Post Garage Archives

Spent 2 1/2 hours today sorting through old dusty boxes at the Post Garage, thanks D & W. The boxes were torn and weathered but they contained secrets, great secrets. Found eight different service files for SSP Mustangs out of Edmonton and two service files for B4C Camaros. As I go through these gems I will keep you posted. So excited... Further, well discussing how ugly an old Lumina was, sitting in the lot infront of the Post Garage, I'm told they had Recarro Seats from the factory. "They even have 'Recarro" stitched into the seat backs". "Those are the seats you should get for your car"...good point. So good in fact, that I wanted to look at them. Then I found out there were about twenty of these Luminas purchased by the RCMP K Division, Edmonton - all white. Problem was, that when they went to install the shields, there was just a few inches between the rear seat and the cage, not enough for someones feet, unless you were a size 2. So, out came the factory seats, and big dollars were spent to buy fiberglass rear seats - blue ones too boot (matched the interior colour). Oops, that cost the tax payers a little more than expected. Well, the cars were used for a little while but with the implementation of the firearms registry, they were all tossed over to the Canadian firearms verification people (keep them in the Federal Family). They were "tossed" because they were the early front wheel drives and I'm told, by an excellent, proven reliable, source, they were mechanically weak and repair costly. Anyway, these little tidbits resulted in me getting the key, yes, one key system (was it like the SSPs? - not sure. Anyone?) the round key only, and taking a closer look. Took a few photographs too and when I get them off the camera, I'll see to posting them. Now I'm thinking, maybe I should buy one of these cars? I'll have to check the net to see if there are people interested in these short lived police packages. Really, it was a neat little car upon inspection, though still terribly ugly in my opinion. Will have to drive one and see what I think then. All around, a neat day, and worth the 2 1/2 hours. Oh yeah, rumour has it the Traffic Services in Northern Alberta will be putting out a few black and white, and blue and white, RCMP traffic cars for the 135th anniversary. The original b&w and b&w cars (hey, I could have just typed b&w one time and caught both colour combinations). Supposedly, they have realized they will have to do a press release about it b/c nobody will expect to see those colours anymore. They will be modern cars with old style lights and graphics on them. Tied to recruiting needs as well. Saw one of the fender lights demonstrated today. Its a small red light that reads "stop police" and flashes alternately top to bottom. You know, one on each fender, facing forward. It will be neat to see what happens with all this. I'm a little worried because this will reinvigorate the blue & white colour, and therefore, draw attention to my SSP. Attention, likely, from the law. As Ontario Provincial Police has gone back to black and white cars, and many other organizations I'm told, will the RCMP go back to blue & white police cars? Supposedly, the b&w cars will only be a temporary thing. I'm told the cars that will be converted will be used cars, already in service, that "only have about one year left in them". Also...I know this is a lot of typing for a blog that has seen little if any action...we talked about how they put the radar antennas in the light bars of the PCs for a little while because of the cancer scare. You know, the one where the guy supposedly left the handheld radar between his legs and radiated his nads (can anyone verify this story?). Guess policy came out that required the antennas to be mounted on the exterior of the vehicle. Nother bit of info I wasn't aware of. Guess the early radar antennas were quite hard to do this with as they were so big. Well, I should get to bed. It's after midnight. Maybe this is the start of a much bigger blog. See you soon...and with more goodies... John R