View new posts | View your posts GHOSTBUSTIN' 911's new ECTO

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Thanks! Jason got a sheet of perforated metal from a place in town called Discount Steel, then he cut out the rectangle shaped pieces he needed and bent the edges inward to pop them in place.

Another piece, the blue side hoses...



These were pretty simple to make. Jason and I went to a scrap yard and pulled the heating/AC ducting tubes out of the back of a junked out conversion van. Then Jason cleaned them up and sprayed them with blue plastics paint. He hung them up in his garage for about 2 weeks because it takes about that long for the paint to completely cure, but once it does...it bonds with the vinyl so there isn't any cracking or peeling. This is the same way he did the blue hoses on the ECTO-1C and they still look as good as day 1.

You guys need to make a trip down to Rochester so I can see this thing!

Correction - It wasn't stuff he got from Discount Steel. It was the backing off of some piece of electronics he had. Here are some picks he just sent me...

The next piece in the ECTO puzzle is what we've been calling the radome. Again, actual term or function of this part...anyone?




The construction of this one was a doozy! Jason started telling me how he built it, but it was a long involved process and he just stopped saying "It's a long explanation." Here's a basic rundown: He started with an aluminum pipe 6" in diameter and cut it to 7" long. Next, he filled it with a 2 part rigid foam and sanded the top by hand to a rounded tip. Then he encased the entire thing in prosthetic laminating material, which coated it from top to bottom with a thick and durable airtight sheet.



Once all of that was done, he painted it gloss white and used red electrical tape for the stripes.



As always, more parts descriptions and pics coming soon!

Been doin' that for years!

The finished/working red scoop light..



It's all coming together....more soon!

Here's the start of another piece, the silver control box thingy...



These are parts that Jason found at a small Minnesota based chain of surplus stores called Ax-Man Surplus. Ax-Man is awesome! Most of our packs, and even the ECTO-1C, were built with Ax-Man parts. They love us. Since we're there almost weekly buying prop building materials...we're probably some of their biggest customers. They have a photo of the 1C over their registers.

Today's focus is on the roof rack frame. Here it is, finally finished and ready for powder coating...



Our plan is to make it as weather resistant as possible, so the frame will be sent out for sandblasting today to prep it for powder coating in the next couple of days. As for the white box that goes inside, Jason's plan is to use aluminum plates painted white on the sides and a thick heavy duty plastic sheet for the bottom. Here are a couple of pics with the box just taped in place (these were taken before all of the metal rings to hold the side tanks were welded on to the frame. But the second pic shows the yellow tanks)



More to come very soon!

Here's another one...the siren. We took a siren out of an older model car like this...



...but it didn't come with a cover. So Jason, being the fantastic improviser that he is, did a bit of his builder's improv and made his own....



He made this almost the exact same way he made the radome. He used a 2 part rigid foam mold sanded by hand until he got the shape he wanted, then he used that to make a fiberglass shell and painted it silver.

He tried to make a more durable one out of orthotic plastic that came out looking all hippy like...



...but it didn't hold it's shape and shrunk, rendering it unusable. Too bad, cuz it would've matched our planned paint job...



Guess we'll have to go with the traditional white.

Have I got the hat for you....

Did you totally just unintentionally give away the car?

Good lord...I WISH I was able to get my hands on a '59 Caddy!

Wouldn't we all! Wouldn't we all!

Another part...the federal signal strobe....this thingy:



After finding a quite screen accurate federal signal T-mount clear strobe light on ebay and going through a complete pain in the neck trying to get it (They accepted 2 separate reasonable offers I made for it...then canceled selling it to me both times! At least he refunded all of the money he got out of me each time), we finally decided to make out own. First, I bought this pair of beacon lenses off of ebay...



...and Jason cut them in half and glued the two clear halves together. Then he took a 3" PVC pipe cap...



...and drilled a hole in the top to use as the base of our strobe. Paint it silver, attach the clear lens, and you get this...



