Moving this over to the new board-
The project bar is a (possibly 1970's) Federal Twin Sonic "12x" that was given to me back around 1991. The bar was removed from a 1986 Ford Crown Victoria P71 that was issued to my father until the early 90's. The bar almost certainly saw service long before that on a '76 LTD for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department. The bar was transferred car-to-car until it ended up being sold on a Montgomery County car to my dad's agency. The bar was originally a dual red 12x, but at some point it was modified to a regular model "12" by moving the X mirrors around. A blue lens was added to the bar in around 1989 or whenever Indiana changed the laws. The bar still had the black 12x mirror plates installed.
[Broken External Image]:http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh192/kadetklapp/who cares/twin1.jpg
I ended up with the bar when I offered to clean the town garage/fire hall in about 1991. I cleaned the nasty place for a week and the reward was the old light bar, which I had asked for. When I received it, the bar barely rotated. It remained largely untouched until February, when I was inspired to begin working on it as money and time allowed.
The bar was stripped down. A lot of hardware snapped off due to rust and neglect. I was able to mitigate these problems but this bar will never be perfect as a result (broken screws in the frame). When I tested the bar prior to stripping, it WOULD NOT rotate at all. I removed the rotators and mounting plates and found this-
I removed no less than five links from the long chain and two links from the short chain. After a thorough cleaning with carb cleaner and simple green, I was able to get them nice and brassy. I reinstalled them on the clean mounting plates-
The gearcage was replaced by a refurb unit from Ryan. There was no amount of cleaning I could do at my house that would make it as nice as what he had. Ryan has been a great source of parts and advice on this project.
After a thorough cleaning I ended up with a clean frame-
I've mocked the bar up with the shorter chains and it works great as of now. After running about thirty gallons (I kid) of contact cleaner thru the motor, it's working flawlessly. Other than a worn shaft, it seems to be fine. I painted all the black metal parts with Rustoleum semi-gloss rattle can. I sanded them first with a 3m sanding block and Rustoleum primed before three coats of black. A lot of the metal was pitted from rust, but it worked out OK for being under the domes. The only thing left to do is install the X-mirrors and polish the domes. I'll be wet sanding and polishing them by hand. Before and after pics to follow.
The project bar is a (possibly 1970's) Federal Twin Sonic "12x" that was given to me back around 1991. The bar was removed from a 1986 Ford Crown Victoria P71 that was issued to my father until the early 90's. The bar almost certainly saw service long before that on a '76 LTD for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department. The bar was transferred car-to-car until it ended up being sold on a Montgomery County car to my dad's agency. The bar was originally a dual red 12x, but at some point it was modified to a regular model "12" by moving the X mirrors around. A blue lens was added to the bar in around 1989 or whenever Indiana changed the laws. The bar still had the black 12x mirror plates installed.
[Broken External Image]:http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh192/kadetklapp/who cares/twin1.jpg
I ended up with the bar when I offered to clean the town garage/fire hall in about 1991. I cleaned the nasty place for a week and the reward was the old light bar, which I had asked for. When I received it, the bar barely rotated. It remained largely untouched until February, when I was inspired to begin working on it as money and time allowed.
The bar was stripped down. A lot of hardware snapped off due to rust and neglect. I was able to mitigate these problems but this bar will never be perfect as a result (broken screws in the frame). When I tested the bar prior to stripping, it WOULD NOT rotate at all. I removed the rotators and mounting plates and found this-
I removed no less than five links from the long chain and two links from the short chain. After a thorough cleaning with carb cleaner and simple green, I was able to get them nice and brassy. I reinstalled them on the clean mounting plates-
The gearcage was replaced by a refurb unit from Ryan. There was no amount of cleaning I could do at my house that would make it as nice as what he had. Ryan has been a great source of parts and advice on this project.
After a thorough cleaning I ended up with a clean frame-
I've mocked the bar up with the shorter chains and it works great as of now. After running about thirty gallons (I kid) of contact cleaner thru the motor, it's working flawlessly. Other than a worn shaft, it seems to be fine. I painted all the black metal parts with Rustoleum semi-gloss rattle can. I sanded them first with a 3m sanding block and Rustoleum primed before three coats of black. A lot of the metal was pitted from rust, but it worked out OK for being under the domes. The only thing left to do is install the X-mirrors and polish the domes. I'll be wet sanding and polishing them by hand. Before and after pics to follow.
