Idaho State Police interior setup
 

I am in the process of restoring a 1989 Idaho State Police mustang. I was able to find a partial listing of the equipment ISP used, but what I am really wondering is how they had it set up inside the vehicle.

More specifically, where the radio, light control, shotgun etc were mounted. If anybody has any interior photos of an ISP mustang, that would be super!

Do you have the original interior in place? Check the area above and behind the driver's seat for holes in the molding and also around the shifter console. That should give me an idea if it's still using the GE Phoenix radio system. Post up some photos of your interior and I can probably give you the placement of the radios and siren system.

Not sure if the 86s were equipped same as your year. Anyone know if george T's Idaho car was finished inside, and if so was it correct? May he rest in peace. If he did finish it correctly with the equipment, perhaps someone has some interior pics they could post. Only pics I've viewed of it are exterior ones.

He was close on it when I spoke with him last time (I'm glad I had a chance to go to dinner with him before his passing, I miss our conversations). However, I'm not completely sure that the 1983/86 vintage would be correct for 1989.

I have the Camaro interior shots of the ISP historical one. That gives an idea of how they were equipped into the 90s but I'm thinking that it will be close on the 89. They only bought the SSP's in 1983, 1986 and 1989. In 1991 they went to the Camaro. I can reach out to a former trooper there in Idaho that drove the 1989 SSP to verify the radio configuration for the 89.

thanks for the feedback greg. it's neat hearing of the research you've been able to do on them.

Thanks for your replies. I was a trooper with ISP for 10 years and am pretty familiar with their M.O. The Camaro isn't correct, installation wise, because they were not able to find the correct hardware when they were reassembling it, so they half-as*** it to "good enough". The equipment is correct but not it's location.

The car does have the original interior. There are holes in the B pillar on both sides. I assumed this is where the rollcage was mounted. From what I have been told, the radio setup was mounted similar to a modern jotto-desk, on a column that came out of the passenger side floor. This also held the shotgun rack. Hearsay with no confirmation...I don't find any other holes in the interior other than on the B pillars.

The roll cage should have left marks by the seat belt anchor points with additional holes just underneath the seat bottom mounting point where it was secured underneath. Behind the roll bar top mount there should be two or three holes in the trim just under the headliner edge between the roll bar and the rear window on the driver's side. If they are there then it is possible that they used either the GE Phoenix or the Ranger at that point. These should be UHF band radios. I know they used Kustom KR 10 radar units mainly by that time as they were transferred from the 1986's. The only difference is that the radar antenna head was mounted along the visor line on the 1989s rather than on the dash with the radar unit itself which was positioned in front of the driver.

Those are some of the things that came from the top of my head. I've emailed you directly so that we can go over some of those things directly.

Not to get too far off topic but was the gentleman that passed the owner of the '83 ISP?

Yes he was.

We're about to start the equipment install on our '86 ISP and wanted to ask for some member assistance. Jim, I believe you are planning a trip out to ISP in the coming year, but I wanted to see what anyone might have in the interim. My first thought is to attempt to match up any original screw holes, but I wanted to see what information anyone might have.

A little history on our '86. It is completely original, except for the white roof repaint. After being retired from ISP, it was painted all black and went to Idaho State University in October 1990 as a campus patrol car. The story is that they didn't like it because it was a 5-speed, so it wasn't driven much. The original repaint cleans up nicely, and given the history of the car, we've decided to preserve it as original, as opposed to having it stripped and painted.

Here are a couple pictures. I greatly appreciate any and all input. Thank you.