The Beginning
The 1994 Chevrolet Caprice that would later be known as Texas DPS C4-675, VIN 1G1BL52P3RR186982, was "built in Texas by Texans" at General Motors' Arlington, Texas vehicle assembly plant on Friday, June 3, 1994. Most of the original parts for the car were manufactured the previous month, according to the dated labels located on them. Items such as the washer fluid pump, the wiper motor, and the fuel lines all have dates of manufacture on them from May, 1994. After rolling off of the assembly line, the brand new white-over-black 9C1 stood by and awaited shipment. It was then likely transported to Knapp Chevrolet in Houston (the delivering dealer), and sold to the State of Texas on June 14, 1994.
When my 9C1 rolled off the line, its original paint scheme consisted of the whole car being sprayed base coat white. Over this was sprayed a base coat of black, and finally the clear coat. In its finished form, the car looked like this: the roof, hood, trunk lid, A, B, and C-pillars were white. The pillar between the quarter window and the backglass was white all the way down to a line between the corner of the trunk lid and the bottom back corner of the quarter window, where the black took over. Aside from decals, that's how she looked when she was in service.
Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol
In June of 1994, the Texas Department of Public Safety's Fleet Operations took delivery of a quantity of Chevrolet Caprice 9C1 police package sedans equipped with the LT1 350-cid (5.7 liter) Corvette-derived V8. Among those were vehicles currently owned by myself, Bob Lane, John Friend, Casey Aldridge, and I'm sure many others. At the time, many of those Caprices were destined to be new patrol units for what was then the Texas Department of Public Safety's Traffic Law Enforcement (TLE) division, commonly known as (and now officially known as) the Highway Patrol. My 1994 9C1, VIN 1G1BL52P3RR186982, became Texas DPS equipment number C4-675, and was sent to the Texas DPS Highway Patrol station at Killeen, Texas. Based on DPS records, the car was most likely transported from Houston to the Texas Department of Public Safety's Fleet Operations in Austin. There it was outfitted with decals, radio equipment, radar, emergency lighting, headlight flasher, anti-theft switch, and other police equipment. It was then driven from Austin to Killeen, where according to records, it arrived on October 19, 1994. It began its service life with 10 miles on the odometer. According to DPS records, the car was not used for routine patrol until the following month. The first trooper to use the car for routine patrol was Birt Wilkerson.
During its 49 months of service to the Texas Department of Public Safety, C4-675 logged 112,602 miles, bringing the total odometer mileage to 112,612. Of these 112,612 miles, the first 10 miles were for the new vehicle inspection allowance prior to delivery, 112,404 miles were logged as routine patrol, and 198 were logged for tornado disaster relief in May, 1997. In total, the car consumed 7,437 gallons of fuel and 170 quarts of motor oil. It had a total of 34 regular oil changes while in service (3,000 mile intervals). Despite being serviced every 15,000 miles, the transmission was rebuilt twice while the car served the State of Texas; once at 57,267 miles, and again at 88,870 miles. The second time around the original transmission was actually swapped out with another transmission at DPS Fleet in Austin. As a side note, the transmission was partially rebuilt in October of 1999 at around 139k miles, after the car was out of service. The original engine apparently died at 40,583 miles for unknown reasons. It was replaced under manufacturer warranty by Connell Chevrolet in Killeen, Texas, at no cost.
In total, C4-675 cost the State of Texas $10,620.70 to maintain and operate while it served as a highway patrol unit. During the time it was in service, it was used by six different Texas state troopers: Wilkerson, Perez, Cruddas, Ford, Washington, and Myers. It operated out of Killeen for 43 months in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, and 1998, and out of Copperas Cove for 6 months in 1998. The car spent its last month in service out of Killeen in November of 1998. C4-675 was turned back in on November 17, 1998 with 112,612 miles on the odometer, after logging just 79 miles on it's final day in service. Those last 79 miles most likely constituted the final trip from Killeen to DPS Fleet Operations in Austin for vehicle turn-in. C4-675 was replaced by a 1999 Ford Crown Victoria P71 Police Interceptor, equipment number F9-069.
Out Of Service
Sometime after C4-675 went out of service, it was "Complete Stripped" by some guy at DPS Fleet named Roy, who probably also silicone sealed the hole in the right B-pillar that was left after the light bar wiring was removed.