Take the siren, red light, and this strobe light...put them all on the roof rack frame to get an idea of how it will all look, and you get this...



We still need to get the actual light part of the strobe light, but at least we have the rest of it ready. More soon!

My buddy spotted the Caprice today in Maplewood... and Ghostbustin' 911 was on public access today!

Ha! Yep, we were taking it to AAMCO Transmission in Maplewood today. It's the same shop we filmed the ecto repair scene in the latest episode. The owner likes to park the Caprice there for a few days to draw attention, and he does us plenty of solids...so we're happy to oblige. Funny thing is we moved it there so we could pull the new ecto in it's spot for getting the roof rack and all the pieces on it...so the new one was pretty close by that same area.

Yet another part...the fan box. Jason found this motor...



...and painted it black. Then he bought these fan blades...



...and painted them silver. Then a friend put this white aluminum box together for us, and when it all came together, we got this...



Also, Jason added a finishing touch to the red bucket light. He used a thick metal pie pan (not the cruddy aluminum foil kind) to fashion an inner rim for the light.



Keep an eye out for more updates soon!

Ha! Funny thing is, Jason actually has that McFly Jr. hat.

I'm very excited for this. Top-notch replica!

I just got off the phone with Jason, actually and he told me to come by this thread. Amazing stuff! Tyler, you and I must talk.

Sure. Send me a PM and I'll give ya my contact info.

So what's that Jason's holding?



It's either the world's most awkward hula hoop, or our freshly powder coated roof rack frame.

We stopped by Powder Coating Technologies today to grab our black gloss powder coated roof rack. Holy crap, it turned out so sweet! They did an amazing job...and it was dirt cheap!!! Unbelievably affordable. My wife insisted that we have this done to keep it from rusting out and make it last a long time. She was right...well worth it!



Loading it up for transport. The whole thing fit in the back of Jason's gold Caprice wagon!



Tomorrow, the pieces start coming together. I'll continue to post any photos I can...without spoiling the new ECTO reveal we have planned for episode 7, that is.

Phase 1 of the roof rack install began today! The weather was absolutely perfect, so we pulled the car out into Jason's alley to have plenty of room to lift the rack up onto the top of the car.



In that pic, you can see bars taped on to the bottom. We used those to lift it up over the roof. Jason taped cut up rags to the four "feet" of the rack for protection when we set it down. Then one by one, we removed the rags and marked where to drill the holes with a sharpie. Yep, this will be a permanent ECTO.



We managed to drill all four holes and cut four threaded rods to attach the frame to the roof before Jason had to hit the road for work. Tomorrow will be phase 2...attaching the rack to the car, and a majority of the pieces to the rack. Stay tuned!

Day 2 of the build. The roof rack frame was mounted to the ecto today. Jason drilled holes through the feet of the rack and through the threaded rods that will hold it in place. Then he placed large pins through the holes and tightened the rods from the inside so it's rock solid! He also cut foam pads to keep the washers we used from scratching the roof.



Once that was up there, the puzzle pieces started coming together fairly quickly! He put his white box panels in place. We also placed the antennas that go behind the radome on the radome mounting plate...and then, of course, the radome itself.



Next, the red light, siren, white fan box, and yellow tanks found their new homes.



All in all, it REALLY started to take shape today! I'm getting excited for the reveal. As always...more soon!

Looking amazing so far!

^Thanks!^

I'm on my way over to Jason's in about an hour to help do a bit more today. I'll post more pics in a bit.

I've been watching this thread. Keep up the good work!

SAM IS WATCHING - you better start kicking some serious ass, now.

Love this build.

Then this post is just for you, Sam!

Today was yellow tank day!



All the yellow tanks were painted and mounted this afternoon.



The rest of the focus today was Jason's fabrication custom light bar feet and clamps. Here's a photo looking inside the roof rack's white box. Good view inside the fan box.



Note the orange cannon sniffer laying on it's side waiting patiently for it's turn to be attached to the rack. All in good time