- October 22nd, 2015, 3:02 pm#4846565
So after making a scratch built proton pack about 6 months ago, my attention turned to potentially making an ecto. Only problem was, it's a bit more of an investment, both in terms of money, and space to store it (an ecto sure won't sit in the corner of my living room!). I looked at old white estate cars that would make good candidates for ectofication, but never really settled on one, and after a while just sort of gave up on the idea. But then I started to think, what if I could make a temporary rack, that could turn pretty much any car into an ecto. Even for just a few hours.
So I began work on a lightweight, removable ecto rack constructed from a basic wooden frame to hold the bulk in place, and a cosmetic shell made from pvc conduit and correx. The dimensions and rack contents were based loosely on the original ECTO1, but accuracy was never the main aim. The idea was to be an impression of the movie car, as opposed to a carbon copy that could be compared side by side with the original.
In order to make it truly removable, I bought 4 suction mounts for a popular brand of action camera and fitted one to each corner of the rack. This turned out to be a great solution as the mounts were strong and secure, but still allowed easy fitting and removal. Now I will point out, that it was never intended to withstand high speeds, so was made small enough to fit in the back of the car with the rear seats folded down. It could then be fitted to the car a short distance from the ghostbusting destination, just in time to arrive in a blaze of ECTO glory. I was attending a Japanese car show with my red 90s Nissan Almera hatchback (known as the Pulsar in global markets) last month and though it would be a good opportunity to give it a test run before Halloween. Admittedly, it wasn't the best candidate for a ghostbusting car, but short of a full respray in white, it was the best I could do. Fitted with some internet-bought amber beacons, I was pretty pleased with the result...
People knew what it was, despite the obviously wrong car, and my proton pack on the passenger seat just finished it off nicely. With the help of a friend, I managed to get a speaker wired up on the roof so the siren/theme tune could be played and then had lots of fun driving around the showground at night hunting spooks. Now it's all over, the rack is stood in my shed awaiting some minor improvements (could do with a bit more "stuff" to fill some blank space, as well as affixing a couple of the bits more securely). Soon however, it will be back out for Halloween season and going on a different couple of cars for a few events we have planned with some local 'busters. Until then, thanks for reading!
So I began work on a lightweight, removable ecto rack constructed from a basic wooden frame to hold the bulk in place, and a cosmetic shell made from pvc conduit and correx. The dimensions and rack contents were based loosely on the original ECTO1, but accuracy was never the main aim. The idea was to be an impression of the movie car, as opposed to a carbon copy that could be compared side by side with the original.
In order to make it truly removable, I bought 4 suction mounts for a popular brand of action camera and fitted one to each corner of the rack. This turned out to be a great solution as the mounts were strong and secure, but still allowed easy fitting and removal. Now I will point out, that it was never intended to withstand high speeds, so was made small enough to fit in the back of the car with the rear seats folded down. It could then be fitted to the car a short distance from the ghostbusting destination, just in time to arrive in a blaze of ECTO glory. I was attending a Japanese car show with my red 90s Nissan Almera hatchback (known as the Pulsar in global markets) last month and though it would be a good opportunity to give it a test run before Halloween. Admittedly, it wasn't the best candidate for a ghostbusting car, but short of a full respray in white, it was the best I could do. Fitted with some internet-bought amber beacons, I was pretty pleased with the result...
People knew what it was, despite the obviously wrong car, and my proton pack on the passenger seat just finished it off nicely. With the help of a friend, I managed to get a speaker wired up on the roof so the siren/theme tune could be played and then had lots of fun driving around the showground at night hunting spooks. Now it's all over, the rack is stood in my shed awaiting some minor improvements (could do with a bit more "stuff" to fill some blank space, as well as affixing a couple of the bits more securely). Soon however, it will be back out for Halloween season and going on a different couple of cars for a few events we have planned with some local 'busters. Until then, thanks for reading!
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