Hang in there....will all be worth it in the end.

X's 2

Thanks guys. It will certainly be worth the effort.

x2

This is an important addition to the preservation of CHP vehicle heritage...keep it coming Bill! :2thumbs:

Looks good!
I personally would still put in on a frame rack, unless the measurements that were taken were to the standards of a body shop with a frame rack. With that many problem areas I would think the front end would be a tad tweaked. My 85 was off by over an inch down and to the side, but it didn't look very noticible other than the front end was a tad slanted to one side.

Are you still going to paint it black and white first, Bill? Again if it were my car I would do that, since most likely when it was repainted white the new shade would have been a bit off from the doors and the paint break on the C pillar probably would have been visible. Most people probably wouldn't notice though, it's up to you:)

Everything shown can be fixed, obviously taking more time and work, but the final product I can't wait to see. I also would put it up on a fame rack. So much of a car depends on the frame being staight, steering, tire wear, body alignment, ect.. Glad to see this car is on the right path. Good job Bill!!

That will be the plan eventually, Sam. The first pass on the car will be single-stage white, just like Ford applied the paint. Then certain areas will be painted black, like the undersides of the hood and decklid, and the trunk area. This will be the base for a future full-blown restoration in the correct layers of paint.


Ken, I owe you a phone call. My apologies! I just got caught up in getting ready for my trip to the MCA Show in Beaumont. I think a visit to a frame machine would be a very good idea too.

Here is a quick picture showing some of the CHP parts I picked up from Mike. Since I brought along an extra full-size spare for the long trip, I had to fold the rear seats down. :) Thanks Mike!

Bill,

they all crack bro....especially when driven hard, jumped over crap in the median, etc. My 92 CHP car had so many stress cracks in the floor, trans tunnel, firewall, torque boxes and core support that I thought we would never get them all welded. After welding it all up and grinding it plus epoxy primer you couldn't even tell. Hell I had to torch off the most God aweful set of aftermarket frame rails you have ever seen in your life.

it can all be fixed and bringing one back that is in that condition is well worth the effort.

just think of Mikes 85 FHP and realize how lucky you really are. lol

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones too. Even though my car endured 10 years of Academy use on top of 2 years of patrol work, the bottom of it is just as clean as a whistle with no cracks or other related damage. The guys at the Mustang shop I took it to when I first bought it were absolutely amazed at the great condition of the unit body.

Although the car is farther along than the attached picture indicates, I thought it was worth sharing. This is the cowl with it sanded to show the number of paint layers. :p

That's pretty Kewl ...
Are you gonna have it stripped all down to metal or just block it real good?

Bobby, it has snowballed into more than just a quick scuff and a splash of color :p

I'd say so ! Lol
Looking good though... And you'll feel a lot better about it when your done...

Hey Bill great pics. Looks like pogress, unfortunately all that paint must go in order to do it right. I have the same issue too. Sealer, white, black, sealer, blue, white and white again. That's a lot of paint layers.

Wow, that IS a lot of layers. :D

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sacramento-S...tr#ht_38wt_904

and

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-Sacrame...2#ht_25wt_1399

as is shown in the in service pic.

Bill has to get these frames!!!!
Kewl find!!!

Bret, THANK YOU for taking the time to search for those Senator license plate frames. I already picked up two of those -

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...5&postcount=31


:)

yea, they were pretty cheap, thought you might want spares. My '67 Thunderbird was sold new through SouthCoast Ford in Laguna Beach and it took me YEARS to find a frame from that dealership. Actually Todd, you met at Beamont, found one for me. Looks right on the car.

My apologies for not including photos in this post, but I need to run down to the shop and take more pictures.

The car will be coming apart even more, since we decided to replace the passenger side front apron and give a little "tug" on the shock tower. I contacted Matt at FMR, and he has a complete used passenger apron/rail for an 85 which I am having shipped up this week. The factory radiator support will be repaired. I may end up replacing the passenger door due to the amount of bondo (not sure how the window was able to go down!).

yeh I told my paint guy to just scuff and spray the Idaho car roof white. That turned into fender aprons, core support, and a complete strip and paint job....... been there.

You WILL be much happier now that you are taking it down all the way and doing it right.

You are 100% correct on that, Jim. I wasn't planning to get this "involved" with the SMPV at this time, but I cannot see doing things half-@ssed when the car is at this stage. It will take a bit more time (and money), but in the end I will be much happier with the final result.

The new (used) passenger engine apron from FMR will be delivered tomorrow, which should be installed later this week. The car is almost done being sanded, and should be in primer shortly. The roof hole for the original antenna location was being welded up yesterday. That hole will not be needed for the SMPV because the antenna was moved to the trunklid.

Kris found an interesting small hole in the roof. It is located near the roofline edge above the driver's side window jam. Here it is to the left of the $1 piece, used for perspective:

http://images57.fotki.com/v139/photo...Shop21a-vi.jpg


There is also an indentation to the left edge of the photo. I am not sure why that was drilled. It looks like a slide hammer hole to pull a dent, but there doesn't appear to be any repairs in the area. I will take more photos as the car comes apart and back together.

