i love my ecto. i don't care what anyone says about it. i know it's not original or anything near that but i really don't care. i'm not done it yet but i still love my ecto. i makes me happy when strangers driving by back up and stop in just to ask if they can get pictures of the car because they think it is the most awesome thing they have ever saw. so ya it makes me feel good and puts a smile on my face knowing that my car is bringing back memories of ghostbusters and putting a smile on ppl's faces. sucks on what happened to your ecto tho. i pray everytime my ecto goes out that something like that doesn't happen.
Adding the ladder, I think, is the worst thing I ever did with my ecto. and I've done a lot of bad stuff with it.
I don't know how many times Ive caught people climbing up - and once left the car under the supervision of others, and came back to catch a group of people standing on the roof. I nearly threw up.
(14:57:08) Ron_Daniels: I will cut you, you poor man's Jairus
69428scj wrote:That looks like it might a totaling accident based on how the cowl looks, I'm terribly sorry about your loss. Let's all observe a moment of silence...
Unfortunately the Ecto was deemed a total loss and was hauled away for scrap. It was a sad day in SoCal.
I hope you were able to remove the rack before it was sent to greener pastures!
To the Magnum owners, how do you manage to safely attach that big satellite dish? I know Boomer removes his while on the highway, but it just seems like it would catch too much wind to even drive down the road in town, safely.
proud founder of the Texhoma Ghostbusters and member of the Oklahoma Ghostbusters.
TexasBuster wrote:To the Magnum owners, how do you manage to safely attach that big satellite dish? I know Boomer removes his while on the highway, but it just seems like it would catch too much wind to even drive down the road in town, safely.
The base of my dish is bolted through the "motherboard" of the rack, which is made of two layers of fake wood planks made of PVC...four bolts hold that down and if you look at the "neck" of the dish in this pic....
You'll see that its resting on a heatsink (Well technically its a broken wig wag control box) this takes the pressure from the wind off of the base of the dish and puts it on that bend in the neck, and the box.
Also if you notice how far back it leans in the first place...
That helps the wind fly over it without it becoming as much of a reverse sail.
I never take mine off. Prior to taking it on the road though, I tested it for several hours at varying speeds on a private race track. It's been up there for a few years now. I check all the stuff up there every month or so for loosening, stress, and wear and so far so good.
I've never taken my dish off either, though I ought to look into angling it back. It's otherwise mounted exactly like Boomer's. The only time it comes off is when I remove all the components and take the rack off between events.
"Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back."
Doesn't look like he was actually trying to get in. Look at his body language and how far back from the door he is. Left arm intentionally NOT making contact with the car. I think the intention was for him to 'pretend' the car is his.
Were you parking it at a car show? The yellow car is an obvious classic
proud founder of the Texhoma Ghostbusters and member of the Oklahoma Ghostbusters.
TexasBuster wrote:Doesn't look like he was actually trying to get in. Look at his body language and how far back from the door he is. Left arm intentionally NOT making contact with the car. I think the intention was for him to 'pretend' the car is his.
Were you parking it at a car show? The yellow car is an obvious classic
Probably should have explained that part...this was in the parking lot of a tiny convention. The yellow car is the taxi from captain America...both cars were roped off together...the camera person has to be standing at the rope and the handle puller went under them.
8am, doorbell rings. Freaks my fiance and I out. See, we don't really know anyone here in town, so if the doorbell rings, its gotta be the cops or the landlord or something.
Well, it was a psychic. She was passing through the neighborhood and saw the car. She thought we were LEGIT and that we needed a psychic on our team. She was 100% serious. She was also carrying a big mirror under her arm.
AParrette wrote:I didn't make an ecto but a portal fleet vehicle. Nobody knows what aperture labratories is.
Well, Aperture and Black Mesa cars are cool, but they still look like those little vehicles that nurses drive to deliver medicine to retirement centers.
proud founder of the Texhoma Ghostbusters and member of the Oklahoma Ghostbusters.
