Chrysler-Badged Formal Police Cars

March: Did any of the Formal (74+ full size) cop cars you saw have bucket seats?
I don't recall seeing a c-body police package with bucket seats. The 77 LeMans had buckets that sat too low and weren't very comfortable. Bucket seats were not preferred / were a safety issue because the front/back seat partition wasn't in every car back then.
 
All of the ones for sale that are shown above are botched efforts to try and make Newports "worth more" in the Gas Monkey BS car flipper arena.

Good call Mr. C.

Chrysler Newport COUNTY SHERIFF on DRIVE2

00-1-3-000.jpg


Translation under photo. Another Florida "tribute" car but still not a bad lookin.

00-1-3-00.jpg
 
March: Did any of the Formal (74+ full size) cop cars you saw have bucket seats?

I think IF buckets were a RPO on a "regular" Newport, they could be had with the A38 package.

We'll never know maybe .. I cannot find (other than the WV Statie historical pic, NONE from any other department) ANY Formal Newp squads on the Internet. How in the world could that be?

I aint the best at this searching crap .. but I can generally find stuff. This is kinda pissin' me off ..:BangHead:.

Mini rant over .. almost time for American Gods (I love that crazy show) :)
 
We'll never know maybe .. I cannot find (other than the WV Statie historical pic, NONE from any other department) ANY Formal Newp squads on the Internet. How in the world could that be?

I aint the best at this searching crap .. but I can generally find stuff. This is kinda pissin' me off ..:BangHead:.
Damn you. I feel like I'm going on a mission from God, now...
 

So the builder is here .. and some of you (I missed this thread completely -- did NOT cross my mind to look HERE for history either) therefore know of this Russian car.

All three of these "tribute" Newps look pretty nice. Yeah, an obscure model to wanna turn into a cop sled but apparently these guys knew of their existence and wanted something "different".

Cool by me Three more C-s saved:)
 
Any specifics on what makes a Police steering box "firm feel"? The junkyard A38 Gran Fury that donated its HD suspension to my car still had a steering box in it. I should have grabbed it. Is anyone rebuilding the boxes?
 
Any specifics on what makes a Police steering box "firm feel"? The junkyard A38 Gran Fury that donated its HD suspension to my car still had a steering box in it. I should have grabbed it. Is anyone rebuilding the boxes?


Firm Feel off the top of my head for one.
 
Any specifics on what makes a Police steering box "firm feel"? The junkyard A38 Gran Fury that donated its HD suspension to my car still had a steering box in it. I should have grabbed it. Is anyone rebuilding the boxes?

Firm Feel off the top of my head for one.

Im outta my depth here but I found this:

How to swap in a police firm-feel chuck and get rid of steering slop.

excerpt: By Richard Ehrenberg. Copyright © 1989

All Chrysler RWD passenger-car power steering boxes since at least the early '60s are outwardly similar, being made of a housing of gray cast iron, with all parts contained therein. Except for the pump and hoses, there are no external parts-cylinders, linkages, etc.-as are present in some GM and FoMoCo setups. The sector shaft and sector gear ("output" shaft) are machined from a solid steel forging. A power-assist piston has teeth broached onto its outer diameter, and these teeth are in constant mesh with the sector gear. The wormshaft ("input" shaft) is geared to the inside of the power piston via a series of endless recirculating steel balls. Hydraulic circuitry is controlled by a valve body mounted on the top of the chuck, which directs the hydraulic pressure to the power piston as needed.

The firm-feel box, at first glance, appears identical to the standard unit. A careful inspection reveals that the reaction springs have been upgraded to increase road feel. The main difference, though, is in assembly: Careful, hand-select-fit is the norm, as opposed to slam-it-home for the more mundane units. Also helpful, of course, is the fact that it's a 100 percent new unit with 100,000 less miles on all the parts than a rebuilt or used chuck.

The result of all this upgrading is a box that comes close to duplicating the precise road feel of the better rack-and-pinion systems. In fact, to my mind, there is absolutely no technical reason why a recirculating-ball setup can't be every bit good as a rack setup. This is borne out by the fact that some of Europe's most highly regarded makers have steadfastly stayed with the ball-guide setup.

I know of no rebuilders (except maybe the guy who bought my four C-body steering boxes who I cant find). And as commando1 pointed out, and even non-mechanics like me know, that other A38 "package" and "K" VIN HD suspension pieces (e.g., sway bars, shocks, leafs,) in the cop cars affect the "feel" on the road.
 
Little help .. somebody with better talent at ID'ing profiles (virtually everybody here :) ) tell me what you think.

In a sea of 74 C-body Monacos, which is COOL in its own right, what's that parked by the fence? "Bigfoot" Newp spotted outside WV dressed as an Illinois Statie?

00-1-0.jpg
00-1-1.jpg
 
March: Did any of the Formal (74+ full size) cop cars you saw have bucket seats?

I have crummy pics of 74 Formal buckets that were in a Fury I Pursuit car in a scrap yard but the doors wouldn't open so the pics are through the glass (hence crummy). They are on my camera, and I lost the cord to upload the pics. I'll upload them when I find the cord.
 
Here's the best of the crummy pics. These 50-50 buckets were in a 74 Fury I Pursuit. Never saw them before in a Formal so I got pics of them.

15134283_10155451899529638_905987680_n.jpg
 
Here's the best of the crummy pics. These 50-50 buckets were in a 74 Fury I Pursuit. Never saw them before in a Formal so I got pics of them.

View attachment 128168

yup i see what you mean. i've never seen that style seat before in any Formal, and never seen a "non-bench" seat in a Formal cop car. thanks!

did you manage to catch/retain any of the car itself? if so, toss 'em on please when ya can.
 
Last edited:
Here's the best of the crummy pics. These 50-50 buckets were in a 74 Fury I Pursuit. Never saw them before in a Formal so I got pics of them.

View attachment 128168
Thank you thank you thank you.
I feel like Sasquatch has been caught on camera.

Over the years, I have seen 2-3 grainy pictures of the seatbacks of the bucket seats but nothing as conclusive as yours.
Now shown in their Full Frontal Nudity gives me more to go on.
 
Back
Top