1948 Chevrolet Police Car

1948 Chevrolet Police Car

The Mt.Morris City Police Department has recently acquired a 1948 Chevrolet. The car is very similar to the first car the City had purchased, in 1947.

The new car has been taken to the Mt.Morris High School, where it will be restored by the 2001-2002 Auto Shop Class. Donations will be accepted and fund raisers will be held to help finance the project.

This Photo was taken in late 1947. The City will attempt to the restore the new Chevrolet to look like this original.

The car has significance because, while the City was established in 1930, the police chief had drive his own personal car.

In 1947, Ted Johns, a retired Flint City officer was hired as police chief, several other officers were hired and the City purchased it's first police car.

Photo's of the project were added on July 17, 2001.

Here are some photo's of the 1948 today. (Oct 21, 2001) We've stripped the car down, had the engine running. It actually started up and ran pretty good!The coil was wired backwards and the generator wasn't charging. The front fenders weren't in too bad a shape, but the rear quarters were really rough.

We have been looking for another car for parts. One was located in southern Georgia.The photo's looked pretty good, plus the guy had another car he would throw in for parts.We hired a wrecker driver to go and get the two cars.However...he was only able to bring back one car! A 1947 4dr that is also in pretty bad shape. It looks like we will be able to use the rear quarter panels and fenders off the Georgia car and weld them onto our '48.

These photos taken on November 6, 2001. The first photo is a picture of a 1947 4DR that we purchased from a fellow in Georgia. That car cost us $800.00 plus expenses to haul it back. The best things from that car were the rear quarter panels.They were removed and then welded onto the '48, as shown in the next photos. The rear quarters are looking much nicer!

More photos, November 16, 2001. The one on the left is our 1948, the one on the right is what's left of the parts car. Anyone want to make us an offer on the parts car?

We also received, from a police department in Massachusetts a grille for the '48.I had received an email from the Framingham PD in Mass, that they had restored a 1946 Chevrolet as a police car. The car had on it, when they purchased it, a grill and hood from a 1948. They eventually removed that grill and put the correct unit back on. They shipped the grill to us, we received it on Friday, November 2, 2001 and was we were really impressed at how nice it was! It looked almost brand new! Thank You Very Much.

A fund raiser is planned for November 10, 2001 at 7:00pm at the Elizabeth Ann Johnson High in Mt.Morris, Mi. A local Great lakes explorer, Frederick Shannon has agreed to put on an Edmund Fitzgerald program for us that night (the 26th anniversary of the sinking) Tickets are $10.00 adults, $5.00 students. If anyone is interested or would just like to support our project please call the Mt.Morris City Police Department (810) 686-4400. The fund raiser brought in close to $1000.00! It was a very nice program that was put on by Mr. Shannon.