My Restored Beacon Ray Model 11 Visi-bar

E

ERIC6913

Premium Member
Member
May 29, 2010
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California
hello fellow followers!


I just finished another long awaited project. This time it is a Federal Signal model 11 Visi-bar with Visi-beam. I started by completely disassembling the lightbar. I'm talking even removing the gears and everything. this thing was in all the individual pieces! I sent the aluminum frame and beacon bases to the powder coater and all the stainless pieces were sent out to the polisher to be mirror polished. This project was a little unique i think, because i haven't seen to many with the original Visi-beam mount. Since all the stainless has been mirror polished it looks absolutely amazing in my opinion, especially when placed next to regular Visi-bar. Let me know what you think.


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Thanks for looking! :)
 
What kind of emergency vehicle would use a light rack like that? :?:
 
Wailer said:
What kind of emergency vehicle would use a light rack like that? :?:
Click to expand...

They ruled in my area in the late 60's up to the early 90's. My local PD kept them forever it seemed. They switched to AeroTwinsonics in about 1992 or so, and everyone thought that was a huge deal. I bought one at the PD auction for about $40.00. Wish I had it now! All blue domes and wide mouth speakers.


Incredible job, by the way. Beautiful bar.
 
Wailer, that Federal "rack" used to be the industry standard, especially in the early 60s to mid 70s, when completely enclosed lightbars finally took over. Most of those Federal model 11 Visibars either had a speaker or nothing at all in the center instead of the Visibeam remote controlled spot/flood light that is pictured on that restored bar. Some departments would mount lollipop type lights beside the beacons and add driving type lights to the bar's frame in different areas for alleys and takedowns. I've even seen a model 174 oscillating super Beacon Ray mounted in the center, and when combined with the synchronized beacons on the ends, put out an awesome punch of a signal. There were some pretty unique homebrew setups that were used by various agencies and some became recognized as unique to specific departments.


One small town department I was with in the Arkansas Ozarks from '83 to '85 still used model 11 Visibars on the three patrol cars. They hilariously had mounted one on a Dodge Aries K car we regrettably acquired because the chief though the front wheel drive would be good for the mountain roads all over town. It stuck out over the roof quite a bit and it caused a nasty headache if you nailed it when jumping out on a hot call. We would have killed to have had some Aerodynic bars like the county had.
 
Eric,


how much time does it take to pull that off?


From buffing to transport to mounting/dismounting and all and all?


Awesome job; you're setting one hell of a standard! ;)


Toon
 
thank you for the comments so far! Toon, it depends what my schedule is like and what project i am working on, but it takes a lot......Aerodynic fans will be pleasantly surprised next...stay tuned :cool:
 
That is absolutely badass. If the domes were blue and not that fruity pinkish color I'd run it on my cruiser today. You need the dual flashers, to help knock a couple MPH off the top end.
 
Stendec said:
That is absolutely badass. If the domes were blue and not that fruity pinkish color I'd run it on my cruiser today. You need the dual flashers, to help knock a couple MPH off the top end.
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lol yeah, you got the LL-4 lolli-pop mounting brackets federal made? :)
 
Very nice as usual.


I wish I had the time to tackle projects like that these days.


I still have 4 un-restored CTS's to do.


Just not enough hours in a day lately between 60 hours a week at the parts store, and then meetings and commitees every night at the fire station.


Great job Eric.
 
Outstanding Job, Eric! This brings back memories. I remember in the early 70's when I was a police officer, we went from federal 184's to the Visibar with the chrome cp25 speaker in the middle. We thought we were something, first PD in the county to have them! They were mounted on 1972 Dodge Polaras and worked great. Really like the remote spot light on yours and the mirrored stainless really sets it off.


Ray
 
Very cool visa-tacular
 
03crownvic said:
Wailer, that Federal "rack" used to be the industry standard, especially in the early 60s to mid 70s, when completely enclosed lightbars finally took over. Most of those Federal model 11 Visibars either had a speaker or nothing at all in the center instead of the Visibeam remote controlled spot/flood light that is pictured on that restored bar.
Click to expand...

I know all about the Twin Beacon Ray rack - I was just wondering what type of emergency vehicle would have one with a Visibeam in the the middle?


The Twin Beacon Ray rack I'm most familiar with is the one with a CP25 speaker in the middle.
 
I dunno. That era was just beginning to see takedowns and alleys, and the visibeam may have been mounted there as a compromise to serve both functions. The norm was a speaker, but it also wasn't unusual to see speakers mounted to fenders, or directly on the roof in front of the bar. There were also some oddball asymmetrical bars, with any combination of lights and speakers mounted in different order.


The brand name slips me, but the pop-can remote spotlights were out at that time, and often mounted on the passenger fender or hood lip, where they could never quite be pointed exactly where they needed to be, plus they would freeze up in winter, usually aimed straight at the driver's eyes.
 
Really sweet restoration! The VisiBeam is an unusual option on the Twin Beacon Ray.
 
wow great looking lightbar . Can honestly say never have seen one in WV. with the visibeam . Most State Troopers had the visibeams mounted on the aero bars for a short while but seem to have a lot of trouble with them freezing up, never seen them after they went to edge bars. As another member stated that type of bar would look great with can lights
 
I have one of these and where the bulbs mount is oxidized. Pretty sure from mositure over time. I was thinking emory cloth to clean it up but I am afraid it'd scratch them to much. Any thoughts guys? I can post a pic in a day or 2 if need be. Thanks.
 
That's a very rare combination you have there. Your time and effort are clearly visible by the outcome. Congratulations to you, sir!!

03crownvic said:
I've even seen a model 174 oscillating super Beacon Ray mounted in the center, and when combined with the synchronized beacons on the ends, put out an awesome punch of a signal. There were some pretty unique homebrew setups that were used by various agencies and some became recognized as unique to specific departments.
Click to expand...

In the late 70's & early 80's, while I was living in the metropolitan Ft. Lauderdale area, there were a couple of police agencies that mounted blue domed CJ-184 beacons in the center of the visibar, which had red domes on the outer beacons. Those were pretty potent combinations.
 
Chrome looks sweet!! Nice job. (don't mind me still laughing at the guy who was wondering about what these would be used on :haha: :bonk: )
 
I am happy to see that you finally got around to using that NOS Vis-Beam bracket I sent you years ago! :thumbsup:


BTW.... I think I see a scratch on it next to the.... well.... nevermind! ;)
 
Could someone send me the measurements of the bar (possibly 1 1/2" or 2 ")x 54" .cannot remember . I asked someone on the old board and cannot find the info now
 
Eric,this beacon is Beautiful bar!


Very very nice!!!! :hail:


There is a bar like this for me.


I bought it in a new state,but there were 30 in a depository until a year.for me Blue-Blue there was domes on him,but I bought it eBay red dome...


I love it very much!


TWIN BEACON RAY pict.jpg
 
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