COOL
 

What does it say on the side? I'm hoping to pick up one of the El Paso, TX new 5.0 cars one day. One of them is Grabber blue. Mmmmmm. They use them for "traffic inforcement".

That is still too funny that you rec'd a spyshot of us traveling home with the new car. It just reinforces the fact that enthusiast-owners in the copcar hobby need to be ever-mindful of how they behave on the roads, cuz you never know who's watching you! :)

That was our first fill-up at 137 miles into the trip. We averaged 23.0 mpg on the way home, which I thought was about right.


Yes, there was a thread on Mustang Forums saying that El Paso is now using some 5.0L's. The right side on mine says "TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT" on the rocker stripe. Originally, the car was a police demonstrator for Gorno Ford in Woodhaven, Michigan. Here is how the car looked before it was purchased by the City of Harper Woods with about 6K miles on the odometer:

http://images38.fotki.com/v1223/phot.../200602-vi.jpg


I noticed last night as the dew collected on the car that the top edge of the rear window had lettering that said "got lights?". So the car was used by Gorno Ford as a demo to help sell the idea of using these S197's for police duty. I got to speak with the fleet salesman at Gorno today, and he filled me in a bit about selling this car to Harper Woods. :D

Perfectly put.

I'm surprised that they didn't, at the very least, cover over the decals for you. I wouldn't have wanted to drive it home like that.

True. When Charles Ricks registered #3035 after buying it at the auction they didn't do it. So when I went to the DMV after my purchase, I showed them a copy of the original CHP registration card for the car and they were more than happy to brand my title. :)

Mike, I was expecting them to cover the decals too. Before we left, I printed lengthwise on a sheet of paper in bold large letters "NOT IN SERVICE" which folded laid atop the middle of the light bar in the rear window (keep in mind that we flew in one-way, and didn't check any bags). I brought a small roll of electrical tape with me on the plane, so I used that to cover up the DIAL 911 on the rear fender. They removed POLICE from the front fender, which left a really nice looking ghost image on the paint -

http://images112.fotki.com/v106/phot...Car6608-vi.jpg


I have the same ghost image on the rear fender from where I removed DIAL 911 once we were home. You really have to catch the reflection in the right light to see the outline of the letters. On the side stripe, I ended up using one long piece of electrical tape, but didn't have enough tape to completely mask it at the time -

http://images55.fotki.com/v585/photo...Car6607-vi.jpg


I don't have a picture with the add'l tape covering the rocker, but I plan to paint a magnetic strip to match the stripe that will cover the letters. I may use a product called "Nightshades" on the LED lights, which is an aerosol spray film used to black-out taillight lenses. The lights have a disconnect switch under the hood, so I will be compliant with local laws about not having working lights on the car while on the road. I told Jack that the only time the lights will be used is for parades, car shows, or in our driveway (for the kids next door, of course!). On another note (pun intended), they left the siren mounted in the car (they didn't want to pay to remove it, since the front-end of the car would need to be removed to access it). However, there are no controls for the siren, and I plan to keep it that way.

And here's a shot with my SSP in the background (before removing DIAL 911 from the fender) -

http://images60.fotki.com/v224/photo...Car6610-vi.jpg

If you are going to show it (which it sounds like you are), I would remove all of the decals, decal remnants, etc. etc. etc. and have them re-made on magnets. That way, you could mark up the car at shows, parades, etc. and it would look completely stock otherwise. The magnets you mentioned for the side stripes will scratch up the car (and be a PITA). I think it would be different if it weren't a daily-driver, but I figured you were going to be pulling all of that stuff anyway, especially since it's so new.

My .02.

Mike, I appreciate your input. Your earlier comment about "de-militarizing" the car may prove to be the best path forward. I will most likely remove most of the emergency lights to keep from drawing attention to the car on the road, and prevent any hassles with the Federales. I think it would be better to keep the car clutter-free in terms of police equipment, rather than need to put signs on the car that say it is NOT IN SERVICE.

Presently, all markings have been removed except the rocker stripe (which is now fully masked). I like your comment about having the lettered magnets be for display-only, and leaving the car unmarked. The 8" LeMans stripes are cracked and faded so badly that the silver almost looks white. I plan to re-do those stripes, and could easily do the rockers at the same time with a plain stripe in the same color as the new ones going over the car. Then I could have a magnet done for display purposes to replicate the TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT lettering. That's a really good suggestion, the more I think about it.

No prob. I figured you were going to have some work to do to put it back to stock.

It looks great Bill...attached is the photo I took of it at the Ferndale Emergency Vehicle show in August that's held in conjunction with the Woodward Dream Cruise. Did they strip off their Department emblems from the passenger side door? How'd they treat the inside when they pulled their radio and laptop assembly out? I'm kind of surprised they left all those lights, but then again alot of departments seem to get lazy taking the time to remove items. Enjoy!

Crazy thing is that I remember that car from Gorno when I was working at Woodhaven Stamping! Cool to see the car out. Too bad it wasn't totally decommissioned when you got it.