cop radio antenna mount

[sigmfsk]

It looks like CHPs had their antenna mounted like this:


from the museum

Ford Jockey's


Arco 75 ex-chp

like Ghostbluesman's





Were there any cop cars that had the antenna mounted on the side, like we're presuming the quarter panel hole on the blumo was for?

I was looking at this shot of the blumo:

and it seems that I can almost see the 3 screw holes around the large center antenna hole.

That shot is from the director's cut.

The following shot is from the regular cut:


The director's cut is a superset of blumo pics of the regular cut, other than this sequence. The director's cut doesn't have Blue Lou getting in the car.

So I was thinking:
Those two shots could likely be of the same car. They were both outside the Soul Food Cafe.

And if they were the same car, that would mean that this car had cop-car upper door panels (Blue Lou shot), and cop-car quarter panel radio antenna hole.

And those three screw holes around the antenna hole most likely weren't drilled there in a civilian car. Some blumos don't have the antenna hole at all.

So let's say that this was a real cop car. What agency put antennas on the side?

Here are some CPD pics, and none of them even look like they have an antenna:




except this one where it looks like it might have an antenna in the center:



We have this pic, which presumably shows a CPD radio being installed in the trunk (where the CHP usually kept their spare tire).



So where was the antenna?

I seem to recall a long time ago a discussion that made it sound obvious like that quarter panel hole was for a cop antenna. Anybody have any pics or info on what it looked like or who used a side-mount antenna?

your friend in blumo frame analysis,
arthur

[tk826]

Illinois State Police had them on the side.

[legendaryacura8]

Here's two photos I found of side mount antennas.
New Jersey State Police:

Illinois State Police:

I didn't see any "original" photos of New Jersey State police, so I guess it's just a guess as to whether or not they did an accurate restoration...

[tk826]

I have one vintage photo of of a '77 NJSP Monaco and it does not have an antenna.
I'm guessing the above '77 replica is using some "artistic license".

[sigmfsk]

Thanks guys. Let me see if you agree with these statements, and then we can try and figure out what it means.

a) cop antennas had 3 bolt holes like this:


b) keeping in mind that blu-ray enhancement wiggles things around, its plausible that this blumo has 3 bolt holes that correspond with cop antenna mount holes:



c) some blumos didn't have the antenna hole



c) CHP, CPD, NY-SP didn't have quarter-panel mount antennas.

d) ISP had quarter panel mount antennas.


from
public.fotki.com/copcardotcom/photographs_of_greg/fgs/illinois_police/ilillinoisstatepoli-49.html#media

e) The first shot above shows the ISP antenna mounted with one bolt hole on the top, with two bolt holes horizontal on the bottom, same as the blumo pic outside the Soul Food Cafe.

f) The second shot above shows the ISP antenna mounted just rearward of the rearmost portion of the wheel well, same as the blumo pic outside the Soul Food Cafe.

If I got all that right, does that hint that at least one blumo was an ex-police car that was not CHP, and not CPD? And that the likely candidate was an ex-ISP?

The guys that created all the blumos did a pretty good job making them look similar. They even did many things that would seem unnecessary (like dying all the horn pads tan). But they didn't do everything to make it look cop perfect. We have rear view antennas mounted in the wrong place, and civilian door panels.

Having the movie guys drill 3 holes that correspond with antenna mounting holes on a real police car seems a real stretch for them do do - especially when not all blumos had the large antenna hole.

Some blumos have no cop ticket light, and some do. If they didn't care about making the cars match; maybe the cop ticket lights were actual original factory equipment. If those ticket lights were factory installed cop equipment, those cars couldn't be ex-CHP as CHP didn't use the ticket light. So cop ticket lights seem a hint that some blumos were ex-police but not ex-CHP. This antenna mount seems even more persuasive evidence.

But I've been known to go off on wild tangents before (such as the elusive 1974.5 prototype bumper), so I'm keen to hear any thoughts on the matter.

your friend in crowdsourcing,
arthur

[legendaryacura8]

Everything about the side mount antennas that you mentioned seems legitimate to me. As far as where the mounting bolts are located, that doesn't matter. If you look at Ghostbluesmans' antenna shot, you see a very clear dividing line running diagonally through the ball. This separation allows the installer to position the antenna at any angle. This way you could mount an antenna on any surface of the car, and still make it stand straight up (or diagonally if you wanted to mount the end to the roof somewhere). I have absolutely no problem believing that not all of the cars were CHP/CPD. In fact, ex-ISP makes a lot of sense due to the location the movie was filmed. Also, as with civilian upper door panels and lack of ticket lights, I believe some of the blumo's could have been civilian cars. Although these cars were plentiful all over the nation around the time of filming, I don't see why any film crew would go out of their way to track down auctions across the states and ship only police package cars for filming. Grabbing whatever they could find cheap near filming locations just seems obvious, and who's to say there weren't civilian Monacos available cheaper than ones at auction at the time?

