Chassis and suspention donor for '74 Monaco and I need info on CHP '74 cars

[Nick Winter]

I'm in the process of buying a Resin '74 Monaco, it's coming with an interior and chassis/suspention, but I want to build the car more detailed than dual metal axels, and I'm building it as a CHP car, so any info on them would be great. I've got a 440 and a 727 for it but what would be a good donor?

Nick

Edit: Also have a Resin 8 3/4 for the car.

Edited December 15, 2010 by Nick Winter

[Joe Handley]

IIRC those still used Chrysler's Mid Sized "B-Body" platform, so you should be able to use one of AMT's 90's or newer issue Roadrunner/GTX/Cornet R/T or '71 Charger R/T kits just like you would on the older MPC based kits like the Daisey's '74 Roadrunner, Rosco's Cop Car, ect.

[Luc Janssens]

IIRC those still used Chrysler's Mid Sized "B-Body" platform, so you should be able to use one of AMT's 90's or newer issue Roadrunner/GTX/Cornet R/T or '71 Charger R/T kits just like you would on the older MPC based kits like the Daisey's '74 Roadrunner, Rosco's Cop Car, ect.

Joe, you're mistaken, the 74 Monaco is a full size (A-body IIRC) car, while the kits you mention are mid size (B-body), tho in your defense the Monaco nameplate went B body in '77 or '78, and the A-body went Gran....

Best regards

Luc

[slantasaurus]

Joe, you're mistaken, the 74 Monaco is a full size (A-body IIRC) car, while the kits you mention are mid size (B-body), tho in your defense the Monaco nameplate went B body in '77 or '78, and the A-body went Gran....

Best regards

Luc

Actually, the 74 Monaco was a "C" body, it went to the "B" chassis in 76. There really isn't an accurate C body chassis to work with. The closest would be the Jo-Han 68 Fury Police car but those can be hard to come by. The next closest would be the 71 Charger that Joe suggested or the Revell 68/69 Chargers, but they might need to be lengthened and possibly widened too.

[Nick Winter]

So the Newly Reissued '71 Charger is my best bet?

[Craig Irwin]

Nick, its as good as any because nothing is really correct. I hope the resin body you are getting is much better than the worthless piece I bought on ebay last year.

[Joe Handley]

Ah that's right, I forgot those were still full sized at that point, sorry about that Nick!

[whale392]

A-bodies were the Darts, Dusters, Barracudas (up to and including 1969).

B-bodies were your Satellites, Belvederes, GTXs, Coronets, Super Bees, Road Runners (up to and including 1974), Furys (up to and including 1965 below the FuryIII line)

C-bodies were your Polaras, Monacos, Furies (1965 FuryIIIs and up), later New Yorkers

D-bodies were your Imperials, and earlier New Yorkers

E-bodies were the 1970-74 Challengers and Barracudas (Cudas)

J-bodies were your 75-later Corbobas, Magnums, Gran Furies, Diplomats, Volaries

Vans and trucks went by the D### designation as well.

[Agent G]

Nick,

What do you need to know about CHP cars?

I have alot of refs and personal knowledge.

G

[slantasaurus]

A-bodies were the Darts, Dusters, Barracudas (up to and including 1969).

B-bodies were your Satellites, Belvederes, GTXs, Coronets, Super Bees, Road Runners (up to and including 1974), Furys (up to and including 1965 below the FuryIII line)

C-bodies were your Polaras, Monacos, Furies (1965 FuryIIIs and up), later New Yorkers

D-bodies were your Imperials, and earlier New Yorkers

E-bodies were the 1970-74 Challengers and Barracudas (Cudas)

J-bodies were your 75-later Corbobas, Magnums, Gran Furies, Diplomats, Volaries

Vans and trucks went by the D### designation as well.

A few corrections here........

75 Road Runners were also still B bodies

76-78 Furys and Monacos were also B bodies

All Valiants 60-76 were A bodies

75-79 Cordobas, Chargers, and Magnums were all B bodies

76-80 Volares and Aspens were F bodies

Dodge P/U's were D series

Dodge Vans were B series

Edited December 16, 2010 by slantasaurus

[Rob Hall]

A few corrections here........

75 Road Runners were also still B bodies

76-78 Furys and Monacos were also B bodies

All Valiants 60-76 were A bodies

75-79 Cordobas, Chargers, and Magnums were all B bodies

76-80 Volares and Aspens were F bodies

The C-body were Gran Furys for '75-78 and Royal Monacos for '77-78 (the B-body Fury replaced the Satellite for '75, the Coronet was the Dodge B-body for '75-'76 ('76 2drs were Chargers).