Oh, and Just to respond those ranting about the Storm Chaser comparison.
I'm from Oklahoma/Texas, right in Tornado alley. We do look like storm chasers. I'm not talking about the Radar trucks some of you compared us to. Those aren't storm chasers, they're just radar relay equipment for gathering data for news stations, which storm chasers use.
This is a storm chaser truck.
Here is what happened to it last night:
Other storm chaser trucks:
So yes, A lot of us do look like Storm Chasers. I also know chasers who have put Ghostbusters magnets on their door as a joke, for being called Ghostbusters.
It's a fair mistake. Especially for those who put Dishes and weather vanes on their cars, like Boomer.
Also, on the original sketches of the movie Ecto, it refers to the sniffer as a 'tv antenna' and the clear dome as a 'directional antenna'. Those are equipment pieces used for tv reporting and storm chasing. The original Ecto was meant to resemble a weather van. I'm sure I don't need to explain what the marine radome is. Storm chaser cars have several of those.
proud founder of the Texhoma Ghostbusters and member of the Oklahoma Ghostbusters.
AParrette wrote:I didn't make an ecto but a portal fleet vehicle. Nobody knows what aperture labratories is.
Well, Aperture and Black Mesa cars are cool, but they still look like those little vehicles that nurses drive to deliver medicine to retirement centers.
69428scj wrote:Notice what appears to be a red scrolling sign on the Storm Team 4 Tahoe...I wonder where they got that idea from?
That is pretty awesome.
In other bad news, legendary Storm Chaser and researcher Tim Samaras and his son, along with a colleague died in the El Reno tornado. That really sucks.
They had a pretty awesome chase truck...
I respect these guys because I've always wanted to do what they do. They're probably the first known Storm Chaser team to actually die in a chase. I was watching live feeds through TVN of the various teams out there around OKC and the guys nearest El Reno went offline around 7pm. When I started watching the video feed, it was daylight. Within 20 minutes, it looked like night-time footage. Multiple tornadoes on the ground and no one could see anything. Just cars pulling over and flashing lights. I'm glad the other teams are okay
proud founder of the Texhoma Ghostbusters and member of the Oklahoma Ghostbusters.
Gonna gripe about electronics here. Vinny and I have been doing a ground-up renovation of the Magnum's power setup. I've been crimping tons of weatherproof connectors, twisting cables and running them behind interior trim panels, stuffing split loom, and stacking relays like crazy for the last few weeks. I am super excited about the number of improvements. However, my enthusiasm for how the wiring will LOOK is a catch-22, because it's all going to be hidden. NO ONE will see it. That's the point. But, I will finally roll out in my newly-restored Ecto, feeling like a million bucks, and no one will notice the difference but me or anyone helping me load/unload the car at events.
Frustrating.
But boy, is it going to be nice to no longer have to deal with a rats nest or fiddle with an ancient battery.
I think some of the toughest work I've done to my vehicle is to take the plastic trim panels inside the car and sand/repaint them. The glued fabric on some of the roof pieces was really tough to get off. I realize that no one is going to see the new red/black interior. I try to explain to people about the interior and its "Oh, neat, whatever. Do the lights work?"
proud founder of the Texhoma Ghostbusters and member of the Oklahoma Ghostbusters.
Another Ecto owner once told me about how people see the car and feel an overwhelming sense of self-entitlement. "That car is there for ME! I should run over and open the doors and get in!" I envison erroneous parenting at the root of this; a childhood of never being told "no", a childhood of making messes and then being told "It's okay, the man who works here will clean it up." Personally I've considered bringing a mild-voltage stun-gun on some of my trips, something in the 40k volt range or just enough to peel people off my car with involuntary haste.
