on the driver's side. Turns out the nose had been replaced. Once the bodyshop removed the nose, they saw that the metal bumper and the driver's side impact absorber were damaged.




It's tough to see in the picture, but the bumper and absorber ARE bent. Replacements are being sourced currently. There was also damage on the hood in the front driver's side, which was apparent when the paint was removed.




Finding a copy of my Assignment Card was especially important in documenting the history of the car, due in part to the fact the the SSP-specific "Buck Tag" on the radiator support was removed prior to the car coming into my possession. I have since found on-line a picture of my missing Buck Tag from a similarly equipped 1985 CHP Mustang, owned by Wynne -




From this I learned that FORD was the one who originally painted my car black and white, and then it was shipped to the CHP for lettering and equipment. Although the door's data tag shows the paint code as "1C" (Black), Ford originally painted the CHP cars white and then painted the black on the front and back of the car. In this shot, you can see under the removed side sail panels that the original color was indeed white -




So as of April 3rd, this is how my SSP Mustang looks at the body shop with much of the trim removed -




There is evidence of additional body damage on the passenger side rear quarter panel, so it will be interesting to see what is found as the paint is removed.

 

[Yes, we call this old cop-car "Bacon"]

I stopped by the body shop, but didn't have my camera with me. That's OK, because I left the shop with a small momento.

Neal (one of the body shop guys) removed the rear bumper, and had difficulty reaching one of the bolts on the passenger side. This is the area with the known body damage. He started probing the area just under the gas cap with a screwdriver, and was able to pop off the following slab of Bondo from the rear 1/4 panel -




Once I got the slab back to work, I weighed it on a postal scale - it's over 2.5 lbs of body putty! Losing that should help improve my ET's!

 

Here is a picture of the 1/4 panel where the slab of body filler was removed -




The body filler was an inch thick in places, and there is still more left on the car. They plan to bang it out rather than replace the 1/4 panel. Here is a shot of the 1/4 as they sanded towards the front of the car. The mud went all the way to the doorjam -




The other quarter panel is where the CHP whip antenna was mounted. Here, you can see where the CHP braized the holes closed (to be reopened) -




Here are two shots where the spot lights were located on the A-pillars. Note how rough the holes are -





I brought the spotlight brackets into the body shop so they could determine how much work was needed on the A-pillars to make them look good. Not pictured is where the hole in the roof was re-opened for the shorter CHP roof antenna. The headliner was removed, but a new replacement is in-hand.

 

After seeing so much body filler behind the passenger rear tire, I wasn't sure what the rest of the 1/4 panel would look like. The initial sanding showed putty all the way up to the door jam, but more effort revealed that there was in fact some Ford steel under all that Bondo. The C-pillar and roof were slightly flexed from the accident, so that's why you see body filler there. Notice the 4-lug rear disc brakes...




Here you can see that the roof is sanded, and the antenna hole was reopened. The driver's side 1/4 panel is being massaged around the area of the CHP whip antenna mount.




The removed body panels are being prepped for cut-in. New taillight lenses are enroute, which I will install into the light panels next week. A Ford NOS headlight header panel is enroute to replace the busted one behind the bumper cover. The old one had been damaged and very poorly repaired, so a new one was needed. New weatherstripping and doorchannel strips will be installed.

I decided to return the original window trim back to its polished state, however I will be straying from stock by painting the roof rail trim in body color. Dark colored 4-eyes just look too cluttered IMO when all the trim is left bright on the car. Below is a comparison that shows Marcos's car on the top (prior to restoring) with the bright roof rail trim, and Scott's car without it:




It's a subtle difference, but it reflects my personal taste. As a point of reference, my car when finished will look ALOT like Marcos's car at the top, with the spotlights and antennae. The most obvious difference between our cars will be that I am keeping its non-original blacked-out 10-hole wheels because the car has the larger '87-up front brakes. Marcos is restoring his car now, and once done his will also be unmarked, but it will be painted all black with a white roof and doorjams (in case he ever wants to do an in-service restoration, all he'll have to do is paint the outer doorskins white and add decals).

So that's all for now. I will post up more pictures later...

 

dang Bill , where are you finding that stuff, ?? gotta be like looking for a needle in a haystack

 

That's some cool stuff! Look great!!!

 

Thanks guys! The CHP equipment isn't easy to locate, nor is it cheap. Alot of the CHP radio stuff is specific to their department, so I cannot just put anything in there.

The BEST item I found was the copy of my CHP assignment card. Most folks are not that lucky. It can be VERY difficult to document a CHP car after so many years having past. The car has alot of character, which I hope to retain during the rebuild.

 

Dayum, keep this goin