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I can't believe my luck!!I found an original Fire Insurance Patrol bell for my 51 F7 Chicago Fire Patrol truck. When I bought her from the Museum of Greater Chicago almost 4 years ago she was missing her bell. These are extremely rare and only a few dozen were ever made. I checked eBay every single day for a replacement bell. I even placed ads on multiple internet sites without any leads coming through. My plan was to have a reproduction made or get a plain bell and have a FIP decal made for the center of it. Last week I got an email from a gentleman asking me if I was interested in a buying a FIP bell that he has owned for the past 30 years. He was given my email address by a local firefighter who had seen my want ad on the net. We struck a deal and it will be in the mail this week. Now I only need to get a bracket fabricated so I can mount it correctly directly behind the front bumper.<o></o>
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The picture of my truck (which I recently had colorized) was taken around 1955 and shows how the bell was mounted.

 

Your truck is awesome !! Love the body lines . Congrats on the bell find . I know how you feel . After looking hard for 5 yrs. finally found the license plates I needed .

 

What a great story, congratulations!

 

Thanks guys!! Here is the truck a few months after I bought it.

 

That's fantastic

 

Oh Baby!!.. amazing how this stuff comes together..Congrats!!

Sam

 

Excellent!

Its those kind of details that really bring a truck like yours together

Bobby

 

Check this out!! Same truck circa early 60's. The Fire Patrol has disbanded and the truck was purchased by the Lombard IL Fire Dept. They added a front mount fire pump and 75 ft ladder. This truck saw emergency service duty from 1951-1981 ... pretty amazing!!

 

Very cool, got to love the ability of the internet to help you find things long lost. Very sweet looking truck, makes me think of old armored bank trucks a bit

 

I got one thing to say:

It's gonna make your truck!!

 

Ain't the internet great?! In the old days there'd be no chance of finding such a rare piece.

Lombard's my old stomping grounds, "The Lilac City". I'm surprised they didn't paint your truck lavender... even the garbage trucks are.

 

Always good to hear a story with a happy ending. Some people would say that you were lucky but I know (as do you) that luck happens when preparedness meets opportunity...you invested a lot of time and energy into this search and it's good to see that your efforts were rewarded!

 

I love it when someone finds something like this. I really appreciate the photos and history too. It is so cool to be able to track the history of a truck.

 

'Sure hope it still has the original 337" in it.

 

I thought I had a pic of your truck, but when I went and dug my old book out it turns out I was a year or two off. This is from the book " American Fire Engines Since 1900" by Walter McCall;
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Bobby