My job for the past few months has been to turn a retired police car into something my civilian kid can safely drive without getting creeped out by wires and useless artifacts left over from the decommissioning process. It seems like the decom consists of scavenging a lot of stuff off the car that will be used as replacement parts for the rest of the fleet. Perhaps some of the control equipment taken off will be auctioned to other small agencies too. My role in the process probably makes me a "down-fitter". I've had a good time working through my 2016 FPIS and the ride is feeling like something that will give a few years of reliable service.
Several weeks ago I spent a lot of time sorting through the assortment of harnesses and wiring that snakes from the dashboard to the rear of the car. During my task of working through the tangled mess I ended up cutting out a lot of copper wire. With a little nip-and-tuck action I actually got the trunk looking pretty good and hoped that was the end of it for me. My hopes for "moving on" were crushed by the news from my girls that the horn is no longer working. I knew it had worked before so the blame could only rest on something in my loom surgery having caused an open in the horn circuit. Not able to "go back" I now was faced with the responsibility to finish the job and get the front end sorted out.
![Image]()
After removing the center console I was welcomed to the origin of about 1/2 the wires I coiled up and tucked away behind the rear seat. I disconnected the auxilary stuff and began sifting through the subharness maze:
![Image]()
![Image]()
With all the rest of my upfitter electrical carcass removed I was left with four stray wires, two of which were the purple/green ones I've read so much about. As you already know... connecting those two wires made the horn work.
![Image]()
At this point of the game there are almost no wires left in limbo. I do have a couple stray boxes that look like RF pickups left but have no compelling reason to remove them. I haven't given up hope on finding a detective (plastic civi style) center console so the FPIS looks more civilian but am beginning to entertain some cherry flat panels on top of the metal console to pretty things up. We'll see where that goes.
I'm glad to be seeing some light at the end of this project tunnel. Windows have been tinted @ 50% and the TigerTough front seat covers are waiting for me to slide them on. Unfortunately the floor mats I got from the dealer didn't fit (rear seat) and so I returned them. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do for a floor mat solution but I have some time to google a solution. I also need to decide if I'm going to do something about the Digital Ally mirror setup or just leave it. The decomissioning process left me with all of the wires leading to the mirror being snipped and of course the DVR and dash cam are gone... so not a lot of reason to keep it in lieu of a "normal" RVM other than $$$ to spend.
Thanks for looking,
rich
Several weeks ago I spent a lot of time sorting through the assortment of harnesses and wiring that snakes from the dashboard to the rear of the car. During my task of working through the tangled mess I ended up cutting out a lot of copper wire. With a little nip-and-tuck action I actually got the trunk looking pretty good and hoped that was the end of it for me. My hopes for "moving on" were crushed by the news from my girls that the horn is no longer working. I knew it had worked before so the blame could only rest on something in my loom surgery having caused an open in the horn circuit. Not able to "go back" I now was faced with the responsibility to finish the job and get the front end sorted out.
After removing the center console I was welcomed to the origin of about 1/2 the wires I coiled up and tucked away behind the rear seat. I disconnected the auxilary stuff and began sifting through the subharness maze:
- Out came some sort of controller that plugged into the OBD port.
- Out came some sort of CAT5 cable that disappeared into the headliner and then resurfaced at the C-pillar
- Out came a mass bundle of black, red, purple, peach, yellow, white and blue wires leading to nowhere.
- Out came several wires teminating at the gray aux connectors at the front console.
- Out came a couple coax cables that had been snipped
With all the rest of my upfitter electrical carcass removed I was left with four stray wires, two of which were the purple/green ones I've read so much about. As you already know... connecting those two wires made the horn work.
At this point of the game there are almost no wires left in limbo. I do have a couple stray boxes that look like RF pickups left but have no compelling reason to remove them. I haven't given up hope on finding a detective (plastic civi style) center console so the FPIS looks more civilian but am beginning to entertain some cherry flat panels on top of the metal console to pretty things up. We'll see where that goes.
I'm glad to be seeing some light at the end of this project tunnel. Windows have been tinted @ 50% and the TigerTough front seat covers are waiting for me to slide them on. Unfortunately the floor mats I got from the dealer didn't fit (rear seat) and so I returned them. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do for a floor mat solution but I have some time to google a solution. I also need to decide if I'm going to do something about the Digital Ally mirror setup or just leave it. The decomissioning process left me with all of the wires leading to the mirror being snipped and of course the DVR and dash cam are gone... so not a lot of reason to keep it in lieu of a "normal" RVM other than $$$ to spend.
Thanks for looking,
rich