User avatar
By Ectobond
#4906734
I recently purchased a Volvo station wagon after moving back to my hometown after a decade away (much of it in Hawaii [aloha Ghostbuster ohana]) When I first saw the car, I immediately thought of how to make it an ecto. I also noticed it looked like the ecto 1 and BTTF Delorean.
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Now, my Dad and I are bonding over the opportunity to do our first vehicle prop-- The ecto Volvo. (Still working on it's designation number)
Last edited by Ectobond on July 30th, 2018, 2:34 am, edited 2 times in total.
nastynoah, robandliv liked this
User avatar
By Ectobond
#4906736
For our first weekend of work, we assembled a basket out of PVC, as it is cheap and easy to work with. Attached to the basket is a ladder and a storage tube (both also of PVC)
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The unit so far is attached to the roof rack on my car via zip tie currently. The basket holds up nicely at 55Mph and it also survived a car wash.

Our next plan is to sand and coat the PVC in trick bed liner and begin working on the Freon tanks.

Here is an imgur link

http://imgur.com/gallery/d8nYTlm
Last edited by Ectobond on July 30th, 2018, 2:33 am, edited 3 times in total.
User avatar
By Ectobond
#4906737
Also, I am looking into green beacons instead of the light bars. This is cheaper in the long run, [maybe] easier with the man, and I feel better using creative liberties to lean into the fact that I am not building the ecto 1, but my own ecto.

As for my franchise argument to deviating from GB standards, I feel using green lights differentiates Ghostbusters from police, fire, and medical services. (This might avoid police issues.) Green also has hazmat applications (Ectos carry a lot of hazmat) it also has a nice supernatural feel to it.
User avatar
By Ectobond
#4906758
Today, we coated the basket in truck bed liner, which adds a nice rugged look to the basket. This also makes the Volvo look more rugged in general.
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After coating the basket, we set out to add the tanks to the side. Each tank is made out of a length of 4 inch PVC tube with end caps on either side. The green tube is actually pistachio and the yellow is the brightest yellow I could find. Both colors were krylon from Lowes. Next we will tackle the components inside the basket. I also have materials to tackle the gurney.
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I decided to use the designator "Ecto V."

http://imgur.com/gallery/MnGfDte
Last edited by Ectobond on July 30th, 2018, 2:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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User avatar
By Ectobond
#4906810
Today, we added the radome and gauges for the freon tanks.

The radome was my Dad's baby. We used a metal cup from a tiki torch as the dome and put a PVC cap over the opening. This was painted a matte white and bolted to a pair of brackets we found in the garage. We added a spring and made some coiled wire for the unit which is adjustable. We used red electrical tape for the stripes and clear coated it. This is my favorite piece.
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I bought the gauges at Wal Mart in the automotive section.
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They say slime on the face, which is a win. The stem is threaded, so we screwed it into a hole we drilled in the tank. Also a win.
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On a sad note, my radiator completely ruptured today... awesome.

Imgur link
http://imgur.com/gallery/AyNLkgR
Last edited by Ectobond on July 30th, 2018, 2:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
petesecto4x4 liked this
By Matt Campbell
#4906854
Sorry to hear about you radiator, but it seems like nice work so far, keep it up!
User avatar
By Ectobond
#4906860
Thanks! We hope the car doesn't have any engine problems. This does give us a chance to spend some time on the drawing board.

Hopefully the shipping company will finally deliver my packs so we can start on the gurney.
User avatar
By Ectobond
#4906890
Great News Everybody!

The radiator has been fixed. Tonight, we added support feet to the rack and found parts for the sniffer and the blue hoses.

The blue hose is a pool hose from Lowes and the sniffer will be made of a grey plastic electrical box with PVC pipes. I will only paint the pipes red.

Now, I just need to figure out how I'm mounting the hose.
jpetrutis81 liked this
User avatar
By Ectobond
#4907010
Today, we added the blue hoses and the sniffer.

