Rollin in a CHP 1969 Polara

MrMoparCHP

Old Man with a Hat
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Location
Lompoc, CA
I took the car out for a drive the other day, for the first 60 miles I stuck to the highway I got the typical thumbs up from many of the people on the road, nothing negative.
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Headed up Highway 1 and into Cambria with the idea I might stop for lunch, busy, rolled through. Headed back on highway 1
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Continued back down the coast and stopped for a picture. Inevitable when you stop in this car people swarm in, even before I got out of the car the gentleman in the distance started over. While there multiple cars pulled over some making u-turns, some stopped and got out, others stopped just enough to take a picture out the window. One family wanted to get pictures of the kids in the car, always happy to oblige.
IMG_4052.JPG


From here it was all back roads stopping at a local burger stand in Los Osos.
I had multiple opportunities to "drive" the car. A 195 miles of pure enjoyment but at the end of the day I still see the car as a handicap. There will be other drives and with each one I'll share more about what it is like driving a CHP car on the road.

Alan
 
Nice to see you've got it done. Looks like some nice scenic driving there. The Patrol cars do get a lot of attention, as you have said-none negative. Looks like you did a beautiful job. I would give any thing to get mine restored like yours. Mine is just a junkyard dog back on the road. I've put over 10,000 miles on it since May of 2014. I really like driving this big high performance C Body. I hope you enjoy yours for many miles to come. Post more pictures!
Are you allowed to have the roof lights, and what style of light and lightbar did California use back then?
 
One family wanted to get pictures of the kids in the car, always happy to oblige.

Hopefully in the back seat with crying faces :D

I'm sure some of us had that experience in real life. Not me of course, but some of you trouble makers.
 
I would pull over if I saw that beast in my rear view. Looks like fun! Nice ride.
 
Nice to see you've got it done. Looks like some nice scenic driving there. The Patrol cars do get a lot of attention, as you have said-none negative. Looks like you did a beautiful job. I would give any thing to get mine restored like yours. Mine is just a junkyard dog back on the road. I've put over 10,000 miles on it since May of 2014. I really like driving this big high performance C Body. I hope you enjoy yours for many miles to come. Post more pictures!
Are you allowed to have the roof lights, and what style of light and lightbar did California use back then?

This car has been done for about 3-1/2 years now, a normal year I put about 2000 miles on it with just shows and events.

You're allowed to have whatever lights and equipment that they had at the time, lights must be covered up when on the road as with the graphics (I cheat and don't cover the doors), the shotgun is legal by statute, just needs to be unloaded.

The CHP didn't start using roof lights till about 1973, there were some tests done as early as 68
They had a pair of lights mounted back to back at each end of a bar.
1968
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1973, a majority of the cars were still slick-tops
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For more read, here is the summerized build thread...
MrMopar's 1969 California Highway Patrol restoration


Alan
 
In Nebraska, the lights are allowable uncovered, but you can't turn them on, on a public road. Several patrolmen have told me if I turn them on I WILL go to jail. I stopped one morning and talked to two patrolmen, I talked to them for a half hour along the road. They took a bunch of pictures. They asked me to turn the lights on for some video footage. They were happy I stopped. The younger officer said that it sounded good, wondered about the cat converter. I told him to look underneath at the 2 1/2 TTI exhaust-they were impressed. Post some more windshield pictures.
 
We had a highway Patrol officer in town in the 70's. He had a big Chrysler. Damn that thing sounded nice. Nicer than my buddies Super Bee. LOL
 
In Nebraska, the lights are allowable uncovered, but you can't turn them on, on a public road. Several patrolmen have told me if I turn them on I WILL go to jail. I stopped one morning and talked to two patrolmen, I talked to them for a half hour along the road. They took a bunch of pictures. They asked me to turn the lights on for some video footage. They were happy I stopped. The younger officer said that it sounded good, wondered about the cat converter. I told him to look underneath at the 2 1/2 TTI exhaust-they were impressed. Post some more windshield pictures.

Time for you to sell:lol:
 
In Wisconsin,
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the color "Blue" is the one to have covered up. My car has two five-point stars on magnetic material as well as the "SHERIFF" signs. However, you better learn to drive these cars just as if they were the real thing because people will call you in and you will get stopped. However, I have never been stopped yet.
 
From here it was all back roads stopping at a local burger stand in Los Osos.
I had multiple opportunities to "drive" the car. A 195 miles of pure enjoyment but at the end of the day I still see the car as a handicap. There will be other drives and with each one I'll share more about what it is like driving a CHP car on the road. Alan
It seems a strange thing to call the car a "handicap"
 
It seems a strange thing to call the car a "handicap"
If the car limits how you drive, where you drive, when you drive its a handicap. The way traffic behaves around you is totally unlike what you get driving most typical classics. You can't just find your rhythm and cruise, one car not wanting to pass stacks up traffic fast and they are not just admiring the car, those people move along smile and get going. More than once I got off the highway just to let traffic roll, and I was doing 5 over, in this car that is all I'll do. I have gone with the flow but around here that can be 10-15 over, not happening.

For now I don't park the car out of sight, do I worry about my Barracuda, not like that. I drive my Barracuda like it was a 2015 Honda.


Alan
 
I took the car out for a drive the other day, for the first 60 miles I stuck to the highway I got the typical thumbs up from many of the people on the road, nothing negative.
View attachment 412916

Headed up Highway 1 and into Cambria with the idea I might stop for lunch, busy, rolled through. Headed back on highway 1
View attachment 412917

Continued back down the coast and stopped for a picture. Inevitable when you stop in this car people swarm in, even before I got out of the car the gentleman in the distance started over. While there multiple cars pulled over some making u-turns, some stopped and got out, others stopped just enough to take a picture out the window. One family wanted to get pictures of the kids in the car, always happy to oblige.
View attachment 412918

From here it was all back roads stopping at a local burger stand in Los Osos.
I had multiple opportunities to "drive" the car. A 195 miles of pure enjoyment but at the end of the day I still see the car as a handicap. There will be other drives and with each one I'll share more about what it is like driving a CHP car on the road.

Alan
I get the same here in Oklahoma with the 72 CHP... just so fun. Thanks for your Posts. - jim

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