Knowing that Mistah Fab's crew has already broken glass on this car, bent door hinges and hopped up and down on the ladder until the quarter panel was dented and roof seams were cracked open, you can imagine how I feel when someone runs over to the ladder. That happened in October 2010 when we went to a movie theater in L.A. showing Ghostbusters right after a Dan Aykroyd signing earlier that day. Some drunk dude dressed as an angel ( pretty sure we were in WEST L.A. ) hopped on the ladder. An LAPD officer on horseback stepped in to separate him before I could get to him; I am grateful for this. Unchecked, the ladder of any Ecto could look like this in no time.
At Comic-Con 2011 we had some jerk run into traffic while we were stopped at a light and hop on the driver's side of the hood of the car and start humping it. Although I realize he was only trying to be funny to his friends, I thought it would add to the comedy if I stepped out of the passenger seat with a tire iron and come at him. He ran fast. The dent is still on the hood of the car. I've tried to bang it out but my dent repair kit is only good for modern cars. That steel hood has a permanent goose-egg in it from where his weight shoved the hood down over the knob that the hood rests on.
At Comic-Con 2013 we had some little kid ( 13? ) with an abnormal amount of gold jewelery and gold teeth run over and hop on the fender while we were at a light. Eric asked him to get off twice but the self-entitled little prick didn't listen and his parents thought it was cute. I got out of the car and shouted "Hey, Trayvon? Get the f*** off the hood NOW!" The entire block got real quiet. Yeah, I know what I said. The shock value of it shut everyone up and got their attention pretty effectively. I don't care if anyone here thinks it's racist. If you do, you're putting common sense and preservation of property behind the lower priority of how the offender feels. The feelings of the self-entitled offending party didn't mean two shits to me, and the look on his parents faces were priceless. Hey parents, you had a chance to peel him off and you didn't. Now, in the absence of your values, I will give you mine and you brought it on. The kid got off and scraped the hood of the car getting on and off; there was nothing respectful about what he did but by God, he somehow thought he had automatic respect coming from me and was hurt when someone used WORDS as a response to his ACTIONS.
"Dude, I didn't even TOUCH your car!"
For all my fellow Ecto owners I found a thoroughly disgusting solution for people who lean on hoods and open the door handles. Vaseline. It doesn't hurt the car and wipes off just fine. Meanwhile, a thin coat of it wiped onto the surfaces that normally see contact will garner some real looks of disgust by people who hop on then get off when they feel something sticky staining their clothes. No seriously, you're welcome. A glob under the door handle on one side of it leaves you the other side to open with one finger. Anyone who uses their whole hand gets a load of "surprise." Sure, you'll have some angry people who wipe it off in spite but I can clean that off and more importantly they never got to complete the act of denting my car. Besides, the look of "Eeeewww" on their face is just priceless. It's got to be some kind of globby petroleum jelly, anything that wipes off easy but is greasy as hell and makes clothes look wet for the rest of the day. It's a non-harmful FU to the people who earned it.
As if you don't already have plenty of it hiding around your house already.
I also now have a folding plexiglass shield for the ladder that locks in place. It won't stop a determined person with plenty of time, but it will make the impulsive person trying to hop on when no one is looking bounce right off.
WolfShark wrote:Sadly when some people get excited thay dont think. and then when questioned the reply is often... "well you wouldnt have done this if you didnt want people to pay attention"
The epitomy of self-entitlement, the part where they tell you that your car deserves to be raped because it went outside dressed slutty.
Another Ecto owner and I have speculated how much it costs every time we bring the car out. I'd say $500 is about average. This isn't even about gas or insurance as much as it is every fourth trip something breaks to the tune of $2,000. It's probably a piece you just replaced a couple of years ago but a piece made back in an era where cars just weren't made very well. Attractive, but poorly engineered. A Caddy breaking on every 4th trip ( today ) would be about on par.
Like Loren, my car leans to the driver's side. I went in for an alignment and was told it would run about $4-$5k to get one done. ...for an ALIGNMENT?!?! Well, to do this they wanted to replace all coils and leaf springs, all shocks and weld new metal to the places in the body where the coils and springs connect. I just HAD the shocks replaced 2 years ago!!
