Here is a perfect example of why I love this forum and appreciate its members. Using Aaron's method to match California smog certificates, Mick was able to pair up the VIN and e-plate numbers on a certain 1992 CHP Mustang still owned by the CHP, allowing us to create a VIN Project page using in-service pictures provided by Sam and MikeC.

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...info176002.htm


An here are two more VIN Project pages where the group effort has identified the VIN for cars with in-service pictures:

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...info175981.htm (a white SMPV)
http://www.specialservicemustang.net...info175985.htm (a cover-shot from the CA Highway Patrolman mag)


These are great examples of the collaborative nature of this project! :2thumbs: Perhaps that explains why this is the most viewed thread on this website.

New FHP Information
 

Mick, aka FoxChassis, must be part bloodhound! :) He discovered that the State of Florida DMV website has an online resource tool to search for VIN history. He started with the suspected VIN range for the 1983 Florida SSP Mustangs, and found POLICE branded history on 20 cars! Here is a sampling of what we added to the VIN Project this weekend -

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...info215926.htm


The Florida site is a great resource for our project where we know a suspected range of VINs containing documented SSP Mustangs. Who knows what will turn up when looking for information on other-year SSP Mustangs from the FHP??? Stay tuned... :D

Finished '83, '84, and '85 batches with known FHP, and about half done with two batches from '86. :D

Also been checking batches with known TXDPS. Finished '83 and '84. :D

That's AWESOME! I have been working on a list of 93 FHP Mustangs (grabbing screenshots as I go!), and ended up creating jpg files to confirm an add'l 107 Florida SSPs from 1993!

Done checking '86 FHP.

Also checking batches of known Georgia (Dept of Revenue, State Patrol, etc.) cars. Done with '84, '88, and '89.

Mick, when you get a chance please PM or post the links to the Texas and Georgia websites so we can see what there is to work with in terms of adding cars to our VIN Project. The CHP cars are a mild PITA because they require 2 jpg files per car. The FHP cars only need one jpg file, but it is still time consuming to document each VIN on the Florida site due to the number of cars they ordered each year (but worth the effort).

:2thumbs: Thanks to both of you for the work!

Thanks Mike! These DMV searches are rewarding, but time consuming. For example, on the 92 FHP Mustangs I am closing in on completing 100 JPG files that show a POLICE branded title. There are probably another 20 or so left to go. Then I will start again with the 91's, then the 90's, 89's, etc. I can skip the 85's because they are already documented, and the 83's were the first ones done via DMV searches. Once I have all of the pictures files, then I will create the HTML pages for each car. It's very time-consuming, but once we are done with the FHP's we will have added hundreds of cars to the project! :D

Mick and I have gathered screencaps that document 791 FHP Mustangs (a few of which have already been verified with other information), but there are still 2 more years of SSPs to go before we are finished with the FHPs. :)

In addition to the twenty (20) 1983 FHP Mustangs that we recently confirmed, we just added the following Florida Highway Patrol SSPs to our project:

1984 - 21 total
1986 - 31
1989 - 78
1990 - 43
1991 - 54
1992 - 96
1993 - 83


That's 406 FHP Mustangs added to our VIN Project using the Florida DMV website for documentation. And these are just the ones that we know are FHP Mustangs because of other SSPs that are already verified. There are hundreds more SSPs to be added whose VINs make them "likely" FHP Mustangs, but not confirmed. These cars also have POLICE branded titles and are contained in the same consecutive unit number batch as other FHP Mustangs. We may pull a few Marti reports on some of these to confirm their DSO and see how they were equipped. But when these additional SSPs are added, their FHP status will be listed as "unconfirmed".

As a rough estimate, we now have over 2,000 SSP Mustangs listed on our VIN Project! :)

EDIT: And thanks Mick aka FoxChassis for grabbing many of the screenshots that we used to document these FHP Mustangs.

Good Job Bill!

My dad got me a copy of this magazine. In it they do a 5spd swap on an SSP Coupe. They don't say what year it is or anything else about it. I got the photo here from Muscle Mustangs facebook page. In the article you can see the car is black, red interior, trunk pop is close to the lower left edge of the access panel, and the car has a red interior without the black on the dash.
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...22334421_n.jpg

It would be nice to find a way to contact them to learn more about it:D Sad it's being modified...

Done with '90, '91, and '92 so Georgia is finished, at least for batches with known DOR and GSP in them.

Sam, that kinda sounds like the 1990 SSP that they modified on Stacey David's GEARZ Show -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRlXDC8p9F0


That was a 6-speed swap though, and the interrior was gray in the above car.


Thanks again, Mick!

For TX, I have '83 through '87 checked and still have '88 through '90 and '93 to go through, again only for batches with known TXDPS.

REVISED LAYOUT
 

Now that we have over 2,000 (+/-) SSPs listed in our project (with 100s more to soon be added), we decided to revise the layout of the VIN listings to make them more user-friendly. The VINs are now left-justified on the page, and those SSPs with documentation are still linked. The change is that a brief description has been added after each link to identify the agency (if known), and any other data that doesn't change as cars change owners. This should make it easier to scroll through the page to look for specific agencies.

Feel free to check out the new pages:

1982 VINs
1983 VINs
1984 VINs
1985 VINs
1986 VINs
1987 VINs
1988 VINs
1989 VINs
1990 VINs
1991 VINs
1992 VINs
1993 VINs

:)

Good idea, but it should be Minnesota State Patrol (not police). Thanks for your hard work!

