1972 Polara Texas Highway Patrol
- Thread starter ZedR
- Start date
ZedR
Member
After an embarrassingly long period of time, I got my butt in gear today and reassembled the front end, got the tires back on, adjusted suspension good enough for now, and I'm waiting on some new motor mounts so I can drop the engine and transmission back in. The work continues!
75LandYacht
Yank Tank
Great to see ya back!!! Keep on, keeping on!!!
Dodgy Dick
Active Member
DIRTY MARY CRAZY LARRY, Never heard of this movie, just IM'd it, sounds good with surprise ending. Low and behold I found a copy on my Aussie EBay sight. Cant wait to see the car action.
R
R
ZedR
Member
Got the engine and transmission back in today! cleared up a lot of floor space...applying POR 15 to fender wells and refurbishing the brake lines now. Waiting on a new Kelsey Hayes cast iron proportioning valve, as was originally on there from inline tube.
Also pictured is the anti-roll torque strap...an interesting feature on this engine, I assume police-only? or maybe HP engines.
Also pictured is the anti-roll torque strap...an interesting feature on this engine, I assume police-only? or maybe HP engines.
I'm seeing LCA's and other parts that are being sent out and being powdercoated.
polara71
Old Man with a Hat
I love the dedication going into this thing .
Beep Beep Dave
Senior Member
Loving this car. Great work so far. I can't wait for you to make more progress. Keep up the great work!
Dave
Dave
ZedR
Member
Cleaning and Rebuilding the Heater/AC box on the '72 Polara - Detroit Muscle Technologies makes a nice repro gasket set for 69-73 C body applications. Heater core is good, but I had to order a new evaporator as the threads on the suction line completely stripped off when unscrewing it. Have sourced an NOS suction hose to replace as well.
As an aside, my here are my efforts to correctly reproduce three different bumper stickers that would have appeared on the cars, including a mystery sticker that took nearly a year to identify.
Even when not working on the car, I'm "working on the car".
Emergency First Aid:
Starting in the mid 1950's (continuing into the mid 1980's), many patrol cars whose occupants were trained to render medical first aid sported an American Red Cross "Emergency First Aid" bumper sticker. (It changed to the blue "star of life" in the 80's).
This sticker was easy enough to reproduce after taking a measurement of the ghost outline left of an original on my bumper. A quick font search yielded the correct "Cooper" font.
I will have one of these on the Fury.
Drive Friendly:
The "Drive Friendly" campaign began in earnest in 1970, and many (if not most) patrol cars in service from 1970 to about 1972/3 had one on the bumper. I had most of an original left on one of my bumpers, which provided the needed measurements.
Press photos gave good details on the font, and after a several month search I was able to identify the correct one (Scrubby) and reproduce the sticker in my graphics program.
This sticker will appear on both the Fury and the Polara.
"SAVE":
This sticker was a mystery. Many of you know that a majority of the DPS cars used in the Sugarland Express film were actual ex-DPS vehicles - which makes them great for reference, as the production purchased them right out of service from the state so nothing was removed prior to sale.
On the bumper of many of them was a sticker that said SAVE in large letters, with some smaller writing underneath it.
I could not find anything on it. I didn't know if it was on the cars in-service, or added by the production crew afterwards - it could have been a "SAVE the whales" sticker for all I knew.
After many months of searching, I gave up and moved on.
Newspapers.com has always been an extremely valuable research resource for these projects - and while searching for something completely unrelated, I came across a very poor microfilm scan that seemed to contain a photo of the SAVE sticker in question.
I contacted the Baytown Public library, and was able to get a much better copy of the photo. Success!
Turns out, it was part of a 1972-73 special enforcement program that operated in some rural areas outside of metro Houston, Austin, etc.. to reduce fatal vehicle crashes
This particular sticker says:
SAVE
Harris County Fatal Crash Reduction Program
Once the usage and wording was identified, it took roughly another month to find the correct font (advertiser's gothic) And the sticker was reproduced.
While it doesn't appear to have originally been on the Polara, I'm going to take some artistic license and place it on there, as it would still be period correct.
