This is a bit off-the-wall but I'm trying to find any information related to the Camaros used by the California Highway Patrol back in the late 70's. I just bought a '78 Camaro that I was told was used by the CHP as an interceptor. I truly find this hard to believe as only 12 were ever utilized and I believe they were all Z-28's and mine is a Type LT. The car has been badly repainted and there are no real obvious signs that this car was ever a police vehicle. I didn't buy the vehicle based on these claims but I wanted to see if anyone on here has any info at all that might be helpful to verify or not before I start tearing the car apart and doing "my thing" to it. Any help will be sincerely appreciated, thanks in advance.

 

Here's a picture of the Z/28's used by CHP in typical black and white CHP trim:
http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1058...34977623dFQzal

My understanding is they were NOT 1978, they were 1979, and all were Z/28 models.
Take a look at this. Only two left that are known:
California Highway Patrol 1979 Z28 Camaro (Restored) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I've also seen some references to a 1978, but from what I've checked into the 1979/80 were the only ones tested, and none of the 1980's were purchased.

 

Thanks much for the info, that was about all I could find online as well. The story I was told about my car seemed strange to me but I for some reason am compelled to keep looking and dig a bit deeper. The name Traco (sp?) was thrown out there as the company that did the work on the CHP patrol Camaros and they did the work on this car. I can't find much online about them either. Ever heard of them? There is a build sheet under the driver seat that feels like it's pretty much shredded so I'm going to pull the seat out and see what I can find also. The person I bought the car from said he bought the car from a retired policeman that brought the car to Michigan from California. It's just a weird story to give someone but who knows? Again, thanks for the help.

 

I think it's one of those things where the story gets a bit twisted. Retired CHP officer moves to Michigan with his privately owned car, then sells it to someone who for some reason gets the story mixed up, and it becomes a CHP car, not his private vehicle.

 

You probably hit it right on the head there. I'm going to let this go... The only reason why I wanted to research this was some on the comments discussed seemed to be so realistic. The company Traco in CA that supposedly put this car together (along with the other CHP Camaros) was talked about a lot. I pulled the build sheet out of the car and it's just a standard build sheet from Chevrolet Motors. Thanks for letting me rant a bit, just had to be sure before I started to tear the car apart and make it my own. Now, I just have to figure out the complete mess of wiring under the dash that somebody really ignorant mutilated. Any ideas what would make the passenger side headlight, turn signals and courtesy light not work? I checked the wiring and it looks good, new bulbs etc. Can't figure it out.

 

Sounds like a bad ground issue to me! Try running a temp ground wire from neg. on the battery to the fender and then see if the problem goes away. Also check the ground wires at these devices to ground with a meter continuity check. If you don't have a 12v. test lamp, now's the time to get one so you can check each socket to ensure it's getting 12v. from pins to shell or pins to ground.

 

PS-Welcome to the forum!

 

Like '71 said I only remember there being 1979 & 1980 CHP vehicles.

But I'm curious, what does the vin read?

 

Thanks for the welcome, already good to be here! I do have a test lamp and I'll check things out today. Your insight is appreciated very much sir. I'll let you know how it goes.

Jeromaro vin reads 1S87L8L590027 - tried to do a history search but vehicle is too old with the shorter vin#. I'm moving on now but if you have/can locate any type of info or history that would be superb.

 

Got all the lights taken care of today. A few different issues but one problem was the ground on the pass side turn signal was out of the socket. The wiring is really the only thing major that this car needs. Don't know why someone would hack up the wiring so badly but they're hanging all over the place. Didn't want to start out spending $$ on new harnesses but I think that's probably best (and safest) to do first. Any experience with changing out the harnesses? It seems pretty straight forward with the Plug-n-play deals I've seen.