I'm guessing you have tried Facebook. There must be a TXDPS group. I have been amazed at the amount of information and photos I have gotten from the CHP retirees FB page. Looking forward to updates!

I haven't, but the picture of TX's '82 came directly from the trooper who tested it back then. Of course, he gave me that info and we talked about the car long before I found this mystery car.

I will give it a look and see (on FB). I'd be surprised if there is a group for TX.

Someone's gotta have some more pics of that car.

Results of the sanding..

Sorry for the pic...posting from my mobile. Have another of the hood with white overspray (underneath), but I'll wait until I can edit it down to not ginormous.

definitely been painted white at some point.....

:)

Just to note here and I'm not sure anyone else has found this but the factory paint on my black & white '88 CHP car, with the exception of the doors, had an entire factory coat of white underneath the top coat of black.

Yep...that's how Ford did the FHP cars also. All cream, then masked and black.

GSP's had Smoke gray as well...

This car however was never intended as a specific agency ( solid black from factory) it was altered along the way by TX DPS correct Mike? Didn't I read somewhere that they did the white on it without permission?

Mike... I'm gonna have to fire you from the body shop as you've sanded onto the louvers during this little project:rolleyes: ;)

Do a little spot where no white should have been as well to show it was not a all over white spray... for documentation purposes....

Third-hand info from Trooper Pruett was that TX DPS had the test car for about 3 weeks and that Ford was upset that they had painted it white. He and I never talked about it because I didn't have the car back then.

That's why I leave the paint work to the pros!

Will do.

Is he still available to speak with? ( That's the thing about our hobby, so many are no longer with us that have our answers:No no: )

No, unfortunately he passed away a couple of years ago. We talked a bunch about the '83s, and he contributed many pictures and a ton of great info to our site.

Here is the over-spray under the hood:

Sorry to hear that... I was afraid of that.

I think you've found yourself a very important part of history my friend :cool:

Soooooo,
You now have proof it was once black and white... Are you going to restore it to factory "Demo black" or in TX DPS black and white?
For the record... I vote
"BLACK & WHITE" just sayin ;)

I opt for black and white with the red stripe and a magnetic antenna....

plus have the platemeister reproduce the plate on the back...

I think so, too. I'll keep working on fully-documenting it.

I think that would look great.

Great news on the paint. I'm sure more info will turn up at some point. Now where's that AZ SSP "marketing" car?

Did I miss pics of this one? Was it an 82 as well?

More pics in AZ in-service section. French vanilla interior.

If it had a black interior, that would make that first layer of white paint on your possible TX marketing car even more intriguing.

New info always surfacing on these cars. Fun stuff.

Oh yea now I remember it... was this after/ before the TX DPS trial?

Good stuff for sure.

My car is definitely all 1C. The one after mine is all white, per the Marti that Bill ran.

No info on that...part of the fun!

Mike when you get a chance sand on a quarter or fender ( a part the stayed black) to be certain no white was applied there... I'm just wanting to eliminate the possibility of this car getting a all over white paint job after TX DPS was done with it... ( like maybe for Arizona for instance)

I put a want ad on Phoenix CL, looking for CF234609.

https://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/wan/6027889180.html

Will do.

be nice to find that one too.

:popcorn1:

Marti report lists polar white paint with French vanilla interior on the second car.....

we need to find that car....

I vote that as well along with that one dinky, tiny little light in the rear window! ;)

That light looks a lot like the Whelan (off tope of my head thinking Responder) in middle of rear package of my 92 MSP SSP.