By odiemodie
#409190
Ay there, Venkman30,

Thanks for the replies on my thread, thought I jump on your side of your Ecto build... and to keep it active ... lol.

Yah, so about building your ghost sniffer... I think you can get a good idea of how to build it by checking out drcaron's My Ecto1 equipment build here. The way he is doing his is the almost the same way I'm building mine. Not quite sure if other GBers are following this, but i like to think it is a workable one. If I'm not mistaken, he uses metal mesh on the sides of the sniffer head where the "nose" tubes are attached, thus, aerodynamics come into play because the air flows right through it, reducing some of the drag and chances of it blowing off, which I believe that won't happen due to he is using heavy duty metal and sturdy plastics. I'm flavoring on the sturdy plastics just to keep the rack light enough, reducing the weight as much as possible. I could get away with just having a more simple and streamlined set up, no full frame, no large tanks, high standing aerodome, or even that big dish. But we are building an almost replica of the roof EQ, which the gas economy will be blah, but the eye candy on top will be YAH! lol.

Alright, there are many different variations on this particular piece ( anyone has great ideas and builds that were successful, chime right on in here), one way for that set up is an all aluminum sniffer (to say, I'm using pvc pipes, lighter and easier to cut), or whatever metal you can and have the tools to build it with ei: the frabicating, cutting, bending, shaping, etc. If you're lucky, and search hard enough, you may find a metal or thick plastic box for the sniffer head... all you need to do is drill, cut, or bore the two holes out for the tubings, then epoxy two dowels in the connecting ends, then secure the tubes into the box with screws, and perhaps more epoxy to make it solid (I like to use hot glue, but if it is not the industrial strength, it'll weaken and then come apart sooner). Same goes for the neck ( again, hardware stores like Lowe's got heavy duty large plasitc plumbing/ irrigation tubes you can use for the neck/ body). Wooden dowels and wood screws are idea, along with the combo of aluminum is good. I'm still favoring all plastic (maybe the frame itself also). Though, again, for a roof Eq to take a beating and last longer, metal is the way to go. drcaron's take on the wooden dowels in the tubing to fasten them to the box is a keen idea, so until I get my pics up, following him is helpful, and why not... I'm also following his lead! :blush:

Aye, yes, it takes alot of work to make this kind of rack, but better than just having some lights and hardware here and there randomly as I have seen with other Ecto mobiles. Since the car is not a '49 MM, you can make a near rep of the awesome rack instead.T0dd has an awesome set up on his Buick, so that's my goal to achieve likewise. Hope my spill on this was helpful, Venkman30!

Keep on building, and keep on bustin'!
By venkman30
#409212
thanks for all the kind words and great advice . very much appreciated. got a few idea's running through my head now so once i come up with what i am gonna go with i will post some pics.
By venkman30
#420187
so i've been trying to get this ecto done befor halloween and it is coming along pretty well. i'm hoping to have most of it done by the end of the weekend. so i took some pics today so i thought i would share.

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now i know the long tube is not centered. i took it off today and will be filling in some holes, and repainting as i got some yellow spray on the white part of the rack. tomorrow i will finish repainting and then re-attaching the long tube more centered this time.

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i will hopefully be getting the logo's for the two doors tomorrow. going with the original logo. i'm not a big fan og the gb 2 logo even tho i like the gb 2 style ecto. one question i do have for any other ecto builders is how did you connect the two blue hoses near the bottom of the car? i have an idea of how i am attaching them to the topside of the car but am having troubles trying to figure out how to attach them to the bottom. any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. oh and sorry for the quality of the pics. the camera on my phone is really scratched up and takes really bad pics. i do realize that the rack also stands abit high but for now it will have to do. i plan on doing some major modifications over the winter. but anyways let me know what yous think sofar.
By venkman30
#420549
god i hate rain. the worst part is not having a garage to work in also. mother nature is really trying to mess with my plans on getting this car done for halloween. worst comes to worse the lights wont be wired up. but everything else will be there. i guess there will be the christmas parades to look forward to also. keeping my fingers crossed for this to get completed for wednesday tho.
By Ecto-1 fan
#420558
I hear you, man!
I am in almost the same situation. I have about 8 hours left of work to do to finish my car for Halloween. It started raining about a week ago, and I have no garage to work in. Bummer.

