1985 CHP #E408395

[28HopUp]

Well, I knew my CHP Mustang had lived a hard life. The Assignment Card listed that the car had been wrecked while in-service, but the car was not sold as a wreck. They repaired the car prior to it going to auction.

As most of you know, when the 85's were originally equipped by the CHP, they would cut a hole in the bottom of the plastic front bumper cover for the loud speaker, but my car had no such hole on the driver's side. Turns out the nose had been replaced. Once the bodyshop removed the nose, they saw that the metal bumper and the driver's side impact absorber were damaged from an accident.




It's tough to see in the picture, but the bumper and absorber ARE bent. Replacements are being sourced currently. There was also damage on the hood in the front driver's side, which was apparent when the paint was removed.




In this shot, you can see the original white paint under the removed side sail panels -




So as of today, this is how my SSP Mustang looks at the body shop with much of the trim removed -




I plan to stop by again on Friday, April 3rd to take more pictures of the car's progress. There is evidence of additional body damage on the passenger side rear quarter panel, so it will be interesting to see what is found as the paint is removed.

[ChrisL]

Can't wait to see more progress! It's going to look very slick in all black.

[ImEvil1]

Great post....nice to see your assignment card, too.

[jarhed123]

WOW!! Car is coming along just fine. Can't wait to see it fininshed.

[28HopUp]

I stopped by the body shop today, but didn't have my camera with me. That's OK, because I left the shop with a small momento.

Neal (one of the body shop guys) removed the rear bumper, and had difficulty reaching one of the bolts on the passenger side. This is the area with the known body damage. He started probing the area just under the gas cap with a screwdriver, and was able to pop off the following slab of Bondo from the rear 1/4 panel -




Once I got the slab back to work, I weighed it on a postal scale - it's over 2.5 lbs of body putty!

[28HopUp]

Here is a picture of the 1/4 panel where the slab of body filler was removed -




The other quarter panel is where the CHP whip antenna was mounted. Here, you can see where the CHP braized the holes closed -




Here are two shots where the spot lights were located on the A-pillars. Note how rough the holes are -





I will bring the spotlight brackets into the body shop by Friday so they can determine how much work will be needed on the A-pillars to make them look good. Not pictured is where the hole in the roof was re-opened for the shorter CHP roof antenna. The headliner was removed, but a new replacement is in-hand.

[28HopUp]

Here is a shot of the bottom edge of the door where they removed the rust under the caulk. The rust wasn't as bad as it looked, and hadn't gone through to the outer door skin. Parts of the door have already been treated with POR-15. The other door will receive the same work -




This shot shows where they removed the small dent from the driver's side front fender -




Here is the new replacement front passenger fender -




And here is a shot of the car as it sits this morning -




So as you can see, progress is being made on the car.