ANAHEIM : His Love for Cars Shows in His Work

You have to take Chuck Swanson’s word for it when he says he’s a car nut.

And it’s not just because he’s a police officer or because the 52-year-old Anaheim resident has restored hundreds of cars.

It’s that exaggeration and lies don’t come easily to the head of the polygraph testing unit for the Anaheim Police Department.

The latest evidence of Swanson’s automobile passion is Unit 301--a restored 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook police car.

With contributions from local businesses, about $2,000 of his own money and about a year of hard work, Swanson put the aged black-and-white back on the California roadways.

“I’ve always wanted to do an old police car,” said Swanson, who donated the car to Anaheim’s police explorer group. “We need all the positive attention we can get” in the Police Department.

The restored car was invited to appear in its first parade Monday during a Fourth of July celebration in Anaheim Hills.

Since February, the car has been drawing crowds, starring at police graduations and open houses. The car, which bears the sign “not in service” on its back windshield, is strictly for show, Swanson said.

A couple of times a week, Swanson takes the vintage car out on the road, and that’s where the vehicle attracts most of its admirers. One motorist followed him five miles just to ask to take pictures of it.

“I get a lot of comments from people who say, ‘Yeah, my dad, or my granddad, had a Plymouth like that,’ said Swanson, 52, who has been with the Anaheim Police Department for 27 years. “It’s just good PR (public relations) for the department.”

Swanson and the car have also received admiration from an unlikely source.

“I even get gangbangers who go by and give you the thumbs up,” he said. “There’s a gap between young people and adults, and it’s neat to have something like this to bring them together.”

Swanson rescued the car, which had weeds growing inside it a year ago, from an auto junkyard for ex-movie cars.

Although he doesn’t know which movies, Swanson said, the car has been featured as a taxi cab, a family auto and, of course, a police car in films.

Even with $10,000 work, most of it donated by local business, the car still has its “idiosyncrasies,” Swanson says. Sometimes, he has to shut off the engine to get the car in first gear.

The door latch on the driver’s side needs to be fixed, and there’s a paper clip on the old-style siren to keep it from sounding when the car goes more than 40 m.p.h.

But Unit 301 is getting there.

“It’s a labor of love,” Swanson said.