If somehow the rain stops long enough to finish my construction, my lights are not waterproof either. :(
Hopefully you get enough hours worth of clear skies to get it all buttoned up.
Good luck!
By venkman30
#420572
thanks. i hope you get the time to finish yours also. i'm lucky enough that all my lights are waterproof so i have no worries there. i'm just hoping i can get the rest of my repainting done. if i have to i will set up a tarp and get some heaters under it just so i can dry up the paint abit. what i have left is, adding the two no ghost logo's on the doors, add some touch up white paint to the rack. bolt the rack to the roof of the car, mount the front lightbar to the car(i might just strap it down for now), and then just wire all the lights up. oh and i have to add and connect the 2 blue hoses to the rack and the car. still trying to figure out a quick and easy way of adding the blue hoses to the car but hopefuly i will be able to figure something out. btw do you have a link to your ecto project ecto-1fan?
By Ecto-1 fan
#420602
No, I don't have a build thread haha. My plan was a reveal when it was all done.

Anyway, what I had thought of doing to attach the bottom side of the blue hoses-
Use a 3" drain grate (around $1.80 at Home Depot), which looks like a 2-inch tall cup, then stick a heavy duty magnet inside it to stick to the car. To prevent scratches, glue felt onto the side that touches the car. Then use a standard hose clamp to hold the hose onto the drain.
That was my plan (mine is a Halloween build), but my rear quarters are all fiberglass, so the magnet wouldn't work.
By venkman30
#421524
well the ecto was a big success even tho i didn't get it completely done for halloween. i was missing the two side blue side hoses and a few labels and only was able to get the back lightbar working. had sound and everything else but it was still a big hit on the town. unfortunately i was not able to take any photos of the car during halloween but alot of other ppl took photos. it was a great night. people of all ages were admiring the car and taking photos. it was a great feeling to see so many ppl light up as soon as they saw the car. some times i could hear ppl in the distance yelling as soon as they saw the car. now i am in the midst of finishing what i didn't get done to prepare her for two upcoming christmas parades. i'm gonna try to see if i can find any pics of the car from halloween. if i do i will post them up. i will take some pics of the car as it is now tho just so i can share what the car looked like. i might even take a quick vidoe and upload it to youtube and post the link here for yous to see also.
By venkman30
#421584
so i was able to track down a few pics of the car from halloween. in the last two pics me and my brother were able to get both the lightbars working. so i'm glad that someone was camera happy that night because i didn't know about these pics. also i found out some ppl around my appartment building had taken a couple pics of the car also so as soon as i can hunt them down i will post them. anyways on with the pics. in the first pic is my sis inlaw and my niece. funny story, we all packed up in the ecto and took the lil one around trick or treating and every house she went to instead of saying trick or treat she would say ghostbusters. her mom had to explain to ppl why she was saying ghostbusters to them. i thought it was funny.

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By drcaron
#422273
happy for you that you finaly done your ecto-1 for the halloween I think your the first ontario driving Ecto-1 :cool:
and the best is up to next halloween you will have new parts on the car for complited .

Martin
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By venkman30
#422339
hey guys i have probably asked this befor but this could really help me out if anyone could throw me some ideas. well as of now i only can get the one lightbar to work. if i hook them both up it is too much power for the main wire coming off the battery and it will strat to smoke. now my question is what is the best way of hooking up both the light bars and an extra firetruck rotator light? should they be ran to an extra battery kept in the trunk and if so how should the lights be wired up? what all would i need? as in how many switches? do i need relays or anything like that? what i do have already is lots of house wire and car amp wire. pretty thick stuff also. i do have an extra battery i can keep in the trunk also. i'm looking for the best and easiest way of running the lights for like 5 to ten min at a time. any and all ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated as i am not an electrician and don't know the first thing about wireing all these lights up. i'm trying to get these lights all done and ready for the 16th and 24th of november as the car recieved lots of attention during halloween and was asked to particapate in the 2 local christmas parades in my area. again any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
By venkman30
#423390
not a big update on the ecto but i do have abit of an update for it so i thought i would share with those that might be interested in looking at some pics.

so for starters i had to get the car e-tested. for my fellow canadians you understand what i am talking about. that dreadful etest. anyways it passed with no problems. anyways going off topic abit, i was able to snap a quick shot of the car in the garage. i was lucky enough that there was a garage close to me that was able to meet the height requirements for the car as this is a perminent ecto and the rack is all bolted to the car. so i wasn't able to just take it off quickly. it took 4 people to get it on top of the car to begin with. so anyways here is the pic. oh ya, the guys at the shop thought the car was some sort of storm chasing vehicle untill me and my brother pointed out the no ghost logo on the doors.

