Copper1982
New Member
Here is my 72 Plymouth Fury 1 Pursuit 440 (COVID Built restoration) as a DC Metropolitan Police Traffic Car. The vehicles restoration began in 2013 when a previous owner, Billy found one of those unpictured craigslist ads stating "1972 Plymouth Fury Police Car part or whole (Fountain, CO)" the car was weeks away from being demo derbied, and Billy convinced the young guy to sell it to him whole. The car was missing the engine and transmission as well as the rear end, but other than that it was pretty complete and the tan interior was in decent shape. Billy found an old radio license in the glove box and mailed a letter to the man Jim in Colorado. Jim was the 2nd owner, a young teen at the time, who bought it at the Colorado State Patrol Auction in 1975, and put a new 8 track player, speakers and police scanner (car still had the 8 track player). Jim advised he blew the 440 motor one night going down the back roads at a 140mph. Jim got the original motor rebuilt and the car was sold by his parents in the 80s or early 90s. (The cars history from this point was unclear till 2013.) Billy put a new rear end in it and sold it on our police car for sale Facebook page, to a friend Steve. Steve drove from norther Virginia to Billy in Tennessee and towed the car home. Billy gave Steve a correct HP 727 rebuilt transmission for the car. Steve then had a 71 440 motor build with over 9:1 Compression and got the car back on the road. I told steve if he ever sold the car to give me 1st dibs on it. I got the car with over 11k in the motor for a good friend deal! In January of 2020, I sent the car for restoration. The front fenders were pulled, and the whole body and trunk was stripped to bare metal. In 1972 DC Police had Spinnaker White with Brittney Blue Stripe Fury 1s, and tan interior. The engines were 318 or 360. The car was painted its original Spinnaker White with a Britney Blue Stripe and recently got all new tan Factory upholstery seats from SMS. I new the car was originally a 72 Colorado State Patrol Car with factory dual spot lights and dual red single beacons on the roof. The car still had the roof holes and spot lights, but I never could find the cars cruiser number. I was able to find a 2nd build sheet under the front bench seat, and one day when I pulled the drivers door card off, the sun hit the door card at just the right spot where I could see a large number "93" faded into the top of the door card. This was CSP cruiser #93. After the paint and body was completed, needed a correct lightbar for it. After 8 years of searching, I located an ultra rare (5 left known to exist) ESCO Synchro Twin Lightbar, which originally came from DC police, being hoarded away in a former officers garage. The lightbar was the my agencies first light bar and was unique in design because it has an externally mounted motor with dual drive shafts that spin the beacons opposite directions. Recently I had the cars vintage Motrac radio modified and converted with an amplifier to function as a shoulder mic compatible with our current hand held portable radios. Most the hard work is done, still to come is having the dash restored, finding correct H stamped 72 wheels, and cleaning up under the hood.