After that, it received a descecrating and ugly blue paint job right over the factory black and white. Nothing was taped quite right, and of course the surface was not prepared at all prior to painting. I can only imagine that the State of Texas has these paint jobs done for a couple of reasons. Perhaps they do it so that the car doesn't look like a marked highway patrol unit when it is resold. Whatever the reason for the terrible paint job, the car received it, and then was sent to auction.
Kevin Hamman was a dealer of used police cars, including 9C1 Caprices and B4C Camaros in Denton, Texas. Bob Lane also bought his 1994 Caprice 9C1 from Mr. Hamman. Kevin used to post messages on the 9C1 group on Yahoo Groups (at that time it may have been eGroups or maybe even OneList) about what he had for sale I imagine he also probably posted ads in the Cars for Sale section of the classifieds on Bob Lane's 9C1.com. Doug Shook of Mattoon, Illinois eventually saw one of Kevin's ads, was interested in buying a 9C1, and contacted him about it. He purchased the decommissioned C4-675 on March 12, 1999, for $5,500. When he got it, there was a Texas uniform button in the ash tray and a dead roach in the back seat.
Sadly and regrettably, Mr. Hamman died not long after that. He was taken at a very young age, reportedly by a cerebral hemmorage of some sort. Fortunately, he died in his sleep and did not suffer. 9C1 enthusiasts everywhere lost a great friend and partner. I wish I could have corresponded with him myself.
Land of Lincoln
Doug Shook brought the car into the State of Illinois on March 13, 1999. Among the work he did to it were four new Goodyear Eagle GT+4 tires which were still on the car when I bought it, and a partial rebuild of the transmission, including installation of a shift kit, in October, 1999. He seems to have driven it quite a bit, because in a post he made on the 9C1 group while he still owned the car, he noted that after putting 25,000 highway miles on the set of tires he had put on the car, he was down to having only one-third of the treadwear remaining. Since he sold the car in 2000, he must have driven it quite a bit.
In a post to the 9C1 group in 2000, Doug wrote, "I’ve had fun and I’m going to let someone else have
some." His 1994 9C1 was up for sale. He hooked up with one of the still very active posters on the 9C1 list, Pat Daly of Streator, Illinois, and sold the car to him. Among the work done by Pat was replacement of a blower motor, and I'm sure the normal routine maintanence to keep the car from shearing, pissing, leaking, breaking down, and otherwise. Pat even described the car as his "Blue Baby", despite the horrendous prison paint job. I'm not sure I could have brought myself to do the same.
The Crossroads of America
In April, 2002, I was looking to sell my ex-Ontario Provincial Police 1990 9C1. It had over 225,000 miles on the odometer, but the real problem was the body. The floor pan was shot, and it needed someone who could put in the time and resources to replace what needed replacing. I finally made the decision to sell it, and let the 9C1 list know my intentions. I got an e-mail from Pat saying that perhaps we could work something out. He said he had a need for a boxy. It was fine with me. He sent me some pictures of the car via e-mail, and of course the pictures of my '90 were already here on this web site. On May 18, 2002, we met up at Remington, Indiana (I-65 and US-24). I test drove the '94, he test drove the '90, and in exchange for my old '90 Caprice, a whole trunk and truckload of boxy parts, and a modest amount of cash, the decommissioned C4-675 became mine. Oh, what potential!
PITA
Soon after buying the car, I learned what the term PITA meant. Oh sure, it means pain in the ass, but it has a deeper meaning than that. My first problem arose in the form of a cracked radiator tank. One morning in mid-May 2002, while I was sitting idling down in my customary first spot in the school parking lot, somebody mentioned to me that my car was leaking something. I jumped out, saw the liquid on the ground, and smelled it. Ethylene glycol. Christ. I tracked the problem down to a small crack in the front of the left radiator tank, just below and opposite where the top hose connected.
At first, I tried sealing up the crack with two-part epoxy. No go. The first time the radiator tank expanded, the epoxy cracked and it began to leak again. I then felt something more flexible was needed. Of course I tried RTV silicone, and this actually worked to some extent. About that time, I was getting ready drive out to Pennsylvania to get my grandparents so that they could be at my high school graduation. I figured with the leak reduced to a trickle, I could make the trip with few problems. Myself and my friend Josh left here on the afternoon of May 30, 2002. What a long, adverse trip it was.