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more good news for the car is that my brother recently just moved and accuried a 10 car garage/shop so now it has a new home. here are a couple of pics in it's new home. oh ya my niece is in love with what she calls "uncles ghostbuster car"

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this has now become my part of the garage. i claimed oldest brother rights. lol.
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as you can see i got some parts to be added to the ecto and a pack i am workig on.
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just another shot from behind the car.
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now for the other updates to the car. i have installed two more lights to the eq rack.an amber colored snow plow truck light and the big red/amber or orange fire truck rotater. they are not wired up yet as i am in the midst of rewireing everything. so here are the final pics.
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i still have to add some cable wires as in cable tv wires from the satalite dish. it has a hook up for two of them so i figured it wouldn't hurt to add them for the effect. i might add some caution tape to it if i can find some. i am also gonna print out and laminate some lables to add to the rack. also thinking about putting a no ghost logo in the rear window of the car. :cool:
By venkman30
#424076
so i got more of an update for yous. i have now got pretty much all of my lights wired up and running. i am adding a video link to youtube of the video i took tonight. i will be taking another video tomorrow which will have the 2 tube strobe lights in the winshield running along with all the top lights and also the siren. i forgot the cord to hook my phone up to the cd deck to play the sound effects so i will get that on video for yous tomorrow. i only have to add one more switch and then the wireing is done for the car. thank god because this has been quite the experience. sorry for the video quality of the video in advance. it was done with a cell phone. anyways let me know what yous think and hopefully the link is working. looking forward to reading your comments on the ECTO-2L lighst. oh the reason i am calling my car the ECTO-2L is because me and my brother have been the ones building this car into what it is and our last name starts with an L so i figured it was a good name for the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7cgVTrF ... e=youtu.be
By venkman30
#424123
hey peeps. i didn't get anything done to the car today. was too busy helping my brother finish moving but will be doing more work on it tomorrow and hopefully have another video with the siren and all lights running for you. anyways i was wondering if anyone could tell me how to add a video to my post. i figured out how to post the link but i think it would be nice to be able to just post the vid instead of just a link. if anyone could help me out on this it would be greatly appreciated.
By Fifthrider
#424290
Here's a diagram of what's I'd recommend for most Ecto builders:


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Black = The battery. Ideally you should have two in your car, one for your car and one for the accessories. Some try to go cheap and run it all on one but this is a bad idea. Your original alternator is about 105 amps and anything under 130 will have a hard time running AND charging the battery. If your battery was smoking earlier on then hopefully you'll give my words consideration. If you can't/won't upgrade to two batteries and a battery isolator, then at least upgrade your alternator to a minimum of 130 amps.

Red = Run a heavy 10-guage wire from the battery to your switchbox, unless you have a switchbox that directs you otherwise. You will also need a pretty heavy line running up to the lightbars too. If not another 10-guage then no less than a 12-guage.

Purple "40a" = As the first 10-guage line enters the switchbox it should feed into a 40amp automotive circuit breaker. This will govern where it goes for the rest of the journey and nothing should be rated higher than this beyond this point. You can step down, but don't go up. This line feeds to a rack of fuses ( Orange ), you decide how many.

Purple "30a" = The 10-guage line goes direct into this 30-amp circuit breaker. The circuit breaker goes direct into a relay ( Green ) and from there straight to the lightbar. This gives power DIRECTLY to the lightbar from the battery, bypassing what the rest of the car does. The only reason the lightbar isn't now running constantly is because you need one more line of (+) power going into that relay to bridge the gap.

Orange = from the fuses all power goes to switches. They don't need to be rated for very high power, they just need to be able to pass 12v. In the case of the rotators, when you flip the switch the relay for the lightbar's circuit breaker closes and the lightbars get their power straight from the battery. No smoking switches or melting fuseblocks here.

Also Orange = All other fuses can go straight to a switch and then off to the device they're turning on and off.


