MTFCA Forum

Over the years, I have seen only a few of these hilarious cops that raise their arms when you apply the brakes on the car. They are quite rare, and I finally gave up looking for one, and decided to make my own, from scratch. My wife blew up a photo of one to full size, and I carefully cut the image out, and temporarily contact cemented it to a piece of sheet metal and cut the sheet metal away from the image.
I since our 1922 coupe is now 12 volt, I used a 12v solenoid for electric door locks of a modern car, to active the arms. Once I got the arms mounted, and figured out the linkage from the solenoid to the arms, and then just for fun, I added to tiny LED lights installed in the cop's gloved hands, in place of the tiny "STOP" signs the original had. I also used a 12v 25 amp electronic flasher in the circuit to the cop, so he would continuously raise and lower his arms when in operation.

I cleaned off the paper image, and gave it to my artist wife, who free hand painted the image on the metal. She did a wonderful job, and here is the results, mounted on our coupe.
So far, all the kids love it, and all the adults laugh when they see it. I now have the ultimate 3rd brake light..

Excellent! Looks period, too.

let me be the first to say, I want 1, How much? Nice job!

Very nice!

For those of you who are interested, this is how I activated the cop's arms.

And, before anybody gets excited, and wants me to make another one, SHE who must be obeyed,
told me in no uncertain terms, "WE are retired, you don't need a job, and I am NOT going to paint another one!"

Thanks Craig, that is a lot of fun!

vech wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 16, 2025 3:19 pm

For those of you who are interested, this is how I activated the cop's arms.

And, before anybody gets excited, and wants me to make another one, SHE who must be obeyed,
told me in no uncertain terms, "WE are retired, you don't need a job, and I am NOT going to paint another one!"


backside.jpg

Well that is understandable but It is meant to be a compliment on top of the fact i would like to have 1.Both of you did a really nice job and that looks like a pinball machine flipper coil almost.