CA guys, have you heard of this place?

[fedsig7]

Cinema Vehicles in LA area... looks like they have hundreds of light bars, although I'm not sure if they sell them.


Picture Vehicles, Picture Cars - Rental, Fabrication, Car Prep, Sourcing, Wrecked Vehicles, Rent Vehicles for Film


A Wall of Lightbars | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[lotsofbars]

I think I had a minor heart attack…

 

[LRGJr72]

I've heard about this place and seen other pictures of their stockpile. Looks pretty awesome in there!

 

[fedsig7]

Do you happen to have the other pics? I'd be curious to see what else they have.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Ok, so planning our break-in... we have to do it out of this forum and public view so no one knows when we are all going to get these for ourselves!!! :haha:

 

[Uman18]

The owner of this place goes down to the auctions Ive been to. I've never tried but from what I gather, if you are a small fish they wont deal with you.


I know of another movie car lot in Burbank that I actually been to in person, that has just as many bars. The owner told me LAPD use to sell him fully equipped cars. He had about 4=-5 pallets of LAPD Vistas and MX7000's, a wall of nice Twinsonics/older bars. I bid on some lightbars at another auction and he was standing next to me and was surprised I bought a pallet of old bars for $100, he gave me his card and said I should stop by his place and see his stock pile.


Right now that Im not working, I've been trying to get down to Burbank, if I go ill snap some pics.

 

[JohnMarcson]

The problem with buying bars from move and prop companies (besides the fact rarely sell) is many of them have been very heavily modified for film... I saw one for sale that has everything out of it and 2 60w 120v bulbs and an AC flasher. "background unit" apparently... If find you are most likely to get a bar that is so heavily ruined it is of no use in other films... they will generally hang onto bars until they stop being relatively usable on the majority of the vehicles in what ever genre they fit. I've always wanted to run a "make your unit authentic" consultation and light supply company.... but there is just no demand. Film makers want "the idea of lights" not an exact replica.

 

[denko3]

THIS IS A HEAVEN FOR EMERGENCY LIGHTBAR COLLECTOR!


Uman you just try to get some pics from burbank and post them here....

 

[mayhemnyc]

I see an NYPD Aerotwin...


...with dust on it under a bunch of other lights...


...that will probably be used on a car they blow up for a cheap movie.

 

[drb]

I contacted them a few years ago about purchasing a Code 3 XL bar in their inventory.


Their response: "We don't sell lightbars..."


My response: "You can keep the red and blue domes if you are worried about liability, I just want the rest of the bar..."


Their response: "We don't sell lightbars..."

 

[CFD125]

I'm pretty sure that's the place that sold me 3 of my Twinsonic CTS bars a few years ago.


There was a small feeding frenzy here on eLb when a few years back when we discovered this place and a guy named Bob would ship them from the UPS store down the street from there for about $40.00 each.


The price for the bars was $25.00 Each!!!! For $65.00 each I got 3 nice CTS bars, and a mint 12X


Very true about Movie bars being modified. I actually got a model 12X Twinsonic with a red CTS dome on it.


Here it is, with the movie company markings. Note that "Universal Studios" is engraved, and the rest is black marker.


Also, this bar has NOT been restored...It was this nice right out of the shipping box.

 

[CrownVic97]

I contacted them a few years ago about purchasing a Code 3 XL bar in their inventory.

Their response: "We don't sell lightbars..."


My response: "You can keep the red and blue domes if you are worried about liability, I just want the rest of the bar..."


Their response: "We don't sell lightbars..."

I think it depends on who you talk to. I'd try again and really stress that since everything is going mostly to LED in movies, some of those bars may not be used anymore. Maybe that'll work and get you some of their old stock, IDK:bonk:.


I had a similar issue a few years ago at a salvage yard in Mandan. I asked about a few trucks that had amber beacons on them yet. The first time inquiry with one of the staff got me the BS answer "We might need those for wreckers we are building in the shop." Uhhh....right, since all the tow trucks and wreckers in the Bismarck/Mandan area uses old beacons still as opposed to them newfangled lightbars with strobes, halogen rotators, or all LED . A couple years go by and then I went back to try again. This time, I got some headway with a different person, but had he this cockamame condition that if the vehicles with beacons I was inquiring about had engines, I could not take off the lights since they could still run (two of them had been sitting there for what appeared to be many years...doubt you'd get the engine to even crank let alone start :weird: ). Well, one of the trucks had no engine and a amber Model 100 beacon, so I scored that light for $50. It was clean on the inside, had the metal reflector design, and the dome got a good resto by me. Looks great in the collection now. Sometimes it takes the right person to make a deal, or at least halfway-decent deal, with to get something.

