Frank Bozzo and the Restored 1948 Paddywagon

Frank Bozzo began his association with the Gilroy Police Department as a Police Explorer in 1973. He became a reserve police officer in 1978 and he worked as a Gilroy police officer from 1980 until he retired in June of 2009. During that time, he became interested in the history of the department, and in one vehicle in particular: a Ford F-1 Panel Delivery paddywagon that the department had bought used for $350 and placed into service as a police vehicle.

     When Bozzo rescued the paddywagon, it had sat outdoors rusting for more than nine years. His fellow officer said, “It wasn’t much more than a bucket of bolts.” For five solid years, Bozzo would spend at least one day every weekend restoring it, and when he retired in 2009, he worked on the vehicle almost every day.

     The paddywagon, brought back to life, makes it debut in today’s Memorial Day Parade, with Frank Bozzo behind the wheel.

Gilroy Patch: How did you know where the paddywagon was?

Frank Bozzo: I knew it had been sold at auction in the early 1980s, and I had a sense of who owned it. When I began working full-time for the city in 1980, the vehicle had already been decommissioned. Before they auctioned it, the city was using it for janitorial supplies. All they did was take the lights off it.

Patch: When you finally bought it, the paddywagon had been sitting outdoors for years?

Bozzo: For more than nine years. It was not in good shape.

Patch: Your coworker, Jason Kadluboski, said the paddywagon was basically a bucket of bolts when you bought it.

Bozzo (laughing): A bucket of rusted bolts.

Patch: What made you want to take on the huge project of restoring it?

 Bozzo: When I began working for the police department in the seventies, many of the officers had been there for a long time. When I was a rookie, I learned police work with old-timers, people who had twenty years or more of service. They spoke about their work in the forties and fifties. I was intrigued, and wanted to know more about what it’d been like to be a police officer during that time.

Patch: And then when you were injured, you devoted yourself to learning more about the department’s history?

Bozzo: Even before I was injured, I’d begun reading city council meeting minutes.

Patch: How far back did you go?

Bozzo: Back to 1868, when all the meeting notes were still written by hand. I was reading them just out of interest when I was injured on duty and assigned to light duty for ten weeks. I was asked by the administration if I would use that ten weeks to really jump into the department’s history, and create a display for the lobby of the new police station.

Patch: You created the display in the lobby of the police station?

Bozzo: That was my work.

Patch: Wow. You did a beautiful job.

Bozzo: Thank you. I talked to many people, relatives of many of the officers and unfortunately some of their widows. Most of the photos, badges and weapons you see in that display were donated by the families of the officers.

Patch: Instead of sitting in a box in someone’s attic.

Bozzo: Right. And all the time I was looking into the department’s history and working on that display, I was thinking about the paddywagon and how cool it would be if we could bring it back into the department.

Patch: How did you get it back?

Bozzo: Before we purchased it, I went to the community and solicited help in restoring the vehicle. I asked people to commit to various aspects of the restoration: sanding down all the parts, the frame, the painting, the interior. I wound up with commitments that would cover about eighty percent of the work, and the Police Officers Association (POA) agreed to cover the rest of the costs.

Patch: Is it expensive to restore a vehicle when it’s that deteriorated?

Bozzo: Very. That’s why you don’t see many of these vehicles still around today. If it costs $80,000 to $100,000 to restore them, and they aren’t worth that much money once they’ve been restored, not many people will want to do the work.

Patch: So once you had commitments from the POA and various people in the community, then you bought the paddywagon?

Bozzo: I had a few friends who were car buffs. I asked them to come look at the vehicle and see if it could be restored.

Patch: And they thought it was doable?

Bozzo: They thought it could be. I had never restored a car in my life so at that point I talked to a lot of people who knew more than me, and I read a lot of books.

Patch: Wait a second. You had never restored a car before, but you read a lot of books on the subject???

