My Greatest Federal Light bar build yet! The "Chicago Style" Visi-bar SUPER 174

[ERIC6913]

Merry Christmas fellow ELB members!


This time I have something special to share and what better day than Christmas! This was my Christmas present, lol. I have been working on this project for quite some time again (over a year)! This is another of my custom from scratch VB-1 builds. For those who didn't see my previous posts on VB-1's, I had the Visi-bar (VB-1) made and machined. That includes, the core aluminum square tubing, stainless steel cover and stainless steel plates for the beacons. All other parts are Federal original parts. I wanted to build a bar with some beacon rays mounted on it and decided why not go for the best! I sourced two, blue glass domed model 174's. One of which is brand new. The blue glass domes don't quite match identically in color as I am sure they were made in different batches. It's hard enough finding blue glass domes anyways! Then I came across some original Visi-bar mount LL-4 lolli-pop lights. I have never seen these in Visi-bar mount before, so I knew I had to incorporate them in my build! Then I needed a speaker and what better bling choice then a shiny CP series!


I had ALL the stainless parts mirror polished. That includes the LL-4 lights and mounts, even the CP speaker repolished, mounting plates and feet, Visi-bar cover etc. I had the beacon ray bases re-chromed and polished. The beacon ray tags were both refinished by none other than "Fyr boy" ( Jack, an ELB member) himself and they look fantastic! The bar is not wired for operation as usual, as i can imagine what it looks like! Please don't ask for video, LOL!!


























Thanks for looking and let me know what you think!! Stay tuned............

 

[billforbush]

Wow, Eric, that's impressive! Great job!!!!


Bill

 

[CHIEFOPS]

Why do all that work and then not wire it?

 

[Pete L.]

Where do you find the time to do all this really, really cool stuff ??


I love peeking at your bar projects.


Keep up the great work & THANK YOU for sharing,


-Pete

 

[ERIC6913]

Why do all that work and then not wire it?

My lights are static displays only.

 

[JennyCop]

Very nice Eric, job well done as usual! :thumbsup: :hail: I think it would look awesome on a 1968 Chevy Biscayne Chicago PD cruiser.

 

[ERIC6913]

Thank you to all so far! Merry Christmas

 

[wfdstation42]

Spectacular!

 

[dmathieu]

Another winner Eric!

 

[Crownfire]

Beautiful combination. Goes without saying that most of us would be extatic to have even one of the component pieces.

 

[ERIC6913]

merci, merci to all! A lot of time and effort went into this one.

 

[Maxim2Eng]

Eric...absolutely incredible! What a joy to see your work!


Jack "Fyrboy" set me up with my "must-have" blue glass dome for one of my 174s--a true Tar heel gentleman! A combination of aficionados to make a marvelous tribute to an outstanding vintage assembly!


Well done, and thank you for a wonderful Christmas present!

 

[fyrboy]

Thank you for the kind words, gentlemen. I'm just a cog in a wheel.

 

[ERIC6913]

Thank you for the kind words, gentlemen. I'm just a cog in a wheel.

Your Welcome Jack! You are a very important cog in my world!

 

[PinballCharlie]

WOW, that bar is beautiful!!!!!

 

[DalmatProd]

Why do all that work and then not wire it?

Eric - A yeoman's job in creating (re-creating) this bar. However, IMHO, ChiefOps is right! How could you create such an instrument of beauty and not wire it up?


"Oh the pain, the pain, young Will Robinson!"


Great job!

 

[stansdds]

That's a really sweet Visibar build! :hail:

 

[flahotrod]

Great idea. Great design. Great execution.

 

[ERIC6913]

Eric - A yeoman's job in creating (re-creating) this bar. However, IMHO, ChiefOps is right! How could you create such an instrument of beauty and not wire it up?

"Oh the pain, the pain, young Will Robinson!"


Great job!

My excitement is in the chase for the parts and the build itself, not the end function.

 

[August Arborists]

Great looking bar, my hat's off to you, great work!

 

[Scoot163]

Unbelievably beautiful! Artwork!

 

[Wheels]

What everyone else said. Beyond creative....that's is an amazing light bar.

 

[Wailer]

Now all you need is a 1960s era Federal electronic siren to go with it (either a PA15 or PA20 with alert tone or a B, C, or D series PA15A or PA20A). Either that or any electronic siren with low-pitched wail and yelp tones.