Bob

Thanks Bob! I just fixed that oversight. If anyone sees something amiss like that, please let me know. :)

Bill:

If you want to add info to the four-eyed VIN lists of ones that I know are not SSPs, let me know and I'll get you the VINs. I have emailed you before about them, when I discovered them. They are the Zimmer conversions. I know of 13 from 1983, four from 1985 and one from 1986. I have not been keeping track of the aero VINs but 1988 was the last year for them. I think there is one from 1988 on ebay right now.

Mick

I think North Carolina State Police should be Norh Carolina Highway Patrol.

Good catch, but a slight revision to your revisions....it's the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NCSHP). Thanks!

The agency logo and uniform patch says "North Carolina Highway Patrol" (no "State") but a Trooper's badge and the official website says "North Carolina State Highway Patrol", so I could go either way on it. :)

and that right there is why we are.......The DEFINITIVE Special Service Mustang Website! :)

I made this revision to the NC cars. I also added Unit Numbers to the 1987 CHPs (thanks to Mick!).

There is a batch of 3 vins in 1989 section that I doubt are SSP's. Remember that white one I posted in the for sale that was on cl, with a vin that was on the list? Didn't have SSP cluster and wasn't an SSP from what my dad and I could tell. Just heads up.

Sam, you mean this 89 car that you posted not too long ago, right? I agree with you that this car (VIN is 144992) is most likely not a SSP, which is why it is not featured in the VIN Project with a hyperlink to its own page. With so many V8 notchbacks in the consecutive unit number listings for each year, I tend to go on the basis that a VIN is not a SSP unless proved (through pictures, Marti, matching DSOs, etc) to be a SSP. We tried to word the header so folks see that the list of VINs includes civilian V8 coupes and SSPs, but some people miss that little tidbit. Regardless, I would rather not point out the civilian VINs unless they key in on a batch of SSPs (like the first two civilian VINs in the batch containing the 85 CHP and OSP Mustangs).

Thanks to Mick, aka FoxChassis, for his help AGAIN! We have now included the CHP Unit Numbers and Office Locations for the VIN listings on the 89 and 90 model years, as seen here:

http://www.specialservicemustang.net/VINlist/89VIN.html (starting with 211169)
http://www.specialservicemustang.net/VINlist/90VIN.html (starting with 170115)

:)

I guess you could say they have a "split personality" :D . Check out the display sign they use when showing their still owned 1993 SSP Mustang.

Pretty sure thats sleeper88's car on the Corral

If y'all go through the 1987 VIN page...

http://www.specialservicemustang.net/VINlist/87VIN.html


...and scroll down to 184744 you will find the first of six SSPs where we used CHP Assignment Cards for 1985 Mustangs to determine the VIN of the 1987 Mustangs that replaced them. Kinda cool... :)

Here is an example of using the California Smog Certificate search function to document some more SSPs:

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...nfo213052.html


Since we know the VIN range of the 1982 CHP Mustangs, we are able to use this information to document 72 more of the 1982 SSPs. This method can also be used for CHPs from other years where we know a range of VINs that fall in-between confirmed SSPs with the same DSO number. :)

KATRINA SSP
 

This 1988 car turned up on the Florida DMV search as having possibly been a flood-damaged car from Hurricane Katrina -

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...info240775.htm


This car is part of a CUN block of 190 cars, but with no documented SSPs contained within the group. There are 84 cars from this batch that came back with a POLICE-branded title, so these are most likely FHP units. We will be pulling a Marti Report on a car from this batch to confirm the SSP option as a way to connect the dots.

Thanks go out to Mick/FoxChassis for his assistance again. He provided jpg files for DMV searches on 1984 CHP Mustangs. By limiting ourselves to cars we KNOW to be part of the same DSO number, we have been able to add 16 more 1984 CHP Mustangs to our project. Here is an example of one car that was last inspected in May 2012 -

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...nfo204009.html


We have also added a copyright (terms of use) statement at the bottom of pages with pictures from the California smog website. We are allowed to use them as long as we follow the rules, and the statement was added as a proactive step to show our compliance. Florida is another state that allows the use of their information. Other states are more restrictive, so we will probably only use their online search tools as a method to pin down VIN ranges of suspected cars, and rely on other resources to provide documentation for our project once we know which VINs to run.

Super work Bill!

Thanks Jason! It's been a fun & rewarding effort. Presently, there are over 1,000 CHP Mustangs included as active links. I plan to order a few Marti Reports in the new year that will confirm the DSOs for batches of other cars (not just CHPs), which will allow me to add even more SSPs to the Project. :)

Our first 1985 North Carolina SSP has been added to the Project -

http://www.specialservicemustang.net...info251154.htm


This car was listed for sale on CL, and a thread was created here about the car. I spoke with the seller, Allen, around Christmas, and he was supposed to send me more pictures (including one of the build sheet!). If I get them, I will add the pictures to the page. :)

Great job your doing Bill !!! You are really paving the way in the SSP hobby. Your gonna end up a house hold name in the SSP community... 5-10 years from now There will be even more grateful SSP owners out there... :-) I know I speak for alot of us when I say "Thanks for all you do and have done."

That would be a cool SSP to see someone scoop up and finish.

I'm running Autochecks for that batch of 37. A few so far seem to be alive today. :) I might run some MVR title history reports (NCDOT form MVR-605A) for some or all of them, to see if NCSHP, or any other state/county/city/etc agency, is the original owner. They're only $1 each and are allowable for "research" purposes so long as personal information is not republished.

Mick, you may find that the tail-end of that 1985 batch are the Nebraska SSPs. They are either contained in that batch, or the one with 208460, unless the DSO(s) was divided in smaller batches.

That's great that the State of North Carolina let's you buy/collect information for research purposes. I need to check my notes to see if we could pin down some other-year VIN ranges of suspected NC cars, and request information on them as well.