I hadn't heard about a resin '74 Monaco..there are many in diecast in various scales (not 1:25th). I hope it's not a TKM..those are dreadful.

Edited December 16, 2010 by Rob Hall

[Nick Winter]

Rob to my knoledge it isn't a TKM.

Nick,

What do you need to know about CHP cars?

I have alot of refs and personal knowledge.

G

Anything I can learn, I know they always had a whip mounted on the passenger quarterpanel and a beige/tan interior, also know most had the 3 lights in the rear shelf, red, blue and amber (not in that order of course).

Any pictures would be very handy.

Nick

[Blake Rogers]

[Agent G]

Ok

To start, they are Black and White per California law. CHP cars have white front doors and white roofs. The window frames are black, only the door skin is white.

All had push bumpers made by the CHP shop.

The low band "whip" antenna is bolted to the fender opposite the fuel filler cap. If the fuel filler cap is under the rear license plate, the antenna is on the drivers side.

Most CHP cars are slicktops, i.e. no roof lights. In that case there will be a spotlight on each side. They will be painted black. The driver's spot will have a red lens, and when turned on burns with a steady red. This too is per CA state law.

In '74 CHP had two lights on the package shelf. One red and one amber. The amber light flashed per state law, sometimes the red did. They were on the drivers side amber to the outside. They didn't put the blue light back there until the early 80's. Picture two spotlights side by side, one red, one amber.

If the car carried roof lights, in '74 it was the old skool square twinsonic. When they had a roof rack, both spotlights had clear lenses.

Here's a cool link.

http://members.fortunecity.com/chpcars/chp70.html

G

[whale392]

So you are telling me B-body headers will work in a Cordoba huh? Guess having to make them for the 440 was just an oops (even though the car came with the 400 option). Cordobas/Magnums/Imperials of that era were considered B-bodies?

On second thought, you may be right. A lot of their underpinnings will swap back to MY B-bodies (1965 Dodges) and dads B-bodies (66-67 Coronets and Belvederes). Guess I need to brush up on my later Mopars.......I knew the Valiants were A-Bodies, Just as the Darts (1961-62) were actually B-bodies before they shrunk them to the A-body level. Thank you for the corrections, I will squirrell them away for future use.

Edited December 16, 2010 by whale392

[Rob Hall]

So you are telling me B-body headers will work in a Cordoba huh? Guess having to make them for the 440 was just an oops (even though the car came with the 400 option). Cordobas/Magnums/Imperials of that era were considered B-bodies?

'75-79 Cordoba, Charger, and Magnum were all B-bodies. The '80-84 Cordoba, Mirada, and '81-83 Imperial were J-bodies, I think...based on the F-body (Aspen/Volare) and similar to the related M-body (Diplomat, Fifth Avenue, Caravelle, later Gran Fury, etc).

Edited December 16, 2010 by Rob Hall

[whale392]

And the Diplomat/Gran Fury line went until 1989 if I remember correctly. I remember taking a 1987 Diplomat front disc set-up and swapping it back to an earlier Mopar (can't remember if it was an A or B body though.........15 years kind-of kills the brain cells).

[Joe Handley]

I was thinking the F, M, and RWD J bodies were close enough to the A, B, and E Bodies that some of the suspension parts could be interchanged back and forth to some extent.

[niteowl7710]

Most CHP cars are slicktops, i.e. no roof lights. In that case there will be a spotlight on each side. They will be painted black. The driver's spot will have a red lens, and when turned on burns with a steady red. This too is per CA state law.

In '74 CHP had two lights on the package shelf. One red and one amber. The amber light flashed per state law, sometimes the red did. They were on the drivers side amber to the outside. They didn't put the blue light back there until the early 80's. Picture two spotlights side by side, one red, one amber.

If the car carried roof lights, in '74 it was the old skool square twinsonic. When they had a roof rack, both spotlights had clear lenses.

G

Particularly in 1974 the cars were about 95% slicktop. The CHP started testing the idea of overhead lighting in '72-'74 so it possible to find very rare CHP cars with a variety of different lighting options including the "A-Bar" which was creation of the CHP shops. In late '74 CHP decided to go with the Cal-Spec Federal Twinsonic. The restored cars on the Police Car Site were both professionally done and are both correct for their type of setup (both slicktop and with lights). Be sure to note that the low-band whip is actually on TOP of the driver's side fender at the corner of the trunk, not on the side of the fender like they currently are.

When you look at a Cal-Spec Twinsonic from overhead it works like this...

