Finaly new paint

This what I have been waiting for! Car is been sanded and I feel so good. That horroble old paint is GONE. First evening (will be doing this after work myself with my cousin) we got rear sanded completely and most of hood. Today I hope to get it so much more, that can get black parts painted with black epoxy primer. Sunday it should be painted also white with white primer.

Rear was simple to take parts. After pic taken, I removed those bumper moldings and ordered new ones from eBay.

Fron bumper molding will also be changed new. Front lights also come new. Hood ornament is still in good condition

After taking side moldings off, there is ofcourse lot of glue left. That was taken care with toffe-grinder.

Sanding is pretty easy, there no rust in this car. Pictures are marked with all dents; after sanding its hard to find them.

In this picture, black primer is on. Looks much better now.
Next it needs to be sanded smooth.

Then primer was sanded and dents fixed. Those spots needed to be primered again. Next step is black paint. It will be covered, clearcoat comes after the whole car is painted.

Getting ready for white.

Boxes just keep arriving

Got the box from US, that my friend sent me.
Even the consol is not ment to be used like this (its not a perfect fit for panels), I managed to assembly all necessary switches in to it. Just needed to be little creative.

Even the strobe light box fitted in back. Few more wires and it will b nice clean compact box.

First one is traffic advisor control. Next is empty place, but there will be Lightbar controls soon. Then switches for front and rear LEDs, grill lights and strobes. Little red button is for strobe pattern. Siren also has two switches on right, but they are not in use yet.

In rear I managed to fit strobe box.

Removing lower dash

I needed to get under dash, so had to remove it. It was much more simple then I thought.
It is screwed from the bottom and on top its just clips. I took off the black plastic thats around gauge cluster and that square panel that you can see on pic.

For some reason some of the screws were 6mm and some were 7mm. I think its been on and off few times and original screws got lost...

But very simple job, anyone can do it.

four on bottom and one screw left under fuse cover. When they are all off, just pull hard from bottom. Top will com off from clips and now you can remove it.
 

Evening was so nice and warm that I also added remote control to central lock system. Also very easy job. Got cheap unit from eBay, only 20 euros.
The switch on door has input positive wire and two output positive wires (other opens and other closes).
Just added open + and close + from that remote unit to these wires and thats it! Works great!

I had a bit more time left before "Chuck" started on TV, so added LEDs to new grill. It was realy a good evening.

Sorry about bad video, will make better when its assembled to car.

Work, work, work

Sunday was nice and warm (finaly), so I took all door panels off. It was farely easy job to do.  Car is gettting closer to paint booth.

Here is a Police Cat at work... No drugs detected. And no catfood eaither, thats why the long face.

Ready for paint

Finaly garage is empty and I can start paint job! Here are final pictures of car before new paint.

Strobes please

Yes, I know LAPD had wig-wags on front lights but I want strobes. And if I want something, I will do it...

So started this work by first getting a decent looking kit from eBay. Seller " Zipmotor " had it for 86,99, which I think was very reasonable price. It has 6x20W strobes, which wont be super bright, but they will do fine (wont be used professionaly).

First I took wires behind rear seats and made holes to rear lights so i get strobes in to them. Not a  big job, just needed a 25mm hole and of course didn´t had the tool so had the get it just for this job.

Bigger job will be taking wires thrue wall to engine compartment. Have to get 4x3 wires thrue it.

This was the kit from eBay.

There was a huge pile of crap behind the seat. I have new carpet coming, so will clean that better  later. This is sellers video in youtube

 

VIN decoded

Today i decoded my cars VIN.

This is what i found out: - country of origin: Usa

- company built by: Genera Motors
- make or division: Chevrolet
- carline/series: Caprice sedan
- body style: 4 door sedan
- restrain codes: Active (manual) belts w/driver & passenger air bags
- Engine type: LT1 5.7L 260 HP @ 5000, 330 lb-ft @ 3200
- model year: 1994
- plant: Arlington ( that explains sticker on door " built in Texas by Texans"

This information is from sticker in trunk:

Options

- VK3 license plate bracket front
- UL5 radio delete, speakers remain
- AA7 windows, power with driver express down and passenger lock-out switch on drivers door
-KDcooler, auxiliary external transmission oil
- 6A3 covering, rubber floor replaces production carpeting
- 6B2 handles, rear door inoprative ( doors can only open fom outside)
- 6E2 keys, single key system
- 7Y6 lamp, inoperative dome
- 7X9 spotlight provision, left and right hand
- WX7 wiring, auxiliary speaker.

And ofcourse LT1 and 9C1 can be found, we all know what that means.

Another box arrived today

More and more things I need have arrived. Now I have Led lights for deck and grill. Also correct logo and other markings have arrived

Cant wait to get them on!

In a meanwhile, I fixed the spotlights and they now work. What a fun lights they are :)

New power window/lock controls, light bar control, siren, arm rest/center console and a siren!

Now to get it all packed and ship it to Finland.

Still looking for these parts

I have managed to find most of the parts that are in bad shape or dirty.

Few items that I wish to find some day, are clean doorpanels, top of dash and new front seats.

I know a whole interior (leather) in junkyard, but its gray. I would like to keep this original light blue.

It would be nice to have this clean panels. Seems to be hard find.

My dash doesnt look this good. Been in L.A its cracked to four pieces...

More and more parts...

My rear deck is totaly busted. Was thinking about fixing it from carpet.
Today I was just surfing and just accidentaly found this page.

Looks good and its cheap, ordered it ofcourse...

http://www.carid.com/1994-chevy-caprice-wood-grain-dash-kits/coverking-dash-covers-136432.html

I will let you know how it fitted

Yes, it realy is LAPD car

If anyone thinks that this isint a real deal (yeah, someone just wanted to paint that car look that beatiful), I found this document from booth. Its not realy good shape, but you can still see most important: used: Police, Owner Los Angeles county.

I rest my case.

Next: more toys

Ofcourse i will need to do lot of work, first and most important is new paint. But it will also need lot different things to make it more like a cop car. I alredy managed to purchase new led lightbar. It was found from UK eBay and arrived today from Poland. I will tell a litlle secret about it; its with yellow leds. Didnt wanted to spend 600 euros for blue/red lightbar that is not roadlegal and can only be use maybe couple times in some car show. Finding a real and old LAPD lightbar and shipping it to Finland was not an option at this point. Maybe some day and then i can sell my yellow led lightbar easily. There is also many boxes at my friends house, just waiting to be shipped here. Some items i got from eBay and those directly shipped fron Hong Kong to here. Some day i want to fix the interior, but first things first, new paint next...

Getting started

I have always wanted to own old police car. Don't really know why but i think those are coolest cars there is. Finally managed to find this old LAPD Caprice (actualy it is Los Angeles County Sheriff car, but color sceme is same and it was easier to find sticker set for LAPD, so thats what its going to become).

 It has been imported to Finland 2004. Owner never fixed it so it still looks the same what it was when sold by LA County. All cop toys have been removed, even the logos from doors have been removed (and not very nicely) Here is first picture of that car. You can see my first testing of light-bar.