The trip itself actually went fine until I was at the 97 mile marker on America's First (and worst) Superhighway, the Pennsylvania Turnpike. While cruising along, doing about the insanely low speed limit of 55 MPH (45 MPH in places), I noticed something start to make noise under the hood. Christ, I thought. The radiator tank is about to blow, and I'm hearing coolant boiling over. I figured that was the case until my check gauge light went on and I lost my power steering. At that point, I knew I had better pull over fast, because my serpentine belt just went tits-up. I brought the 9C1 to a stop in the breakdown lane at the 97.4 mile marker. By this time, it was 0200 EST on May 31, 2002.
We had Josh's cell phone with us, so we made a call to the Pennsylvania Turnpike assistance line, which got us in touch with turnpike dispatch at Highspire, PA. They said they'd get a wrecker dispatched to tow my car into Somerset. We had been waiting for five or ten minutes when I saw the reflector patterns of a Police Impersonator's front parking lights in my rearview mirror. As it pulled off into the breakdown lane, the rearward-facing red and blue alternating flashers of a Federal Signal Vector lightbar came on, and I knew it was a Pennsylvania state trooper (Troop T for turnpike) stopping to see if we were all right. I put down the passenger side window as he got out of the car to come talk to us.
Trooper Thorpe knew what the car was right off. I explained what had happened under the hood, and said we had a wrecker on the way. He said he understood, and then asked us if we were with the Indiana State Police. Of course I told him we weren't. He said he asked because he saw my ISP Operation Pullover keychain, and said that if we would have been, he would have hit us up for a patch, as he was a patch collector. I was amused, and then I explained the history of the car to him. It was then that he made a very quotable quote: "I really liked these when we had them," he said. "They really move - not like them Fords!" I was unable to control my laughter, and I think I said I was sorry that he didn't still have his LT1 Caprice. He laughed as well, and said he'd be back by to make sure the wrecker got us off of the turnpike. He told us goobye, jumped back in his Vic, and went back on patrol.
With any luck, Thorpe has not fallen victim to Crown Vic combustion since then, and is still patrolling the turnpike, nailing traffic violators, collecting patches, and sitting in his Vic all night with the lightbar on, working a construction zone, as there are plenty of them to go around. I hope he'll get a new Dodge when (if) they go through with their plan to make a full-size RWD Dodge police package sedan by 2005 (2006?) and drop the 345-cid 340 horsepower Hemi pushrod V8 engine in it. Or how about the 6.1 Hemi V8? Either way, it will be awesome.
We made it into Somerset with the help of the wrecker driver. He dropped us off in the parking lot of the Advance Auto Parts on PA-601 in Somerset. At first I thought we'd have to wait until the morning to get a belt. Then we took a walk down to Jim's Auto and Truck Plaza, which is very near the Somerset interchange. The guys in the parts department sold us a new belt which I was able to put on by feel in the dark. We eventually got rolling again, and reached our destination just as the sun was coming up.
At first, I didn't know what the hell was wrong that was eating belts. I replaced the belt once more in Valley Grove, West Virginia. After that, I stopped at a Chevy dealer in Elm Grove, near Wheeling. The guy in the parts department helped me to deduce that the air conditioner clutch was causing my grief. Somehow, I determined that the compressor cycled less when the air conditioner was run in its "MAX" setting, and I was able to make the rest of my trip without breaking any more belts.
Before making any more trips, I decided I was going to get my goddamned problems fixed. I ordered a new radiator from Dal (9C1 parts king) at Van Devere Oldsmobile in Akron, Ohio. I also ordered a new AC Delco air conditioner clutch through Advance Auto Parts. As I recall, the clutch came in first. I decided it was going to be a PITA to put on myself, so I called up Hubler Chevrolet on the south side of Indianapolis and talked to Craig. He advised me that I could get it done that day. I got to their service department, talked to him, and he was able to get my car into the service bay quickly. About an hour or so later, the technician who did the replacement took me back into the shop and showed me what he had done and what was going on with the clutch. I was pleased with the service I got at Hubler's, and will go back if I have something that I don't want to do again.