As an aside, my here are my efforts to correctly reproduce three different bumper stickers that would have appeared on the cars, including a mystery sticker that took nearly a year to identify.
Even when not working on the car, I'm "working on the car".
Emergency First Aid:
Starting in the mid 1950's (continuing into the mid 1980's), many patrol cars whose occupants were trained to render medical first aid sported an American Red Cross "Emergency First Aid" bumper sticker. (It changed to the blue "star of life" in the 80's).
This sticker was easy enough to reproduce after taking a measurement of the ghost outline left of an original on my bumper. A quick font search yielded the correct "Cooper" font.
I will have one of these on the Fury.
Drive Friendly:
The "Drive Friendly" campaign began in earnest in 1970, and many (if not most) patrol cars in service from 1970 to about 1972/3 had one on the bumper. I had most of an original left on one of my bumpers, which provided the needed measurements.
Press photos gave good details on the font, and after a several month search I was able to identify the correct one (Scrubby) and reproduce the sticker in my graphics program.
This sticker will appear on both the Fury and the Polara.
"SAVE":
This sticker was a mystery. Many of you know that a majority of the DPS cars used in the Sugarland Express film were actual ex-DPS vehicles - which makes them great for reference, as the production purchased them right out of service from the state so nothing was removed prior to sale.
On the bumper of many of them was a sticker that said SAVE in large letters, with some smaller writing underneath it.
I could not find anything on it. I didn't know if it was on the cars in-service, or added by the production crew afterwards - it could have been a "SAVE the whales" sticker for all I knew.
After many months of searching, I gave up and moved on.
Newspapers.com has always been an extremely valuable research resource for these projects - and while searching for something completely unrelated, I came across a very poor microfilm scan that seemed to contain a photo of the SAVE sticker in question.
I contacted the Baytown Public library, and was able to get a much better copy of the photo. Success!
Turns out, it was part of a 1972-73 special enforcement program that operated in some rural areas outside of metro Houston, Austin, etc.. to reduce fatal vehicle crashes
This particular sticker says:
SAVE
Harris County Fatal Crash Reduction Program
Once the usage and wording was identified, it took roughly another month to find the correct font (advertiser's gothic) And the sticker was reproduced.
While it doesn't appear to have originally been on the Polara, I'm going to take some artistic license and place it on there, as it would still be period correct.
ZedR
Member
Got the Dynamat installed today...carpet should be here this week.
ZedR
Member
Cleaning sill plates, Trimming and test fitting carpet this morning.
ZedR
Member
In the process of getting the green paint the state put on it at auction sanded off. I Just couldn't stand it anymore, lol.
Got the A/C box mounted, still need to replace the blower motor.
Replaced the melted terminal block and finished installing an NOS engine wiring harness (police version).
Got the A/C box mounted, still need to replace the blower motor.
Replaced the melted terminal block and finished installing an NOS engine wiring harness (police version).
ZedR
Member
Cleaned blower wheel and installed new motor and gasket - need to put correct terminal ends on.
Started to put on the radiator, new inlet and outlet hoses. About to tidy it all up and bolt it all down...I'm happy I had ziplock bags, a sharpie and a camera for all of this when I took it apart!.
Sandblasting wheel well liners this week, still waiting on exhaust to arrive.
Good news though, I got a shipment notification from SMS only 1 week after ordering new upholstery and headliner!
Started to put on the radiator, new inlet and outlet hoses. About to tidy it all up and bolt it all down...I'm happy I had ziplock bags, a sharpie and a camera for all of this when I took it apart!.
Sandblasting wheel well liners this week, still waiting on exhaust to arrive.
Good news though, I got a shipment notification from SMS only 1 week after ordering new upholstery and headliner!
ZedR
Member
New seam sealer and spatter paint in the trunk this morning
ZedR
Member
Installed new exhaust heat riser on passenger manifold, and sourced correct NOS radiator cap for the coolant recovery system.
Fury Pursuit
Senior Member
Love that original paint!
Are you keeping it that way?
Are you keeping it that way?
ZedR
Member
I probably will for just a little while
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