Red - Rotater/Sealed Beam (Steady Red) << SIREN GRILL>> Blue - Sealed Beam (Flashed)/Rotator <-- Front

Red - Rotater/Sealed Beam (Flashing Amber) << SIREN GRILL>> Blue - Sealed Beam (Flashed)/Rotator <-- Rear

Of special note of the Cal-Spec set-up was the Rear-Facing Amber light was actually a piece of colored plastic that was riveted over the hole cut-out in the solid red dome on the driver's side. Also the rear sealed beams did not wig-wag (aka flash alternating with each other), the amber flashed at different (faster) rate.

Edited December 16, 2010 by niteowl7710

[slantasaurus]

This should clear up ANY Mopar chassis or engine designations.........I hope.........

[Rob Hall]

I was thinking the F, M, and RWD J bodies were close enough to the A, B, and E Bodies that some of the suspension parts could be interchanged back and forth to some extent.

I think the F/M/J had a unique front suspension w/ horizontal torsion bars, instead of longitudinal ones like the A/B/C/E bodies..

[Craig Irwin]

I hadn't heard about a resin '74 Monaco..there are many in diecast in various scales (not 1:25th). I hope it's not a TKM..those are dreadful.

The one I bought is worse than a TKM and yes I've seen them.

[niteowl7710]

This should clear up ANY Mopar chassis or engine designations.........I hope.........

O.K. so my problem with that is it lists the Gran Fury as being an M-Body from 1977-1989. However it was a still a C-Body in 1977, there were no Gran Furys in 1978-1979. When it resumed production in 1980 & 1981 it was an R-Body with the Newport & St. Regis...it didn't go to the M-Body until 1982. I know it's nit picking...but...

Edit - Upon second inspection I see the Gran Fury is also listed as a C-Body from '65-'78.

Edited December 16, 2010 by niteowl7710

[Rob Hall]

O.K. so my problem with that is it lists the Gran Fury as being an M-Body from 1977-1989. However it was a still a C-Body in 1977, there were no Gran Furys in 1978-1979. When it resumed production in 1980 & 1981 it was an R-Body with the Newport & St. Regis...it didn't go to the M-Body until 1982. I know it's nit picking...but...

Edit - Upon second inspection I see the Gran Fury is also listed as a C-Body from '65-'78.

Yeah, Mopar was moving names around quite a bit in those days. And the M-body Gran Fury was called the Caravelle in Canada. The US market also got a Caravelle, but it was a FWD variation of the Dodge 600, IIRC..

[Nick Winter]

Ok

To start, they are Black and White per California law. CHP cars have white front doors and white roofs. The window frames are black, only the door skin is white.

All had push bumpers made by the CHP shop.

The low band "whip" antenna is bolted to the fender opposite the fuel filler cap. If the fuel filler cap is under the rear license plate, the antenna is on the drivers side.

Most CHP cars are slicktops, i.e. no roof lights. In that case there will be a spotlight on each side. They will be painted black. The driver's spot will have a red lens, and when turned on burns with a steady red. This too is per CA state law.

In '74 CHP had two lights on the package shelf. One red and one amber. The amber light flashed per state law, sometimes the red did. They were on the drivers side amber to the outside. They didn't put the blue light back there until the early 80's. Picture two spotlights side by side, one red, one amber.

If the car carried roof lights, in '74 it was the old skool square twinsonic. When they had a roof rack, both spotlights had clear lenses.

Here's a cool link.

http://members.fortunecity.com/chpcars/chp70.html

G

Particularly in 1974 the cars were about 95% slicktop. The CHP started testing the idea of overhead lighting in '72-'74 so it possible to find very rare CHP cars with a variety of different lighting options including the "A-Bar" which was creation of the CHP shops. In late '74 CHP decided to go with the Cal-Spec Federal Twinsonic. The restored cars on the Police Car Site were both professionally done and are both correct for their type of setup (both slicktop and with lights). Be sure to note that the low-band whip is actually on TOP of the driver's side fender at the corner of the trunk, not on the side of the fender like they currently are.

When you look at a Cal-Spec Twinsonic from overhead it works like this...

Red - Rotater/Sealed Beam (Steady Red) << SIREN GRILL>> Blue - Sealed Beam (Flashed)/Rotator <-- Front

Red - Rotater/Sealed Beam (Flashing Amber) << SIREN GRILL>> Blue - Sealed Beam (Flashed)/Rotator <-- Rear

Of special note of the Cal-Spec set-up was the Rear-Facing Amber light was actually a piece of colored plastic that was riveted over the hole cut-out in the solid red dome on the driver's side. Also the rear sealed beams did not wig-wag (aka flash alternating with each other), the amber flashed at different (faster) rate.

Thanks guys, wasn't sure when the Blue shelf light was added but now I do, Thanks, Guess I'll do a slick top.