Returned to In-Service - My 93 Missouri State Highway Patrol SSP
 

Hello,

As most of you know I've been working towards returning my 1993 Missouri State Highway Patrol SSP Mustang to in-service condition. It's getting close to almost 2 years now.

A quick recap, ImEvil1 (Mike) knew that I was looking for an MSHP. He tipped me off that Jeff Gill (USPS SSP) had listed one for sale over on .Org. Jeff had bought the SSP from Eric Prince (MustangRetriever) approx 1 year earlier. Eric had the pleasure of buying it directly from the City of Cottleville, Missouri who were using this originally all white MSHP SSP as a black and white DARE car. Eric purchased it "equipped and marked" in the manner that Cottleville had set it up as a DARE car. This SSP has a great history and has document in-service pictures with 2 different law enforcement agencies, which I find to be pretty cool.

Well a trip to New York later to visit Jeff and see this SSP in person and a deal was done to purchase it. A couple weeks later it was in my garage. My goal all along has been to return it back to correct in-service setup and to do it right the first time to avoid redoing something later. To that end, unfortunately, to be completely satisfied I needed to have the old paint jobs completely stripped down to bare metal for the return to all white.

About 15 months ago I had the pleasure of meeting the Trooper in person who was assigned to my SSP the entire time in service with the MSHP (Lt. Vince Rice who is now Asst. Director of Internal Affairs). That was a great experience. I've continued to correspond with him and look forward to getting my SSP out to Missouri in the near future to visit my family back there and provide him an opportunity to take take his old MSHP SSP out for a spin!

I would like to extend a BIG thanks to Eric Prince for his support with my project. Without all your help no way this could have been done. The path you paved by researching and documenting these cars culminating in the MSHP History & Restoration Guidebook has been a great advantage. This allowed me to learn so much about the MSHP SSP's. I appreciate your patience with the countless questions that I posed to you about this project.

It's just been finished so these photos were just taken and the sun was mostly down. I'll take some more in next couple days when I can get some better light. Looks like we're going to get some snow so that might slow me down. The MSHP gave me permission to purchase the period correct emblems from their supplier and I have them mounted on magnetic backings. Will be fun to get a quick picture with those on it as well.

To provide a timeline...attached is an in-service photo taken by Vince Rice, the Trooper who was assigned to it. Also have attached a photo Eric took just after buying from Cottleville as well as a couple photos from this evening back in MSHP in-service condition (w/out emblems of course for now)!

Thanks for reading...this has been a great deal of fun!

Nice job, Mike. It looks great.:2thumbs:

Very, very cool. Post up more pics when you can! :thumbsup:

Excellent Mike, nice work! Joe

Mike , great job ! looks great !

very nice !! congratulations the car it looking great. :2thumbs:

jam up job Mike looks great:cool: looking foward to more pics

Mike, that is so cool that you're bringing the car back. It really looks great!

:2thumbs:

Thanks everyone for the kind feedback! I'll get some more pics up as soon as I can. Just cleared about 4 inches of snow from the driveway and it's still coming down.

MSHP SSP Equipment Placement Installation Reference Guide
 

Mike - For those who might be interested, thought I'd post the following. Check out the link below, which will take you to my Fotki site.

http://public.fotki.com/MOstang/must...placement-ref/

I created an MSHP SSP Equipment Placement Installation Reference Guide. You'll be able to look through a variety of photos detailing the type of radios, equipment, etc. Vehicle photos used are predominantly in-service pics from Mike Cunningham's former 1993 MSHP SSP as well as pics from same car after Eric Prince redid the equipment setup correctly as was used originally. Also a couple pics of Eric's 1989 MSHP SSP in there as well.

Quick pics w/the MSHP magnetic emblems
 

OK...with 10 inches of snow outside and bored of shovelling, I couldn't resist a few quick photos with the magnetic emblems and repro license plates on it. No harm no foul on the new paint. And yes, I will be relocating those items in the garage away from the SSP before I regret not doing it. The MSHP wasn't consistent on where they placed the fender emblems, but from the MSHP in-service pics of my car they were placed at the front end of my fender.

A returned to in-service SSP Mustang...priceless! Enjoy the pics.

looking gooooood Mike !

where did you purchase your magnetic stuff and plates thru ???
looks great on the car !!! cost ???

ssp91ssp

I rec'd permission from the Missouri State Highway Patrol to purchase the emblems from their supplier. The license plate was from the PlateMeister.

thanks mike , did they give you a hard time about the permission part??
ssp91ssp

I can answer that. The MSHP is as easy of an agency to work with as you'll find. They're always very helpful to legitimate collectors and restorers.

Ok....sorry for jumping in there Mike!

Those of us with MSHP SSP's are very lucky as they are very supportive of what we're doing. Sent a nice letter to Superintendent asking for permission on my restoration and to display the MSHP markings on magnets while on display at car shows. Rec'd reply with that permission plus some documenation from their archives and a big surprise of permission to buy markings from the MSHP's supplier.

With MustangRetriever's help I was able to communicate with that supplier the specs via pictures. Emblem colors have changed slightly over the last 10 years along with the wording on the fender emblems. Also I needed to provide them with the template for the CALEA accreditation emblem. Since they didn't have that one in their records guessing they weren't the supplier back then, however, they had all the color info, etc. to do what I needed. They were expensive (particularly for the CALEA emblem) but the product is perfect and exactly correct! If the next person to go through this get's permission to buy emblems from them they won't pay as much as I did on the CALEA emblems as they're setup with this supplier now.

I had the same great experience with the State of Missouri. Received a letter of permission to restore the 88 including dislay of emblems etc. They also sent me the specific invoice and other paperwork for my car and also the order sheets and invoice information for the other 13 1988 MOHP cars.

I need to scan that stuff and get it uploaded on Fotki. It is a good read.

Great job Mike! Will you be bringing it out to Mustang Memories this summer? I'd love to have a look at the car in person.

Absolutely! I'll probably bring it out to one of the MOCSEM meetings when Spring gets here too. First local car show that I'm sure I'll be at (unless something unexpected comes up) is the local SAAC club's show at Ford WHQ. I really enjoy that show...this year will be my 3rd time there since moving to town.

Cool! Looking forward to see you and the car.

You don't run around with that MOCSEM crew do you? Better watch out for some of them S197 boys. ;)

Awesome car !!!:cool:

Not really...although I'm a member, kind of step to my own beat. :party:

Thanks for the compliment!

Eric, Mike, Jim ...Thanks for all the info ..
you guys are lucky to of gotten that type of permission and help from the state your SSP's are from !

I hope to be half as lucky with the new stallion in route to tx.
great job on the car Mike !!!

looks like i'm way too far south to make any ssp car gatherings with you guys :( ? :(

ssp91ssp

Mike car looks great!!!:cool:

Mike your MSHP looks great :)

Gentleman - Thanks for the additional feedback!