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

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Love it! Great job!

So nice! Great snag to match that badass build process. What are the specs on the car?

So here is the car we started with. A 1963 Cadillac Superior Coach:



She began her life as an ambulance, then was moved to a funeral home where she put on very few miles. Then she found her way into the garage of a Caddy enthusiast who babied her right up until the day he sold her. He had all the trim stripped off and had her repainted. When I found her, she looked like this...



It was listed on eBay back in May 2011. Even though it wasn't a '59 M-M, I had essentially struck gold with this one! $15,000 had gone into her restoration. She was rust free, restored and road ready...so Jason and I flew out to Washington DC to make the 18 hour drive back to Minneapolis, MN.



If you've been following this thread...then you've seen the work Jason put into building the parts needed for the complete ecto-fication...so I'll spare those details and just show you a few pics of how they all came together to make the new ECTO-1D. We set out to make it as screen accurate as we could within our budget and resources. Step one was paint! After we got her home, she was still stripped down and ready for the necessary all-white ECTO paint job!



Then came the 4 blue scoop lights. We were testing how one of the lightbars I bought looked on the roof in these next pics...



Then the new custom license plates arrived...



After that came painting the iconic red fins. It's pretty amazing to me what Jason was able to do with ordinary red spray paint!



Once the paint dried, Jason finished off the fins with custom trim...



She was starting to take shape.



Then the roof rack was added...



...then the various pieces were added to the roof rack...



The original siren, which still worked perfectly, was mounted behind the grill....



We relocated it to the roof rack. It has yet to be hooked back up, but that is eventually the plan. Then the lightbars were measured for final placement and Jason fabricated custom mounts for both front and back.



Then the blue hoses were added...



One of the finishing touches (to use the term loosely, since there are still things to do/add here and there) were the door logos. In the name of screen accuracy (and just plain coolness) a big thanks goes to Boomerjinks and his sticky thread on door logos. That's the file we took to the sign shop.



When all the pieces had been placed, she looked like this...



We got her ready just in time for the re-release of Ghostbusters on the big screen this past Halloween, and took her out to a few theaters in the area to celebrate...



As I said, it's still a project in progress. There's still a few things to do. The ladder, blue domes for the lightbars, the rear door logo...just to name a few. You'll get reports here in this thread as we knock those things out.

I must say, I owe a lot to my fantastic wife on this whole experience. In an odd switcheroo of sorts, I was the one approaching the decision to buy this car and go through with this build from an overly practical and analytical state (Can we afford it? Where would we put it? etc.) and SHE was the one who said, "But this is a dream you've had for a long time. GO FOR IT! We'll make it work." Thanks, Kookie! Couldn't have done this without ya!

You guys really did a bang up job with that car. It was not what I was expecting but I was pleasantly surprised when I opened this thread and saw the '63 caddy starring me in the face.

OMG WOW!

Great job guys!! She looks gorgeous!! I was sitting here drooling looking at this post Looks like she just drove off the screen!

Aside from the 1959 and 1960.. .a 1963 is the next best thing to a 59.

Great job. Its nice to see a replica like this in Minnesota!

WOW!!
Incredible job with the Ecto 1 replica.
I'm a big fan.

Franchesky

Cool Pics! This is an awesome build and look forward to seeing the future mods to ECTO 1D! Great Job...and please give your wife a BIG HUG on behalf of all of us for being so supportive in your venture...she's a true blessing!

Sent from my DROID2 using Ghostbusters Fans on Android

That is a thing of beauty...cannot wait to see it in new episodes..

I love it. Top job, gents. The '63 is a beautiful car

Great ecto build! That is awesome, it really looks great!

great job, looks really sharp

Thanks! Glad you like it, but I admit I'm curious to know what you actually were expecting.

Originally, (when I was doing the whole practical thinking thing before my wife thankfully talked some sense in me) I was leaning toward an HHR. The SLC and NH crews have shown me how well the HHR lends itself to an ECTO conversion. In fact, I'd be curious to see what kind of vehicle anyone who followed this thread was expecting. I was getting pretty inventive with shooting pics of the build trying not to show the actual car.

this is beautiful! great job!

Very nice! I'm incredibly jealous.

Lookin good!!!

Guys she is a piece of art! I had been following this and had no clue as to what you may have used for it. Was just looking forward to seeing it in ep 7. Now that you have posted these pictures I really can't wait to see her in action!!

I was expecting a more modern wagon of some sort, to be honest. And the only reason I was expecting that was because of your last ecto. So when it was a '63 ambulance, my mind was blown (in the best way possible).

Great job guys love the build, beautiful car .Can I ask where you got the chrome trim to outline your red.

That's some really good work there, she's a beaut!!

Simply amazing mate! She is a work of art that I can't even describe.

Certainly! It was just a roll of peel and stick trim from Auto Zone or any ol' auto parts store. Jason's gotten pretty good at using that stuff. Except for the curves at the front end under the driver/passenger windows....



...he had to custom fabricate those to follow 2 curves...one coming from the bottom of the window and curving to the back, and one following the contour of the rounded car door.

Wow just killer looks for this car. Did you guys have to replace any window channel that stuff is A bear? Love the build and your Diy approach to making all this high end sirens, lights not just throwing money at it, and making them look exact not jeoparodizing any of the quality of the build.
Thanks for all the how to pics as well.

SO WORTH THE WAIT AND SUSPENSE!!! You guys ROCK... ! I Can't wait to see it in your episodes....!

This is a nice replica you done I like the way you made the equipments parts ,great job

Martin

what are you doing with the old one? and very nice job on this car it is sick

Thank you, but I have to say you made the right choice. Personally, I'm thoroughly jealous! There, I said it! Are you happy now?

Someday I'll have my hearse... Of course I'll probably be dead at that point.

Great work. 59-64 are my all time favorite styles of caddys. Yours looks perfect as an Ecto

Yes we did! ...and you're right...it IS a bear! She was stripped clean for her dark green paint job the previous owner had done to her...and he left it that way as per my request for the all-white paint job when I got her home. So a good chunk of this build was reattaching all of the trim, interior panels, window channel, etc. (all of which was included with the car...in various buckets and rubbermaid tubs)

As for the how to pics, not a problem! I figure some people that check threads like this one out are looking for ideas, sources, troubleshooting, and such on their own builds. Happy to help any way we can!

...and speaking of....the build is picking back up! We've been lucky with a very mild Minnesota winter, so it's back at it to get it road/parade ready for the 2012 season.

NEXT PROJECT...updating the big red light! Right now, we just have a red bulb in it hooked up to a wig wag so it flashes. Not very screen accurate. So I bought a Code 3 Oscillating STINGER off eBay...



...and gutted it out. The plan is to mount the guts inside the light housing behind an outer red lens. Then the light will bobble around the way it does on the actual ecto.



...also, some of the red light bar lenses were replaced with the proper BLUE ones! Still need to find a couple more blue ones, though. Plus, many of the labels have been added to various roof rack parts. Here's a pic...



Stay tuned for more project updates such as:

- Building/mounting the side ladder
- The whip antennas
- The roll-out proton pack rack
- Whitewall tires, and more

I'll get you the part number off my end caps so you can order the correct ones.