Electronics are always interesting. I made a separate harness to draw from a separate battery so that the operation of the car and the gadgets are two different systems. Nothing drains the car and vice versa, they only meet at the battery isolator and that's the purpose of it so I'm good. ....however. The wiring harness of a '59 was meant to run the current it was designed for and nothing more. Most cars have a wire between the ignition and the coil that gives enough current to start and another to maintain it. The '59 takes it from the neutral switch which isn't enough to run a modern coil ( replaced the unreliable point and brush system with a pertronix ) and eventually either the coil melts or doesn't receive enough power and refuses to start. More wiring. Then the harness wires from the starter don't deliver enough current to run the dash and reverse lights so you have to bypass those but when you bypass the dash then the GENERATOR light ( which now goes to an alternator ) isn't receiving enough voltage back on the wire that regulates power meaning the alternator stops charging at 14v and instead drops to about 11v. All of this after spenting one year in dry dock, about $14k to fix it, and then running okay for about 6 or 7 trips. Remember earlier when I said it was about $500 per outing in the car? Starting to get it yet? Rewiring an entire harness AGAIN is about the least fun you can have with an Ecto, just outside the #1 least fun which is once again broken down on the side of the road.
Lastly, as Darthdono74 has observed, even putting a GB logo on a car is a curse magnet. Your Dodge Magnum would work fine for 10+ years but then you slap a logo on it and guess what? Spun bearings. If you ever wanted to assassinate someone and make it look like an accident just get some magnetic GB logos done up and toss them on the doors of their car.
There's one other thing I wanted to mention and it doesn't really fit into the other Ectomobile threads. It's more rant than anything.
There's a lot of people who would love to have an Ectomobile (motivation). Too bad it's so expensive ( means ) and some don't know how to build a car whose roof doesn't collapse. ( talent ) You need to aim for the center of this Venn diagram.
Just to clarify, George Barris does have talent ( or had talent 40 years ago ) but didn't respect the source material enough to duplicate it properly which is why the Volo Museum car looks like shit.
TexasBuster wrote:Oh, and Just to respond those ranting about the Storm Chaser comparison.
I'm from Oklahoma/Texas, right in Tornado alley. We do look like storm chasers. I'm not talking about the Radar trucks some of you compared us to. Those aren't storm chasers, they're just radar relay equipment for gathering data for news stations, which storm chasers use.
This is a storm chaser truck.
Here is what happened to it last night:
Other storm chaser trucks:
So yes, A lot of us do look like Storm Chasers. I also know chasers who have put Ghostbusters magnets on their door as a joke, for being called Ghostbusters.
It's a fair mistake. Especially for those who put Dishes and weather vanes on their cars, like Boomer.
Also, on the original sketches of the movie Ecto, it refers to the sniffer as a 'tv antenna' and the clear dome as a 'directional antenna'. Those are equipment pieces used for tv reporting and storm chasing. The original Ecto was meant to resemble a weather van. I'm sure I don't need to explain what the marine radome is. Storm chaser cars have several of those.
Tim Samaras died with his son and Carl young in thw storm that flattened that Tornado hunt vehicle from the weather channel. He was a good man
Actually, that Tornado Hunt SUV was a news channel vehicle, The Weather Channel, I believe. The occupants were fine. Tim and Paul Samaras, and Carl Young were in Tim's white Chevy Cobalt, which was more of his daily driver vehicle. It was also seen on "Storm Chasers" a few times, with that big anemometer on top.
Sadly, it ended up in much worse shape:
proud founder of the Texhoma Ghostbusters and member of the Oklahoma Ghostbusters.
Yeah I knew Tim and Carl over the past yrs from the storm chasing community.
The TWC guys had their tornado hit video documented and is on their website. That El Reno tornado was recently downgraded to an EF3 from EF5. OFFTOPIC though
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