The hoses are blue pool hoses from lowes that are attached to PVC plugs bolted to the bumper and ziptied to the roof rack. There is also a suction cup holding the hose at the window.
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The sniffer is made of PVC piping, a drain piece as the base and an electrical box. The base has foam glued to it, as the unit acts as a weight displacing leg. I kept the film paint job of red and grey.

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On Monday, the green lights will be here. And we found an acrylic dome. We will be tackling decals shortly.

I used hazard stripes and I'm sticking to it.

http://imgur.com/gallery/l4RoXqB
Last edited by Ectobond on July 30th, 2018, 2:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
crabbo_1 liked this
User avatar
By Ectobond
#4907185
I've made great progress since last posting! My green code lights came in and they really have grown on me. While they are not blue and red, the green is very ecto and it looks cool.
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We also added warning decals, which were more expensive than I had imagined, but they look good.

Yesterday, Dad and I finally addressed the directional antenna. I am very pleased with it! While the dome is not clear, the white looks good and I'm not sure I want to have to maintain a clear dome in Colorado. This one came off of an oversized Christmas ornament that was living in the garage. For the arrow, we flattened extra 4 inch PVC pipe and cut the arrow out and glued 2 layers of arrow together. The leftover PVC became the antenna floor.
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The ecto had an unexpected stress test today. Without warning, we had hail that was ping pong ball sized. While the body was dented a bit, the roof rack and components were unphased by the ice balls. The only casualty was my green lights. One of the plastic covers got a big hole in it. I glued some plastic over it and it looks okay.

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I have mooglies on order and I believe my fear will be here by the end of the week. (Only 3 months late). When I have my packs, we will figure out the gurney.
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By Ectobond
#4907265
It's getting there!

Over the past couple of days, we have been tackling the HVAC unit. This has turned into the heaviest piece on the ecto thus far. Dad found a computer in the garage that was expendable, so it is now the box part of the unit. The motor is made of a 4 in. PVC pipe with an endcap that had the rounded bit shaved off. We screwed a fan from the computer to the pieces and fixed it to the rack.

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Recently we hit a reuse store where I found an outlet box that I plan to use as the radiation processor. We fixed that to the rack.

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Today I picked up some split loom tubing and a grey conduit wire. The split loom will fill in the hoses that connect to the Radiation processing filter. I used the grey conduit as the antenna that lays next to the ladder.

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I'm really jazzed about the car. Yesterday, my dad witnessed a small crowd around our driveway taking pictures and such. I can't wait for my mooglies to get here so I can properly christen it. This weekend my packs and such will finally be here so we can start on the gurney and rest of the interior.

Also, does anyone know what the purpose of the freon is? We want to make sure we have our part explanation down for curious minds.
Matt Campbell liked this
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By Ectobond
#4907374
Today, we took a big step...

The logos are on the car!

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I also connected some of the components with some tubing.

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We added a valve to the green storage tube. (We are saying it holds Argon)

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Dad fabricated a greeblie for the end of the Argon tube.

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Tomorrow. My gear arrives so we can start on the gurney and the rest of the interior.
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By Ectobond
#4907891
It's been awhile.

Since I last posted, my gear arrived. This helped get the gurney put together. While I was in Hawaii, I had a couple of collapsible dollies for storing/ wheeling my packs about. When everything arrived, I opted to fuse the dollies together to make a neat little gurney. While it may not carry four packs, it fits my car nicely and looks pretty cool too.

Today, My dad and I applied vinyl stripes to the sides of the ecto. This was a tough job than I anticipated, but we got it done pretty well. It really does pull the car together.

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Matt Campbell liked this
By robandliv
#4907920
I really like the use of PVC pipe. My wife said I could use our flex but I want a way I make a light so I can remove it when it is not being used for Ghostbusters.
User avatar
By Ectobond
#4907945
PVC is the way to go. I can lift the entirety of the roof rack on my own. The only piece that isn't plastic is the HVAC box, which is an old Dell case. My original idea was to remove the pieces, however. I like the ecto and have pretty much committed to the ecto full time.

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