Bozzo (laughing): And I’ll probably never restore another one. That’s five and a half years of my life I won’t get back. I couldn’t have done it if I hadn’t had a lot of support from the community. Gilbert Gallo, who’s a retired Gilroy police officer, helped me take the vehicle apart.

Patch: That must have been hard, given all the rust.

Bozzo: It was very time-consuming. We took it down to the very last nut and bolt on the frame.

      The vehicle’s body work and painting was done by the Gilroy Collision Center, and all their labor was donated. All paint and materials was donated by PPG and Finish Masters on Church Street. The rust mitigation, powder coating, media blasting was done by Mission Powder Coating and Finishing; they sand-blasted every part, and donated all their time. The engine work was done by Batchelder’s Auto Repair, and again all labor was donated. We did pay to have the engine rebuilt but they only charged us for parts, not for labor.

     George Atkins, who is very well known for his upholstery work, did the interior, and he donated all his time. George works for Sid Chavers Company, who does upholstery for hot rods and nostalgic period cars. Sid Chavers Company donated materials and George did all the work on his own time.

     Ana Barberi let us work in a building on her ranch for two and a half years. Before her offer of a workspace, we were working on the vehicle outdoors in extreme heat, rain, and cold. Her generosity made finishing the paddywagon much easier.

     When it was time to put the vehicle back together, my brother Jim came on and started helping me. He stayed on until we were finished.

     These are the major contributors but there were so many people involved in this effort. Everyone in the POA and every community member who donated time and money was very important in having this vehicle come together.

Patch: This vehicle is showroom quality.

Bozzo: Our goal was to bring it back to its original working condition. We weren’t looking to create a showpiece.

Patch: Even so, it’s beautiful.

Bozzo: It is better than factory.

Patch: You even discovered where this vehicle originally came from.

Bozzo: It was purchased in the late 1950s by the city of Gilroy from the city of Sacramento. Gilroy paid $350 for it. It had been used in Sacramento as some type of forestry vehicle, and it had been painted green inside and out. The folks at Union Body, which used to be at Eighth Street and Monterey, painted the outside black and white but they left the inside green. The inside was still green when we started restoring it.

Patch: Why did you care so much about bringing the vehicle back to its original condition?

Bozzo: I guess a sense of its history is just in my blood. There’s something about honoring those who came before me, those who set the foundation of what we are now. I felt that this car was a part of our history. That history matters to me.

Patch: You are still working on the written history of the Gilroy Police Department, still reading the city council meeting minutes?

Bozzo: I’ve finished the city council minutes through the sixties. It took me a month or so to get used to each new secretary’s handwriting; I was glad they didn’t change secretaries more often.

     I also began reading local newspapers starting with the papers of 1868. I’d like to finish reading all the city council meeting minutes and all the newspapers and write up a history of the Gilroy Police Department.

Patch: What will you do with it once you’re finished?

Bozzo: Publishing it seems too formal. I want to make it available to anyone like me who’s intrigued by the history.

Patch: And the paddywagon. How do you see it being used? And does it worry you that other people will drive it?

Bozzo: I see it being used for community events. Mark Tarasco asked if he could use it for last weekend, but we had to get our insurance issues covered first.

     I don’t worry about other people driving it. It’s owned by the POA, so it’s out of my hands, but I know the people interested in driving the vehicle are, like me, people who understand the history. I know they’ll take extra care.

     A few other people have asked about having the vehicle in their local parades, but my hope was that she would debut in Gilroy.

Patch: Which she will this week. Who will drive her?

Bozzo: I will. It’s something I’ve been looking forward to. It’s kind of my payback to drive the vehicle down the same street where it was driven in the fifties and sixties.

Patch: Who gets to ride with you on the paddywagon’s inaugural ride?

Bozzo: My wife Michele. She’s donated as much time as I have but in a different way. When I talked to her about this project, and told her I’d be spending some of my days off working on it, her response was “Go for it.” She’s been my main support – she’s been supportive of my entire career.