A guideline of what fuses I'd use: ( consult product specs online to find the specifics of your product )

5amp = minor lighting, LED strips, electronics that use a PC board like CB radio or scanners, etc.
10amp = the lowest I'd use for something running a single, incadescent bulb
15amp = the lowest I'd run for something with a motor, and/or multiple incandescent bulbs
20amp = Banks of heavy lighting, spotlights, roof-mounted bucket lights, etc.
25amp = God help you if you need this ever
30amp = God help you if you need this ever

As for the one fuse that feeds the switch to the lightbar relay? That could even be as small as a 5amp one. It doesn't matter, it's just giving power to the relay to bridge the gap.
By venkman30
#425274
so i put the ecto into our local xmas parade on saturday and it was a blast. we had so many great reactions from tons of ppl for the car. ppl were singing the ghostbuster song and everyone seemed to have had a great time. i got a couple pics of the car and found a pic online from the parade where i am walking beside the car so i thought i would share them with yous.

here are two pics of the car while we were waiting for the parade to start.

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and here is a pic of me walking with the car. i'm pretty sure this is one of the times where we had the lights off to let the battery charge up abit . still all in all we had a great time and can't wait till next year comes around so we can do it again.

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By odiemodie
#425277
Aloha there, Venky. Odie hea, sorry for my absence... had alot of things going on with me that kept me out of the loop... if I so will reveal, my wife's Father had passed away last month... family/ relatives came, with alot of other doings in preparations for the services, lots of healing, supporting, and a load of paperwork which still need to be squared away, so my time as a GBer was put on hold for quite a while... I could sneak a peak of what was happening here, but that was the most of it...

But now I'm glad the other half is doing much better... She still misses her Papa (as so do I), though she knows we all must carry on... and with that said, I'm back in the saddle... well... almost...

With great delight, seeing the pics of your Ecto just about completed and ruling the road in your town's Christmas parade, brought a smile and uplifting admiration as well spirits in my time of sadness... Mahalo, Venky! You, your mates, family, and your COOL MODEE ECTOMOBILE made my day! Awesome job, brother! Total props to you! I'm happy you achieved your goal as a MOBILE GHOSTBUSTER! (bows to you as an admirer and fanboy) Now, git on out there and go CHASE DOWN SUM WAYWARD ECTO PLASMIC BUTT! :cool::roland::garrett:

Keep on bustin'!

Odie
By venkman30
#425283
thanks for the kind comments odie and my prayers go out to you. your wife and family. i am very sorry to hear about your lose. ya it felt pretty good to have the ecto out in public with lights and siren going. it was a great day. we didn't win in any of the main topics in the parade but we did get Honorable mentions. so that was a plus. car ran great so that was a plus also. we had parked the ecto at my appartment that night and took it back to its nice warn garage at my brothers the next day. but befor we took it back me and the wife took it out on the town to do some running around first. went to walmart, gas station and tim hortons.its' neat to see so many ppl point and react to the car. and there are a bunch of ppl out there that have no idea what the hell the car is. i have been asked if were some kinda storm chasers due to the satalite dish being on top. all i know is that if i could see good enough to drive i would drive the car everywhere. i am planning on painting the car white now. i also plan on adding a neat looking push bar on the front also. she has done a great service for us all sofar and has been a big success but i feel it is soon time for her to get a make over. i also plan on removing the trim that is near the bottom of the doors, filling them in and then adding a much bigger gb logo on the door. i also plan on putting one on the hood and then adding all the writing to the car. but those are future plans. i'm also looking into maybe trying to make some fins for the rear of the car out of fiberglass. not sure about that idea just yet but i am looking into it. so i got a lot to keep me busy. but i am very happy to see that what i have built was able to bring a smile to some peoples faces.
By venkman30
#435484
got a cb for the ecto now. can't wait to install it. i'm hopeing that i can hook the pa out to the speaker on the rack. now to find a really long antenna for the car also. got some work to be done for it. i got an old laptop i am thinking about using on the top rack as a containment viewer also. so got some plans i need to figure out for the car and more addons also. as soon as i can get some more work done to it i will post some pics.
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By venkman30
#443760
well i got more done to the car. i have been putting my progress on facebook because i can't remember how to get onto photobucket to upload pics. so here is the link to my gb group on facebook. hope some of yous like the car. one thing befor i go. has anyone been asked if there car is for somekind of weather company? everyone asks me if i work for environment canada. lol. but i do get alot of ppl wanting to stop and take pics of the car also. https://www.facebook.com/groups/319493684844560/
drcaron liked this

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