 

[ERIC6913]

Thank you to all and to all a good night!

 

[DISCOMC]

thank you to all and to all a good night!

very nice job !!!!!


I'm jealous !!!!!!!! A+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ wowwwwwwwww

 

[plybeep68]

That's pretty Sweeeeet!!!!

 

[hyperjohnny]

I going to be the Scrooge here and I'm sure it will open the flood gates of criticism directed at me but let me begin by saying VERY nice build, NICE looking unit and there's some CUBIC money right there!


Now for the negatives; I'm a purist when it comes to this stuff. This IS an open forum and maybe i'm in a bad mood but let me start by saying; what a waste of a couple of 'holy grails" for many on this site. Blue glass is hard enough for everyone to come by without someone wasting a set of mis-matched domes and a couple of 174's for something like this. I can appreciate the effort, time and money put into this project but not the application. Firstly, Chicago PD would not have built something like this simply because of the cost factor. Not even a supervisor's car. Secondly, glass domes, even though they are rare, were very sparsely used in the automotive field, again because of the cost factor and this build would have been better-off with a new set of matched-color plastic domes... a bit more realistic if they were ever to even USE 174's for this application. That brings me to point #3. 174's? (short point and enough said). Issue #4, (and yes, as I'm typing, I realize that someone DID piss in my Cheerios this morning) The LL4's used are nice but Chicago, again, would never have used them because of the fact that their secondary lighting was not used in that manner. Chicago's units have red to the rear for extra brake/turn applications, not as warning lights. With the 4-ways on, sure but that wasn't the intention. To this day they use their rear-facing red in this manner. The forward-facing blues WERE warning lights but as you know, this split cannot be achieved with LL4's, hence the noted discrepancy. Let me finish by saying it is not my intention to anger anyone here or start a fight, especially w/ the builder. I FULLY understand the effort put into this. I just would have directed those efforts slightly differently. I know, I know...sour grapes...


Oh, and I forgot...IT DOESN"T EVEN WORK!!! (Point #5)


There, I vented and enough said. Let the onslaught begin!

 

[Wailer]

I like to think of it as a 'what if' Chicago light rack. If you really want to nit-pick, the cap on the re-entry cone of the speaker should be the large chrome type, as found on the early CP25s. Then it would look like something straight out of the 1960s.

 

[ERIC6913]

I going to be the Scrooge here and I'm sure it will open the flood gates of criticism directed at me but let me begin by saying VERY nice build, NICE looking unit and there's some CUBIC money right there!
Now for the negatives; I'm a purist when it comes to this stuff. This IS an open forum and maybe i'm in a bad mood but let me start by saying; what a waste of a couple of 'holy grails" for many on this site. Blue glass is hard enough for everyone to come by without someone wasting a set of mis-matched domes and a couple of 174's for something like this. I can appreciate the effort, time and money put into this project but not the application. Firstly, Chicago PD would not have built something like this simply because of the cost factor. Not even a supervisor's car. Secondly, glass domes, even though they are rare, were very sparsely used in the automotive field, again because of the cost factor and this build would have been better-off with a new set of matched-color plastic domes... a bit more realistic if they were ever to even USE 174's for this application. That brings me to point #3. 174's? (short point and enough said). Issue #4, (and yes, as I'm typing, I realize that someone DID piss in my Cheerios this morning) The LL4's used are nice but Chicago, again, would never have used them because of the fact that their secondary lighting was not used in that manner. Chicago's units have red to the rear for extra brake/turn applications, not as warning lights. With the 4-ways on, sure but that wasn't the intention. To this day they use their rear-facing red in this manner. The forward-facing blues WERE warning lights but as you know, this split cannot be achieved with LL4's, hence the noted discrepancy. Let me finish by saying it is not my intention to anger anyone here or start a fight, especially w/ the builder. I FULLY understand the effort put into this. I just would have directed those efforts slightly differently. I know, I know...sour grapes...


Oh, and I forgot...IT DOESN"T EVEN WORK!!! (Point #5)


There, I vented and enough said. Let the onslaught begin!

No offense taken, That's why i said "style" and not official set-up. I wanted to give the bar a theme of some sort.

