Looking at a 54 F100 panel that the seller is telling me is the "police edition" package. It was supposedly used as a paddy wagon, and part of the police package is a hi po motor and roll up windows in the rear doors.

Is there such a thing? Not familiar with the F100's too much, just always loved the lines.

 

Do you have pictures of it, sounds rather interesting. Can't answer your question either, hopefully someone can.
John

 

No pics, going to look it over in detail this weekend. Story is the current owner started sanding it down and found "P.D" lettering on the side. Supposed to have a working siren as well.

EDIT: Starting to doubt the story already. Told me it had a hi po Power king motor that they only put in the police vehicles...which looks like it was the standard motor for the truck since I've stated digging a bit. Can't seem to find how common it is to have roll up rear windows though.

 

IMHO sounds like a "sales job" to me. Just think about it why would the PD use it for a "paddy wagon" with rear windows that rolled down from the inside? How long would it take for a prisoner to roll the window down and climb out? I've seen a lot of F100 factory lit and option sheets, but no rear roll down windows. You could have anything added I guess, but they would have had to cut the rear door open and put in window channel to do it, they are solid on the inside, not even inspection covers except for ~ a 3" hole with a screw cover behind the license plate holder. Look to see how well they were done and how they got inside to work on them, should tell you if it was a pro job or something done by a PO. It would be more likely that one was used by a FD as a chief's or ems truck than by PD.

 

I found a 1948 ford panel truck in Florida that is a original hearse........and it is nice....and has the side lamps on the truck......kind of creepy,but made offer of 5500,and have found out that the price is still too low.
BILL

 

I could see it being a paddy wagon with roll down windows. Back window isn't big enough for a quick escape, and i'm assuming the prisoners would be handcuffed and perhaps shackled. Reason I can see them being roll down is for fear of a lack of ventilation in the summer since a.c. wasn't available.

That being said, I'm not going to go look at it. Know he's either lying about the 'police' motor or just negligent. Also think it would be a heck of a sanding job to take a layer or two of paint off the side and miraculously uncover "chicago P.d". Also doubting his story about the title.

Not really ready for a project vehicle, and when I am, I want an Edsel anyway. Just thought this might be ultra rare and interesting.

 

More than likely this story preceeded the guy by some time and it was just passed on and embelished. Some epople are gullible enought to believe anything and therefore they are nit knowingly lieing. Was there a special engine for the police cars??? If so, due the Ford's long standing DSO system, it would be possible to have a special engine if there was one in existence. However, paddy wagons weren't used for pursuit so I seriously doubt there was ever a need for it and if it has a different engine it was most likely put in later like the Y-Block in the '53 I just stripped. It could be that it just needed a new enging and it was easy to throw in a Y-block.

Later Folks...

 

Great point on the pursuit/paddy wagon angle. Hadn't thought of that. Just thought it was odd that they had a police interceptor in 54, but once I figured out the Power King was the factory motor, decided the rest of his story was either an outright lie or ignorance. Either way, will continue to wait for a project vehicle.

Thanks for the input guys.

 

Mike,

Just looked at your profile, you're from WI, where are you located?

Just thought I'd add my 2¢. The Milwaukee Police Department use to provide ambulance service up until the late '70s. At that time they used Ch**y Suburbans with all of the windows, the trucks served a dual purpose, as patrol vehicles and to provide ambulance service. The Milwaukee Fire Department provided emergency rescue service, pre-paramedics,and used vans from both Ford and Ch**y. I don't know if MPD used customized panel trucks way back in the '50s, if they did they'd probably would have been Siebert conversions, but if it has MPD lettering it could have been used as an MPD ambulance. Where is the truck located? Could it have been used by the MPD?

Bill,

You've got to post some pictures of that hearse! I need to see it!

 

I'm in Green Bay. Panel is up here too.

Seller claims it said Chicago Police Department on the side. While it might very well be what he says it is, I was specifically told the power king was a police motor. Once I did a little digging (never had a Ford truck older then 68 before) and found the motor was the base motor in 54, just started to doubt the story.

Another thing is the title. Claims once he has an interested party he'll start the lost title application. My question is, if you've had it for sale for months, why on earth didn't you start the process already? He's asking a grand which is a steep price to ask if you can't whip out the title.

Just too many red flags when it's not my first choice for a restoration project. Plan on doing something with a 53-56 at some point down the line, but not right away.

 

Hi-po engine? Would that be like 130 hp?

 

Most times the gut feeling is the best to go with. There'll be another deal up the road somewhere.

Getting a new title for a vehicle in Wisconsin is PIA. Wisconsin is a goofy state, if you don't have a signed title you're out of luck, unlike many states, a Bill of Sale is not good enough. But on the other hand, you can take a title from a junk vehicle walk into a DMV plunk down the registration fee and you can walk out with a new title and license plates for another vehicle. They don't check the title against the VIN. Not that I have ever done anything like that, that's just what I was told. The trucks I have have so many parts from so many different trucks you'd never be able to figure out what title goes with what part.

 

lol...heard a lot of stories about the junk yard vin plates/titles. Never done it, but could see how it would be easy to do here.

I wasn't actively looking for a project, stumbled across this one and thought if the story checked out, might be interesting enough to put up with trying to do something with an undersized garage. Been holding off on any restorations until we sell and get into the country a bit, and still want my first project to be an Edsel. Always keep my eye out for that diamond in the rough, with a price tag for quartz..lol

 

people will believe anything they're told in most cases and this guy is either a " believer " or a " bullsh-tt-r " . i once told a tuner that the flatty in mine was an experimental hipo motor for briggs and stratton that ford was entertaining the use of and my truck was the " experimental vehicle " . lil' dipstick believed it and gave me his name and number if i was to want to sell it , and he was on the phone with his equally silly biological male donor who must've been just as gullible when he was walking off .

 

On the "police" engine, often the "Police service" engine just had a heavy duty air cleaner and some other such items. I know back in the 60s Ford offered a "Police version" of the six in the full size cars. So a "police" engine is not necessarily a higher performance engine.