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By Chace
#180471
O.K. so regardless of if you dig it of not, most of you know my car but may not know how it got to be what it is or why. This is a thread that will answer all of that and will also be used for future build updates and the like.

Before we can know Ecto-1G we must first meet Spectre-1. I had owned hearses most of my life but after getting into doing the Ghostbusting thing for a while I decided we needed a car for events. Being that my '81 Superior Landau was so far from being a '59 Combo, I decided to go custom. I used Dan's original concept for the Ecto, a dark sinister car with purple and clear lights. Since it was SO far from being an Ecto I dubbed it "Spectre-1" and life was good.

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Unfortunately before I could build a roof rack and add more lights I was T-Boned on the way to work. The wreck caused some minor LOOKING body damage but bent the frame, totalling out the car.

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We went ecto-less for about a year then I decided to do another car...a Magnum. I traded my 2006 Mustang in on an 07 Magnum...that night I had the logos on. I then sent it to the guys at Macon Communications (the same guys that do our Sheriff's cars) they had put the lightbar on the hearse and as a tribute (though I knew a strobe would look better) I had the very same lightbar installed.
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What I had not realized, was that the magnum has a layered interior, meaning to get under the headliner you essentially have to gut the inside.
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After all that they charged me $85.00 for the install.
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Now I've never been a fan of big wheels, but knowing several who have 22"s on their magnums I got to thinking they fit the wheel well much better so the 1-G went from this....
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to this...
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The next thing I added was vertical doors. Like big wheels I've never liked these before, but on the maggies I thought they looked great. Plus I got in on a group buy, so the kit which normally costs $2,000 cost me $780 installed. And the install wasn't a big deal...

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You take the fender off, grind down one bracket, then replace the factory hinges with the new ones and viola!
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The next mod was the most crazy.

I've always loved the look of lowriders but never the ride. How could you have both? 2 answers...Hydraulics or Air Bags. Both do essentially the same thing but bags are cheaper and typically more reliable (the trade off being hydros give you a nearly unlimited playtime) At a car show in Florida I won a raffle...a raffle for 2 new air compressors. A month later I was "bagged out"



It stayed in that state for months then I felt it was time for a roof rack. I knew I wanted a custom rack, after all the bulk of the car is custom so why not? I started with a "low profile" rack with a wooden "motherboard"
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I did semi-accurate side tanks out of PVC and added a bunch of circuit boards then took it back to Macon Communications.
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The Macon Communications guys alerted me to the fact that the circuit board would mold if left out in the weather so they came off, and I let those guys go crazy...here are the results...
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I'll be making some minor more screen accurate changes, adding a sniffer, radome, moving stuff around etc. But the next thing will be red side stripes from the tail lights to the doors and new logos all done in reflective vinyl.

So that's the car so far. I called it the 1-G partially because it's Georgia based and partially as a joke about it being "G'd up"

more to follow as additions occur.
Last edited by Chace on September 22nd, 2014, 10:57 pm, edited 21 times in total.
#180610
I like everything, even the roof rack, but that set of lights... I donno, the lights undermine the low profile look of the roof rack. I mean, huge honking lights, then a low profile equipment rack? Doesn't go together, for some reason.

Otherwise, I like it!
#180791
Thanks fellas!

As Boomer said it's a work in progress. That lightbar was just the one I already had. The LEDs and strobe bars would definately look better, and I do hope to have some soon but the new ones are just so expensive...plus around here they strictly enforce the color laws for bars so I gotta get either clear or amber.

Of course if anyone wants to donate some I wouldn't turn em away
#180868
Central Ga Ghostbusters wrote:Thanks fellas!

As Boomer said it's a work in progress. That lightbar was just the one I already had. The LEDs and strobe bars would definately look better, and I do hope to have some soon but the new ones are just so expensive...plus around here they strictly enforce the color laws for bars so I gotta get either clear or amber.

Of course if anyone wants to donate some I wouldn't turn em away
Most of the LEDs lightbars, you can't tell what color it is until you turn it on. So you might be able to get away with it.
#180886
That's true...plus locally most of the law enforcement knows me and doesn't give a damn, but the Georgia State Patrol loooooves testing that crap. (I think here its like a $1,000 fine plus they confiscate the lights)

But again you CAN get clear, and I could use amber as well, the main thing holding me back at the moment is the cost.
#192836
LEDoutfitters.com has affordable lightbars and they are very good quality. I've ordered from them before for some volunteer firefighters. I was very impressed with them. By the way, the car looks great! I have to admit that I didn't really like it at first. It was a little too 'ghetto' for me, but it really does look awesome! Keep up the good work.
#193112
Ronnyboy wrote:No, no, I mean that you flip the dish so instead of it being like this:

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak ... 5247_n.jpg

The actual dish part points into space. I think it would look more cooler, and fit in well with the low profile then just a lay flat dish that pops up and really stands out.
It's going to be flipped like that eventually, it's in a temporary position until the radome is finished and put where it is now.
#204456
Some of you may remember a year ago we did a birthday party for this kid named Jack in Atlanta. In the year since his Dad and I have become pretty good friends, he's Tom Feister, artist for IDW's GI Joe Origins Comics...anyway over the past year I gave Jack an unopened EGB proton pack to play with and his dad got him a flightsuit and patches. This year his dad asked Jack what he wanted for his birthday and his answer was, "I wanna ride in the Georgia Ecto" So Tom contacted me and they came down expecting it to just be me and the car, but I had put the word out and Ron Daniels, Jairus "the hat rack" Whitley, Derek Smith, Hal Clay, Michael Koske, and Mitchell Brinkley III joined the party. Likkt Jack was given the garage door opener and once opened he saw this...

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Jack fit right in

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He REALLY digs the car

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And is of course an honorary member

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A weekend or two later we did another birthday party...this time for a dog. His name is Ac Pup, he is the local Animal Shelter's mascot dog. Only a year onld this half pit half lab is STILL GROWING!!!! Anyway he has his own facebook page and is really popular locally. Through him and his facebook page, adoptions have increased almost 70% over the last year and euthanasia has gone down over 50%. So we came out for Ac's birthday party/pet food drive this Saturday.

Us with AC

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So that's all I have for now, hopefully soon I'll be getting the vinyl redone on the car and then maybe (finally) the LED bars.

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