One down, one to go. My radiator was scheduled to come in the following Wednesday. Sure enough. According to UPS tracking it would be in around noon. I timed my logistics perfectly. I dumped the coolant system and had the old radiator out by about 1100 EST. I then removed all the hoses, cleaned them, and let them dry. The UPS truck came pulling up right on schedule. I got all of the packing material out of the new radiator, blew it out, put the fan mounts on it, installed it, made the necessary hose modifications, flushed the swill out of the cooling system, put a new load of coolant in, and was finished by 1600. I was able to make a test lap around I-465 to verify that nothing would blow up on my trip to Pennsylvania the following day.
For the next month or so my 9C1 operated flawlessly. It still had the awful blue paint job, but that was soon to be replaced by its current black. In mid-July, I was called into emergency service of the Crossroads of America Council, BSA, and had to mobilize and head to Muncie. I was getting near IN-3 on I-70 when the serpentine belt sheared again. I was pissed, irate, and about ready to start throwing things when a Henry County deputy pulled up behind me on the shoulder. As I did with Thorpe, I put down the passenger's side window to talk to him. He offered to give me a ride to the Flying J at IN-3 and I-70. He also had his dispatcher contact the old man so he could meet up with me and get me going again. Great, I thought. I finally get to ride in a Crown Vic on the highway.
The car was weak. I think he mashed it all the way to the floor pan just to get off of the shoulder and attain a decent speed. The deputy said his last cruiser before the CVPI was an LT1-equipped 1995 9C1. I felt bad for him. We reached the Flying J, I thanked him for his help, and he dropped me off. Later, when the old man arrived, we went back to the car, swapped the belt, and determined that it was most probably a seized alternator and/or defective pulley that caused the burnout. The alternator was very hot to the touch, and turning it by hand, it seemed as though the bearings or brushes or some shit were shot. We decided that I would need to put on a new alternator before I came home.
I installed the new alternator behind the lodge at camp. It was a very easy task, requiring only a few tools. I then took my food quartermasters into town for what was both a test ride and a mission to acquire some cigars. The alternator performed flawlessly, and since that time I have had no further problems with the drive belt system.
I had the car painted black in mid-August, 2002. The idiots at the paint shop screwed it up royally, and over the next ten months, the paint fell off under normal driving conditions. If it even got a drop of gas spilled on it, it would wrinkle, lift, and fall off. Road spray, rain, snow, ice, and everything else that a normal paint job does fine against caused the terribly adhering paint to just fall off. I finally got pissed, blasted it with my pressure washer, and took it back to claim my warranty. The owner of the shop agreed to repaint the entire car free of charge. Thus, the fun began.
This time around, I took a no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners approach to getting the goddamn paint job done. I worked for days and days out in my garage stripping the car myself. I removed every piece of exterior trim, weatherstripping, molding, and even the quarter windows, which had to come out so that the window channel could be properly prepped and painted and the resulting job would look factory, instead of the repaint swill you see on so many old late-model Caprice squads. I also removed the bumper skins and mirrors and had them painted seperately from the rest of the car. I completely stripped, sanded, and primed the bumper skins and mirrors myself, since plastic is finicky about being painted. The car went into the shop and was returned to me a couple of weeks later with several small imperfections in the paint and clearcoat. The owner made an appointment for me to bring the car back to be touched up. He also said he would buff it. Eventually, he ended up repainting half of the rear bumper skin, the front bumper skin, hood, front fenders, doors on the driver's side, and left quarter panel. For chrissakes. They didn't buff a damn thing, and so I decided to do the color sanding and buffing work myself. Currently, it is done and put back together. It looks pretty good for a nine year old police car with 192.6k miles on the odometer and not one bit of rust. God blessed Texas.
There is plenty more to put here about the stuff I have had to deal with in keeping my car in good condition, but I am not inspired to write about it. If something significant happens, I'll get around to writing about it on my own time.
Please send e-mail to 
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Warranty Information, Service History, Build Sheet and RPO Breakdown
Special thanks to Brandon Sparks, Chris McCabe, and the Texas Department of Public Safety's Open Record policy for providing the information necessary to compile this document.
