Project Buford T Justice: Our Cop Car Cruises Home and Then We Beat on It!

Here's the scene in Doug's shop when we arrived. Had had the car up on the lift, the tires pulled to check the brakes, and new interior pieces ready to swap in. It was time to go to work!

Here's Gene and Doug hard at work getting Doug's late 1970s vintage pocket bike to fire. Eventually they did and shockingly no one was brutally injured on it.

One of the minor repairs we made while the car was on the lift was to replace the exhaust hangers at the rear of the system. The car has dual exhausts from the manifolds and the rear hangers were rotted off so the pipes hung low. 10 bucks worth of hangers from the parts store and that was that.

The one bad spot on the car for rust was the driver's side rear wheel well. With a hole the size of a football in it, a quick fix to keep stuff from entering the trunk was some sheet metal and short sheet metal screws. Not artwork by any means, but functional!

Here's the excitement of the ride home…fog. That was it. The car ran along at 65-75 mph and knocked back a little over 19mpg! A little slower and we would have been 20+

The front bumper filler did not fare so well on the ride home. The brittle old plastic didn't like the 75mph wind on the nose of the car and it started jumping to freedom in chunks and pieces. We had about 30% left by the time we got home. These are readily available.

After we got home and knew that the car was a runner, we decided to put it through some BangShift "performance" testing. Getting after it on dirt road like a good 1980's sheriff was test number one!

This was actually twice as fun as it looks in the photos.

We then had to confirm that the 8.5" 10-bolt rear end, which is equipped with posi-traction worked. It did on dirt!

Next up we tested that limited slip on asphalt. We honestly had our doubts that the 185,000 mile 350 could lay good rubber but it did. We didn't shame John Force, but we did smoke both tires…several times!

The motor was rated at 160hp when new….we're not sure how many of those babies are left, but we do know that several have headed to the glue factory already.

Ok, enough of the violence for now. Let's take a look at this prime example of 1980's cop car goodness!

Believe it or not there is a 350ci small block under all of that shit. The car is equipped with A/C and the vacuum hell known as 1980s emissions equipment. Note the flipped air cleaner lid for max power and Q-Jet moan action.

The infamous, but economical feedback Q-Jet. This will be headed to the scrap heap sooner rather than later.

Behold the power plant! Looks like a rubber tube factory blew up under the hood.

Rare factory nitrous exhaust injection. Look it up.

This was where the massive fuse for the lights and radios and junk lived under the hood. Looks like something from Frankenstein's lab!

The interior is in pretty good shape. We swapped a split bench cop seat into it at Doug's shop and we also put a new headliner in the car. It is comfy!

This is where the perps…..errr…my kids sit. Note the rubber floor mat goodness.

Nothing says 1987 more than GM door panels from the era. Crank windows and manual mirrors FTW.

Horns are for the weak, but using the hood ornament as a ramming sight for Toyota killing is something we're into.

Cop cars got two dome lights so Johnny Law could see well when he was writing you up for street racing, burnouts, and general stupidity.

Cop car spec gauges to the right of the steering wheel are neato. Two out of three work!

Here's the certified 115mph speedo. No 85mph weenie stuff here!

Blue was the original color. Painting jambs costs extra.

Badges…there are only a few stinking badges.

The cop shocks and cop tires joke is applicable here. The 9C1 suspension is far heavier duty than civilian models and this car uses the truck 5×5 bolt pattern for wheels. The front brakes have rotors that measure larger than 12 inches and the rear drums are very large as well. The springs and sway bar package on the car is damned good for a machine of this age and even with the cheapo rubber, it goes where you point it. With good rubber and better springs and components this thing will be a hoot on the autocross and road course.

Large trunk is LARGE!

This car may also double as my living quarters if any other projects come to the BS East Coast HQ.

Details are important when disposing bodies. Wait…what?

We want to decode this to see all of the options on the car. 9C1 is the most important one!

The car was formerly equipped with twin antennas. We used this high tech method to fill one of the holes.

Overall the car is in great shape. Yes, the exterior is a little haggard but who the hell cares? Certainly not us! Other than the wheel well there is nothing serious with respect to rot.

Stock Caprices have rubber inserts in the bumper. The copper versions do not and the bumpers look cleaner.

It will need a respray at some point, but before we tackle that we'll just clean up what's here and do some patch painting on areas of surface rust to help stop any body cancer from spreading.

and a fine example of one it is…

Overall, this car is awesome and a lot of fun. We cannot wait to start upgrading it, system by system, to make a super fun, tire shredding sedan. This platform has a ton of performance potential and we look forward to showcasing it. The next stop will be a visit to the drags to run this beast in 100% stock form. Spoiler Alert: It is going to be SLOW!