1949 Ford State Police car
 

Question, was there typically anything unusual about a 1949 Ford used by State police in that era. How about the generator, any additional output & part # if so. Thank you Fordbarners

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

All I know we I worked for my uncles bus co. I was issued a 1949 4dr with overdrive.
It had a massive alternator (compaired to the normal generator) to run the radio that
took up the whole trunk Motorola.. The alternator was a leece neville probably something
like in the 80 amp and I remember a rectifier behind the grille big as a lunch box with many wires going back to the alternator. I loved that car, sad day when they bought
several Plymouth Vaiants around 1969 or 70. There is an article on the 'MEL" fourum
about Calf. highway patrol buying several 1958 Medalist Mercurys. This one being restored likely the only serviver. They as new were farmed out for CHIPs specs. Altered
suspension probably Lincoln brakes Super Maruder 400hp 430 there was a couple mentioned with standard shift with OD the rest were the new 3speed Multi Drives. The builders probably were Nascar shops or others of many in Calf. As far as the electric I
know our Police Dept were given from the Army a Blazer with no miles it was brought
to the local Motorola Dealer and they did the electrical upgrades. Hope this helps. sam

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

There are several police car museums around, you might contact one of them. The one in Phoenix seems to do some restoration and they might be able to help you.

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

An interesting book on the subject is "Ford Police Cars" by Edwin J. Sanow. Although it says more about the 1950 and 51 Fords than the 49. By 50 and 51 the bigger Mercury engine was available in Ford police cars although no mention of the name Mercury. Just "Ford V8 H.P. Special".

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

This sounds like a really cool project.

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

I worked part time at a Ford dealership in Eastern Idaho in '49-51. As I recall the police cars were very similar to the taxi cab's, heavier duty suspension cooling, very sparton interiors and HD electrical systems.
I worked in new car prep and the body shop.. The dealer-ship got a lot of taxi cab's, Yellow Cab, and police cars as trade-ins. They were kept behind the dealer-ship. As time and need arose the body shop would bring the retired commercial cars into the shop, the necessary body repairs would be done, we would repaint the cars Sea Foam Green, then they would feed them into the used car lot a couple at a time.
Sea Foam Green was a stock Ford color, the body shop brought the paint in fifty gallon drums from Ford.
One should keep in mind that during the '40's, 50's, and later, a vehicle was considered to be worn out when the odometer approached 50K. Now a 100,K is considered to be low mileage..
My '36 had 51 +K on the odometer when I bough the car in Sept, '52. That is 16 years so the car only averaged 3,+K per year.

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

Besides the things that Blucar mentioned above above, police packages came with all engines. The 226 flathead 6 cyl, the 239 flathead V8 or the 255 Mercury flathead that came only with the police package when ordered.

Sal

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

Ford had a brochure about the police package for 1950 but I'm not sure about 1949. They had the Dana 41 or 44 rear axle and a 10-inch clutch. The Mercury 255 was an option. Here is a link. Several generaltor or alternator packages were available.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.com/stati...re/image2.html

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

For those of you into old cop cars this here book is jammed packed with black and white vintage pictures.....lots and lots of Fords too.

GB

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

The 255 Mercury engine was also available in '49 with the police package.

Sal

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

I have the 52/53 Police brochure. Wagon suspension, Merc crankshaft, heavier seat springs and that super generator. Some of the options. Newc

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

what about the reported "dual" exhaust manifold for the drivers side?

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

I have one I got from drake that is supposed to be a replica of the police dual exhaust system. Fits better than headers.

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

I don't recall ever seeing dual exhaust on a flathead V8 Police car.. Most police cars were used for local, urban patrol work, therefore they did not get involved in high speed pursuit work.
The California Highway Patrol set pursuit work on it's ear in '55 when they special ordered the elusive '55 Buick Century 2 dr sdn's for patrol work. The Century's had the Roadmaster 320 CID engine in lieu of the 248 CID Special engine

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

^^^^Are you referring to their Straight 8 engine? I would have
thunk it would have been considered obsolete by then, and they
would have used their newish V-8.

(I vaguely recall them using Buicks and Fords in the new TV series
Calif. Hwy. Patrol w/ Broderick Crawford -by 1956?)

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

The CHP cars were actually Special 2 door post cars with the 322 Roadmaster (and Century) engines instead of the standard 263 nailhead V8. Buick badged them as Century's to reflect the engine installation. They were the only 2 door post Century's Buick made.

There is a thread about this on the H.A.M.B. which I found quite interesting. The CHP had some 2 door '57 Mecury post cars that are obviously standard transmission cars from watching the programs. I wonder if they had the big 430 Lincoln in them?

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

In '57, the largest engine in Merc's and Linc's was the 368 Y block. The 430 didn't come out, until '58. It was called a MEL (Merc, Edsel, Linc). I had the 410 version, in my '58 Edsel Corsair.

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

The '57 regular production Lincoln/Merc 368" had 290 HP but Bill Stroppe's hand built 335 HP racing option could have been used by police.

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

I watch highway patrol all the time, I know TV is TV I always wondered why some
Centurys have four port holes to me means Roadmaster and some have three port holes
that means Special & Century.?? But I have yet to see a standard shift Mercury on that
program???

Re: 1949 Ford State Police car
 

1949 was a long long time ago. It was a different world.

I dare say most "police cars" were standard sedans. Some of the police cars from that era may not have had a radio. If they did it was a receiver. There would be "radio cars" with a transmitter that could call the receiver cars.

In larger cities it was common for the central dispatch to call out to the receiver cars. Patrol cars in larger cities without transmitters could call in on the police telephone boxes. Rural patrolman would call in on telephones.

As the 50s progressed it was more and more common for police vehicles to get transmitters. This mainly due to the advances in mobile radio communications in WWII and the availability of WWII surplus.