 

[ERIC6913]

I like to think of it as a 'what if' Chicago light rack. If you really want to nit-pick, the cap on the re-entry cone of the speaker should be the large chrome type, as found on the early CP25s. Then it would look like something straight out of the 1960s.

yeah, i thought about actually getting the whole cone chromed lol. Switching the cone is no problem. thanks for the suggestion.

 

[hyperjohnny]

No offense taken, That's why i said "style" and not official set-up. I wanted to give the bar a theme of some sort.

While we're on the topic, what's w/ the speaker brackets for the LL4's? Unless you have a chain synchronizing the two 174's, those would have been mounted right through the bar, again, if it was real... just askin'...

 

[ERIC6913]

While we're on the topic, what's w/ the speaker brackets for the LL4's? Unless you have a chain synchronizing the two 174's, those would have been mounted right through the bar, again, if it was real... just askin'...

those are real Visi-bar factory mounts for LL-4's. Let me explain something grasshopper, there are two types of Visi-bars, a model 11 with twin beacons on it and a model VB-1 which is just a plain bar so you could add whatever you wanted to the bar. Ask Federal why they designed them like that. I like to keep things factory as much as possible.

 

[hyperjohnny]

those are real Visi-bar factory mounts for LL-4's. Let me explain something grasshopper, there are two types of Visi-bars, a model 11 with twin beacons on it and a model VB-1 which is just a plain bar so you could add whatever you wanted to the bar. Ask Federal why they designed them like that. I like to keep things factory as much as possible.

I fully understand the logistics of those brackets being utilized on a Model 11, Einstein. I WAS Federal back in the day and I was selling/installing them back when they were new. I would purposely order VB-1's w/ 14's on them (versus a Model 11) so my customers could order the speakers, lights and options they wanted to add and it would be MUCH easier/cheaper to add those options to a VB-1. Believe it or not, time was money, even back then! Just like today, every department had different wants/needs for their equipment. Every police chief liked different lighting on his cars. But this bar, obviously being a VB-1 did not need those, hence the reason for the question.


Unless you morphed those two 174's together... Now, THAT would be cool. Never utilized, but cool. To really impress me, let's see you build a crossbar w/ opposite-direction oscillating 174's or rather 144's, synced! Oh wait, your stuff is always statically displayed. Although, I believe that was explored once before on this site by someone who builds working units...Audience???

 

[ERIC6913]

I fully understand the logistics of those brackets being utilized on a Model 11, Einstein. I WAS Federal back in the day and I was selling/installing them back when they were new. I would purposely order VB-1's w/ 14's on them (versus a Model 11) so my customers could order the speakers, lights and options they wanted to add and it would be MUCH easier/cheaper to add those options to a VB-1. Believe it or not, time was money, even back then! Just like today, every department had different wants/needs for their equipment. Every police chief liked different lighting on his cars. But this bar, obviously being a VB-1 did not need those, hence the reason for the question.
Unless you morphed those two 174's together... Now, THAT would be cool. Never utilized, but cool. To really impress me, let's see you build a crossbar w/ opposite-direction oscillating 174's or rather 144's, synced! Oh wait, your stuff is always statically displayed. Although, I believe that was explored once before on this site by someone who builds working units...Audience???

I'm happy with what i have and have done and that's all that matters to me. You should be thanking me for sharing my visions and ideas with you. You can build one too.

 

[JennyCop]

OMG! Johnny & Eric you guys are so funny! opcorn: :crackup: I love you guys, you made my night! :thx: Thank you for the laughs! keep going! please! :yes:

 

[stansdds]

OMG! Johnny & Eric you guys are so funny! opcorn: :crackup: I love you guys, you made my night! :thx: Thank you for the laughs! keep going! please! :yes:

What a great video clip! :crackup: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[ERIC6913]

Thanks Jenny, that was pretty good!

 

[hyperjohnny]

Thanks Jenny, that was pretty good!

That was funny... I digress. I'm in a bad post-holiday mood and I was being nit-picky. I never said the equipment wasn't cool. Eric, I fully understand the time/effort put into these "toys". I don't always agree with the applications, sources or the outcomes but I guess that's my issue. Thanx Jen! They are his toys, he can take his ball and go home...

 

[SaschaUE]

wow!! thats a great light!!!!

 

[emtanderson51]

OUTSTANDING Eric!!! If you're anything like me though, the different shades on the domes would absolutely drive me nuts!! hahaha maybe grab one of thos 30+ red glass domes and set up a Cal spec bar and see how that feels!