CHP #5300 Update.

[E435300_SMPV]

Hey everyone,
Wanted to share some info that I have been slowly finding on my SMPV. I finally was able to contact the prior owner and found a lot of info from him. In Dec '94, he bought the car from a dealership in Sacramento. It appeared, this dealership was buying SSP cars from auctions and turn around and selling them. The car was all white. He had it for a few years, then it was stolen and recovered in about two hrs. Within that time, they stripped the car interior, doors and front clip. But, they did not touch the engine, trunk area or the 160mph guages. (Unbelievable).
He liked the car so he replaced the parts rather than scrapping it(Again Unbelievable it didn't make it to the local pick n pull). The parts he managed to locate were from various areas. Some ended up being chp parts (doors and some interior). He later added the auto stuff to the doors. After a few years I ended up buying it from him.
Now, for some more questions and help. Hopefully (Mac88chp) can help in this area. I noticed in the In Service photos the SMPV's had car radio antenna's. Were they used for the radio or I heard the SMPV used CB radio's for the truckers? Could they have used that antenna for a CB radio, scanner???
Now, going to the interior, Does anyone have any info for the shotgun set up on the SMPV. I saw a photo from (Mac88chp) of another car with the shotgun laying in between the Passenger seat and center console pointing to the floor.
Also, my car shows some B&W marks but not all. Question, I have the holes on the floor boards from the radio equipment/shotgun mount and the SMPV marks there too. But, I dont have the Mounting holes in the quarter panel from the B&W set up. Is there a chance these cars never made it to the streets before the were made into SMPV's??? Possible pulled from the middle of the production line and changed.
I have also noticed the few pics of the SMPV cars that they are close when it comes to the Unit Numbers (#5288, #5299, #5300). Was there ever a confirmed number of SMPV cars?
I'm still scratching my head with questions.
Hope everyone enjoys the update.
Ken

[mac88chp]

Ken - you're doing a great job of investigating your car's provenance. To say it's had an interesting past is certainly an understatement!

From the information we have, the run of '89 SMPVs were not equipped like nor put into prior service as regular B&W patrol units as the '85 examples had been. The '89s were dedicated special units from the start and were received from Ford just as every other Mustang was - painted B&W and with no equipment installed. Prior to being run down the Motor Transport assembly line for upfitting, they were sent out to be repainted in various colors.

When they returned from the outside body shop, they were specially equipped with the Stico undercover antenna, unique decklights, mirror light, shotgun/radio rack and the mag mount spotlight. They carried all the normal items (radio cabinets/ siren amp mounted on an equipment board, wooden supply box, etc.) in the trunk as any other Mustang.

What didn't go on the '89 SMPVs, at least initially, was the normal low-band whip and rooftop repeater antennae, dual 6" spotlights, shotgun/radio rack or trunk lettering. But it should be noted that it's always possible that some of these deleted items may have been added at some point to certain cars after they were deployed in the field.

The Stico antenna was used with the Motorola radio and the scanner, but not sure about it's use with a CB. CB's were purchased and installed locally by the field offices and from photos of regular units and evidence on my car, the anntennas used were mag mounts and were usually placed on the forward middle edge of the rear deck lid. Don't know if the field techs would have/could have tapped into the Stico or just gone the same route as the regular units. Either seems possible to me but maybe one of the radio techies here can chaime in.

I've been long searching for but have never found any interior shots of an '89 SMPV, save for that one I posted of the Caprice. Unless or until some kind of hard documentation surfaces, you may just have to interpolate what the Mustang rack may have been using that Caprice photo, the existing mounting holes in your car, the types of materials and construction used on other CHP racks and the determination of what would have worked.

As far as we know, the exact build number/ID #'s for the SMPVs has not been documented to date. But I suspect that the number produced, esp. for the early multi-colored versions, is very, very low. They were not spotted very frequently and many keen CHP observers, myself included, never saw one when they were in service.

[mac88chp]

Ken asked me about the spotlight holes now so prominent on his car. Undoubtably those spots were added after the car left initially left Motor Transport as documented by the famous in-service photo where they are absent. The CHP may have eventually added them or there's also the possibility that they were added after the CHP sold it. Until/unless some kind of hard documentation surfaces, one can only take an educated guess. Mine is that the spots were added by the CHP but at some later point in the car's service life. If you can, try contacting all the previous owners to see if they can "shed some light" on those spots.

Ken also sent along this photo showing the equipment holes he found in the right side of his transmission tunnel:



Comparing them to the more standard hole pattern as found on my car shown below points out the uniqueness of the rack that was mounted on his unit.

[E435300_SMPV]

I pulled the carpet back to get a better look at the holes and this is what I found.

[ImEvil1]

Good stuff. Does this help with the equipment theory?

[E435300_SMPV]

The scanner mounting marks looks the same but the shotgun rack is obviously different. I think this definitely confirms something different was done to conceal the shotgun and equipment.