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Post by elwoodmpblues on Feb 28, 2019 23:04:53 GMT -5
Our '74 Monaco's were dark blue. The Chief from '71-'74, Bert Giddens, got away from the black and white cars. The '71 Polara's were a medium green, the '72 Polara's and '73 Fury I's were a medium blue. The new Chief, Ralph Doney, went back to the B & W and introduced the "P" numbers with our '75 Torino's. Up until '75 we replaced the entire fleet each year. Starting with the Torino's we replaced half the fleet each year. |
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Post by Steam McQueen on Mar 1, 2019 19:59:28 GMT -5
- That's some good info, Tony. Thanks for that. So Chief Doney was a Ford man? '71-'74 was Mopar, Mopar, Mopar, Mopar ... then the new Chief switches to Ford. Did he not like the 1974 Monaco? I guess the Torino's had the 460 motor?  |
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Post by elwoodmpblues on Mar 3, 2019 18:49:13 GMT -5
No, the Torino’s were 351’s. I think the Fords were lowest bid. We went to ‘76 Pontiac LeMans Enforcers with 400’s, then we got ‘77 Monaco’s with I think 400 and the dreaded “Thermoquad”. Then we got some ‘78 Catalina’s with 400’s and some Ford Fairmonts with 258 c.i. V8’s, low bid again. We got some ‘79 and ‘80 Chevy Malibu’s, ‘81 Dodge Diplomats with 318’s. ‘83 Malibu’s. The B&W’s lasted with ‘85, ‘87 and ‘89 Impalas/Caprices. We used all white Caprices from ‘91 up to 2000 when we went to B&W Crown Vic’s until I retired in ‘06. Now they have a mixture of Chargers, Explores, Tahoe’s, some B&W some all black. We bought and mothballed 20 ‘96 Caprices in ‘96 when Chevy announced the end of production. They were put into service as needed from ‘96 to 2000. We had one refurbished up in Michigan in ‘97 that I drove and tested, P33.
One note about our ‘79 Malibu’s. Monogram models came out and photographed them for release as a 1/32nd scale model kit, and we were told the photo’s were also used for an upcoming movie that was was going into production soon.
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Post by Steam McQueen on Mar 4, 2019 18:47:43 GMT -5
One note about our ‘79 Malibu’s. Monogram models came out and photographed them for release as a 1/32nd scale model kit, and we were told the photo’s were also used for an upcoming movie that was going into production soon. Ahh yes I remember seeing that model.  Looks like they can still be found for sale, here's one for $35.95 ... - www.ebay.com/itm/Monogram-1031-Malibu-Police-Car-1-32nd-scale-Sealed/113612505821The movie you mention, going into production soon. Do you mean going into production in 2019, like some sort of a retro movie, or going into production back when the photo's were taken? |
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Post by elwoodmpblues on Mar 4, 2019 22:27:39 GMT -5
The movie I was speaking of was The Blues Brothers. The Monogram rep that was at our station when the photo’s were taken mentioned that there was a movie going into production, but he had no information on what movie, that needed photo’s of local police cars. Lo and behold the placement of the markings on the Malibu showed up on the Monaco in the movie.
Monogram let us buy the kit at cost. I bought a case of them and I think I paid something like 15 bucks. I have a couple that I built and I think I have one unbuilt one.
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Post by Steam McQueen on Mar 5, 2019 19:04:12 GMT -5
The movie I was speaking of was The Blues Brothers. Oh THAT movie, yes I've heard of that movie ... lol. Well that's cool. How many Malibu's did Mount Prospect have? I noticed this pic it looks like P-4 ...  |
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Post by elwoodmpblues on Mar 5, 2019 22:49:24 GMT -5
The movie I was speaking of was The Blues Brothers. Oh THAT movie, yes I've heard of that movie ... lol. Well that's cool. How many Malibu's did Mount Prospect have? I noticed this pic it looks like P-4 ... We had a mix of Malibu’s and Diplomats from ‘81-‘82. By ‘83 we had all Malibu’s and the highest “P” number was P24. However, even though the fleet consisted of 24 vehicles, not all were “P” numbers. There was A13 and A16 that were SUV’s, Cherokees I think, that were assigned to civilian Comunity Service Officers, Some were “I” numbers assigned to unmarked detective units and 3 were “S” numbers assigned to staff, the Chief and two Deputy Chiefs. One was P17 which was a marked car assigned only for use by the Crime Prevention Unit. |
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Post by gtopat on Mar 6, 2019 0:35:54 GMT -5
I’m 99.9% sure I put that model together when I was a kid. I’ll have to check my parents basement. Thanks for the great info in this thread.
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Post by 2FAB on Mar 22, 2020 21:09:03 GMT -5
Our '74 Monacos were dark blue...The new Chief, Ralph Doney, went back to the B & W and introduced the "P" numbers with our '75 Torinos. Interesting that MPPD, Chicago Police Dept. and Illinois State Police all changed their paint schemes from '74 to '75 (CPD went from blue & white to what we know from the movie, and ISP went from cream color, no stripes, to what we know from the movie). I found some photos of MPPD cars online ... figured I'd post them here. First, '79+ Malibu ...  |
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Post by 2FAB on Mar 22, 2020 21:16:34 GMT -5
'98+ Crown Vics (first has "Mount Prospect Police" in block letters, second has it in script) ...   |
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Post by 2FAB on Mar 22, 2020 21:19:57 GMT -5
More Crown Vics ...   |
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Post by 2FAB on Mar 22, 2020 21:27:13 GMT -5
2005 Tahoe (from another thread) and modern Ford ...   |
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Post by 2FAB on Mar 22, 2020 21:30:16 GMT -5
2015+ Chargers ...   |
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Post by 2FAB on Mar 22, 2020 21:33:52 GMT -5
2015+ Charger, P7 ... the Explorer (Expedition?) in the background is P1!   |
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