Can't wait to see this come together :-)

Is there identical holes on the passenger side, same area ?
Wonder if before it became an SMPV it had a lightbar ?
OR... they WERE going to put a lightbar on the vehicle then changed their minds and patched the holes ?

Just a thought.

I'm not sure, John. I do not remember seeing holes on the passenger side of the roof, but I will check again.

I received a few parts today from FMR. The first is a used LX nose that will need to be stripped and prepped (I will replicate the CHP hole on the driver's side using mine as a template):

http://images51.fotki.com/v102/photo...Shop22a-vi.jpg


The second item is a used passenger side apron:

http://images59.fotki.com/v1579/phot...Shop23a-vi.jpg


Kris just came by my office and picked up the parts. I will go down to his shop on Thursday (with my camera) to see how far along he's gotten with the apron. Does anybody have some recommendations for sourcing front suspension pieces? I have a good used rack for it, but everything else needs to be replaced. Ford parts preferred...

Keep 'em coming Bill...photos are good! :yes:

Despite my best intentions to get down to the shop to take more pictures, I didn't quite make it there. Yesterday, I ran my 66 Mustang through DMV inspection to renew the tags for 2 years. The car had been at my parent's place all winter, and I just had all of the fluids changed and a few little items fixed. While tooling down I-95 yesterday, the car started acting up. I got it onto the shoulder before it shut down completely. There is an electrical issue because the battery would barely turn the engine over - bad alternator most likely. I called Kris and he came with a trailer. One guy in a Dodge truck stopped, and a DelDOT worker stayed with me with his emergency lights on until we got the car winched onto the trailer. We headed home and unloaded the car in the driveway.

Upon closer inspection in the safety of our driveway, there was no fuel in the clear in-line fuel filter cartridge. So it is either a bad sender in the fuel tank (and I ran it outa gas), the fuel pump went bad after sitting so long (it is about 25 years old now), or there is crud in the line that plugged it up. But the car and I made it home safely (with Kris's help!). So it's all good. :)

Given the circumstances, this is the only picture I have from yesterday...

Wow....that's Delaware traffic? Are you sure you weren't really in downtown L.A.?? Haha....

Glad you made it home safely! ;)

Between I-95, I-495 (Wilmington by-pass), and I-295 (the split to New Jersey), the entire state of Delaware has an estimated 40 miles of Interstate. By itself, I-95 runs about 24 miles through the northern county in Delaware (there are only three counties in Delaware too). At times, we pack a lot of cars onto a tiny section of road. :rolleyes:

I do NOT miss those days ! That looks like the 91 or the Long beach freeway ( 710 )

I used to park on an on ramp, stand at the edge, look down at traffic, great way to find drivers with road cokes. ( open containers )
Got a stolen doing that once on the 405 freeway.
Sometimes I had a motor work with me, he'd chase em down, site em, or I'd drive along side of them and motion them to pull to the shoulder.

LOL They would always ask............ " how did you know I had that ? "

The CHP knows EVERYTHING !

lolol

Bill, you really need to find a parts car, maybe a 5.0 hatch. It will save you more money if it has good parts than separately buying the pieces. Can even make a little more money selling what you don't need and scrapping the body :)

Sam, I think you must have been talking with Rich lately. He said the same thing, and has a specific black 85 GT in mind for me! :yes: Lack of funds and lack of space are the only two things holding me back...

I actually can't remember the last time I talked to him :(

I guess the nice thing about living on the east coast is when you need a parts car, there are rusty donors worthy of being parted out around, instead of nice rust free cars here on the west coast lol

Still working the metal at this point. Here is a shot of the roof with the antenna hole filled and pulled. It won't need much filler. (as a reminder, the CHP moved the roof antenna to the trunklid on the SMPVs.)

http://images55.fotki.com/v509/photo.../Shop33-vi.jpg


As I may have said before, the passenger door is not worth saving. The lower portion is deep with filler:

http://images61.fotki.com/v52/photos.../Shop32-vi.jpg


Whereas the driver's door is slightly rippled but still salvageable:

http://images108.fotki.com/v613/phot.../Shop34-vi.jpg


The front part of the driver's side rocker still needs a gentle pull:

http://images52.fotki.com/v638/photo.../Shop31-vi.jpg


Finally, the new nose was placed for effect (it still needs to be stripped):

http://images59.fotki.com/v426/photo.../Shop30-vi.jpg


The passenger side apron needs to be tackled, but progress can still be seen.

Looking killer Bill!

Progress is a great thing ! Keep it up :-) She's lookin good Bill ...
Hope to make some more on the 92 GSP this week.

The dent on the driver's side rocker is getting some attention -

http://images58.fotki.com/v511/photo.../Shop34-vi.jpg

http://images50.fotki.com/v1559/phot.../Shop35-vi.jpg

http://images51.fotki.com/v299/photo.../Shop36-vi.jpg


:)

Great progress!

Looking Great Bill !!!