 

[Uman18]

I'm pretty sure that's the place that sold me 3 of my Twinsonic CTS bars a few years ago.

There was a small feeding frenzy here on eLb when a few years back when we discovered this place and a guy named Bob would ship them from the UPS store down the street from there for about $40.00 each.


The price for the bars was $25.00 Each!!!! For $65.00 each I got 3 nice CTS bars, and a mint 12X


Very true about Movie bars being modified. I actually got a model 12X Twinsonic with a red CTS dome on it.


Here it is, with the movie company markings. Note that "Universal Studios" is engraved, and the rest is black marker.


Also, this bar has NOT been restored...It was this nice right out of the shipping box.

Nope that was a way smaller movie pic car company, i hit that place after you had bought those (the guy, i think his name was Rob,told me he had sold and shipped 3 bars like the 12X i was getting), they had an add on craigslist. I got a nice 12X, Cal jet and 3 nice MX7000's. Floyd (crazycop) also went after I did and he scored some nice old sirens. I ended up going a 2nd time about the last day before they had to move out and got 3 200watt speakers (the ones with the "y" connector) and several red par46 lights for $75.


i had a few lightbars with "universal special effects" also but those came form 6 pallets i got at one of the auctions houses. I think i still have a code 3 lp6000 that has that engraved. My Signal-Stat CTS came from the lot of 6 pallets along with the red/red one i sold you. Eric has a few of the gems that came from that lot as well. Insides looked new on most of them, but domes on some where just scuffed, deep scuffed.


The most common modification made to the bars I saw, were 1 wire running everything with alligator clamps and and on/off switch.


Now a days with LED bars they are so dam bright they need to dim them down some. They use "dust spray" (thats what one of the guys in burbank told me) and I go to the movies almost every weekend and it seams on some LED bar they insert some kind of filter or paper between the led and lens.


The owners of those movie car places know the owners of the 2 major auction houses in LA. They buy stuff from the auction, and when they dont need it, they sell it back at the auctions.

 

[ERIC6913]

Nope that was a way smaller movie pic car company, i hit that place after you had bought those (the guy, i think his name was Rob,told me he had sold and shipped 3 bars like the 12X i was getting), they had an add on craigslist. I got a nice 12X, Cal jet and 3 nice MX7000's. Floyd (crazycop) also went after I did and he scored some nice old sirens. I ended up going a 2nd time about the last day before they had to move out and got 3 200watt speakers (the ones with the "y" connector) and several red par46 lights for $75.

i had a few lightbars with "universal special effects" also but those came form 6 pallets i got at one of the auctions houses. I think i still have a code 3 lp6000 that has that engraved. My Signal-Stat CTS came from the lot of 6 pallets along with the red/red one i sold you. Eric has a few of the gems that came from that lot as well. Insides looked new on most of them, but domes on some where just scuffed, deep scuffed.


The most common modification made to the bars I saw, were 1 wire running everything with alligator clamps and and on/off switch.


Now a days with LED bars they are so dam bright they need to dim them down some. They use "dust spray" (thats what one of the guys in burbank told me) and I go to the movies almost every weekend and it seams on some LED bar they insert some kind of filter or paper between the led and lens.


The owners of those movie car places know the owners of the 2 major auction houses in LA. They buy stuff from the auction, and when they dont need it, they sell it back at the auctions.

ahhhh....those pallets bring back memories!!!!.......of an empty wallet, LOL! Two of the best deals i got from Ulysess were my Aerodynics' model 24CA and 24 RMC! $25.00 each!!! They were both on that first pallet in his picture if you can believe it, the ones in the middle.


Here they are:

 

[Skip Goulet]

Joe Ortiz, the curator of the L.A. Fire Dept. Museum, has his own business in which he provides vintage fire trucks, police cars and ambulances to the movie studios in Southern California, and also sells a few vintage beacons, Mars lights and sirens (mostly B&M or CAM) here and there. He has a huge compound in one of the bedroom communities near Burbank that I've seen, and the number of firetrucks, ambulances, rescues, etc. would make you faint.


Joe is a member of Professional Cars International (PCI), which puts on a Summer Meet that sometimes begins at Joe's compound (which is in Shadow Hills, I just remembered). From the starting point, all the firetrucks, ambulances, rescues, etc. that participate take off in a Code 3 Run (all vehicles entered must have working lights and sirens) which winds it way along the freeways to an area known as Hansen Dam where the remainder of the meet, along with the American Heroes Airshow continues. Quite an event.


Lou Farah, PCI president, among other vehicles has a very nice 1969 hightop Stoner/Chevy Suburban ambulance. When I went to their meet in 2002 Lou allowed me to drive the Suburban in the Code 3 Run. That's an experience I'll never forget!