[Ghostbluesman (Ghostsoldier)]

If it helps the conversation, my car was originally an Ohio State Patrol car; don't know if they used the same attachment methods as the CHP, but here's a '70 Plymouth OSHP with the same mounting as my '75...




Rob

[sigmfsk]

Jul 15, 2012 15:44:14 GMT -5 legendaryacura8 said:

As far as where the mounting bolts are located, that doesn't matter. If you look at Ghostbluesmans' antenna shot, you see a very clear dividing line running diagonally through the ball. This separation allows the installer to position the antenna at any angle. This way you could mount an antenna on any surface of the car, and still make it stand straight up (or diagonally if you wanted to mount the end to the roof somewhere).

Ahhh, good info, although I think the mounting bolt locations still matter. If I understand correctly, the standard cop-style antenna looked like Ghostbluesman's cop antenna:



The two portions indicated in red were one piece that didn't move in relation to each other. The green bolt could be loosened, so that the the top antenna portion could rotate in relation to the bottom piece, along the axis marked by the blue arrows.

So to mount it on the driver rear quarter with the antenna pointing straight up, it would look like this:



And it would need to have two bolt holes on the bottom, and one on the top. If it was the other way around, the antenna would point straight down into the ground.

This "two at the bottom and one at the top" corresponds with what I think we have here:

Jul 15, 2012 15:44:14 GMT -5 legendaryacura8 said:

I have absolutely no problem believing that not all of the cars were CHP/CPD. In fact, ex-ISP makes a lot of sense due to the location the movie was filmed. Also, as with civilian upper door panels and lack of ticket lights, I believe some of the blumo's could have been civilian cars. Although these cars were plentiful all over the nation around the time of filming, I don't see why any film crew would go out of their way to track down auctions across the states and ship only police package cars for filming. Grabbing whatever they could find cheap near filming locations just seems obvious, and who's to say there weren't civilian Monacos available cheaper than ones at auction at the time?

I firmly believe that not all the movie blumo's were ex-cop cars. Main reason: The civilian upper door panels in the movie.

I firmly believe that there was at least one ex-CHP involved in the movie (whether or not it was on-screen I don't know). Main reason:
bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=information&action=display&thread=423

I'm beginning to think that there was at least one ex-ISP in the movie. Main reason: Rear quarter antenna hole

I've heard about blumos being CPD, but don't seem to have any evidence for that other than just the rumor mill.

Jul 15, 2012 15:44:14 GMT -5 legendaryacura8 said:

...as with civilian upper door panels and lack of ticket lights, I believe some of the blumo's could have been civilian cars.

The CHP didn't use the cop ticket-lights:
bluesmobiles.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=police&thread=252&page=1

So lack of ticket lights doesn't indicate civilian. But the blumo movie guys threw some wrenches in our analysis, as it seems they added ticket lights to civilian cars:



Well, actually all we know is:
The car above has upper door panels (civilian) and ticket light (cop) that was a combination not officially offered by Ma Mopar. Maybe it really was a cop car and the movie guys put civilian door panels on it. Or maybe it was a civilian car and they added the ticket light. Or maybe Ma Mopar sent a weird combination out of the factory.

I can put the ticket and visors back on the MMoA display case and see how the light is mounted in relation to the visors. If significantly different than the movie blumo that might help answer that one question.

Jul 15, 2012 21:36:50 GMT -5 Ghostbluesman (Ghostsoldier) said:

If it helps the conversation, my car was originally an Ohio State Patrol car; don't know if they used the same attachment methods as the CHP, but here's a '70 Plymouth OSHP with the same mounting as my '75...

Ah, that's a cool pic that helps the cause, thanks!

[58hemifury]

Here's a pic of my old '84 Diplomat ex-South Hackensack, NJ Police car with a quarter panel side mount antenna.
Adam

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[58hemifury]

And I forgot to mention, my '78 ex-NC State Police '78 had a patch tacked and bondoed over a hole for one of this side mount antennas on the left quarter panel too.

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