#4930493
Recently got a 2017 Kia Soul. I might get it repainted white in the future, but for now it will remain grey/silver.

With that said it's obvious this thing isn't a Caddy. I'm not trying to make it like the Ecto. I'm making it it's own thing which is all it can really be, white, grey/silver, whatever.

So far I'm keeping the graphical part pretty simple. The typical red line will be on the side. The logo on the door. I plan to use magnets for it all because this is my everyday use car and I want to be able to take the stuff off.

It will have a roof rack. I'm not sure how close to the film version the rack will be, as it's a rather small car compared to the original.

I plan to make removable magnet emblems that will overlay and cover the Kia logos on the front and back of the car.

Also on the sides of the car are small areas that say "Soul" as well as one on the back. I plan to make magnetic covers for those which say "Ecto" on them.

There will be absolutely no caution tape graphics on the main car itself. Maybe something on the roof rack but even that's to be seen.

I'm taking my time laying out how I want it all to look in photoshop. I don't want it to just be thrown together.
Last edited by Creativeguy on November 2nd, 2022, 3:29 am, edited 3 times in total.
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By Macktacular
#4930532
I'm looking forward to seeing the mock-up! Not everyone can get their hands on a vintage hearse/ambulance so there's no shame in showing some creativity with a totally different kind of vehicle. If anything, this gives you room to be creative and give your own spin on the roof rack and other accessories. And I'm someone who likes seeing people make props & Ectos out of stuff I'd never imagine.
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By Creativeguy
#4940368
Macktacular wrote: January 27th, 2020, 10:54 pm I'm looking forward to seeing the mock-up! Not everyone can get their hands on a vintage hearse/ambulance so there's no shame in showing some creativity with a totally different kind of vehicle. If anything, this gives you room to be creative and give your own spin on the roof rack and other accessories. And I'm someone who likes seeing people make props & Ectos out of stuff I'd never imagine.
Well, so far the mockup isn't much more than me trying to figure out where to place the red decal on the sides of the car.
I have bought a roofrack for when I am ready to start adding components though. I'm trying to figure out a way to possibly cover the KIA logos on the front and back with a No Ghost logo. :)


Ghostbuster Kid wrote:No matter what, its gonna look great. And if you like it, that's all that matters. I'm doing the same thing with my '03 CVPI so you do you.
Thank you! :)
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By Creativeguy
#4940509
Here is my first concept art with the roof rack on it. I also have 4 amber lights I'm going to place onto the rack. The sizes of the items are subject to change as I build it. The concept art is just a basic ... concept :D

[img]https://i.imgur.com/StaRq3O_d.webp?maxw ... ity=medium[/img]

I've started building the main box now. It's a bit higher than in the pic. The main side walls are vinyl Fascia from Home Depot with an lightweight wood frame made up of 1"x 2" and 2" x 2" wood planks inside it. The base board is 3/8" thick plywood. I'm doing everything I can to keep this as light weight as possible. The Fascia does have 3 ridged lines across its surface but they will be obscured by the additional framing im adding.

I want to be able to easily place the entire thing, like a shell, into my roof rack. I am basing the layout of the equipment on the Ecto 1 but I am also taking liberties with the placement and sizes as to better suit the dimensions of my car.


Comments, ideas, suggestions and constructive criticism are welcome.
Last edited by Creativeguy on October 15th, 2020, 1:42 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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By Creativeguy
#4940612
Well I completed the main box. I now need to build the box for the rear that the heat sink and vents sit on. I also need to build the AC unit. I might make mine actually have a screen over the fan section. It just looks so oddly bare without one.

I recevied my 16" diameter acrylic sphere yesterday and have started cutting it into the proper 4th for the directional dish. Pics of the directional dish build coming soon.


Here is my progress so far with the the main box.
Image
Im going to cover over thr areas where the wood shows with plastic walls to make it look like a solid box.

The box will be further framed on the outside with pvc pipe painted to match the main roof rack below it. It will be mounted to the main box and simplt sit in place, cut closely to fit with the main metal rack. Hopefully it will look relatively seamless. The big ugly MaxxHaul logo will be removed as well.

I purchased blue hose to run down the side of the car from the roofrack. Im not quite sure if it will work but im thinking of just running two short lengths of it from a connecting point on the rack to two high powered cb antenna mount magnets on the side of the car. I would also have lengths of pvc pipe inside the hoses which would be screwed onto the magnetic bases. That way if they did come loose they wouldnt fly off freely. I might just make a bracket that sits inside the back drivers side door that the magnets will be mounted onto too. That would keep them from sliding even more due to wind speed.
Last edited by Creativeguy on October 14th, 2020, 2:03 pm, edited 6 times in total.
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By Creativeguy
#4940783
Well tomorrow is a big build day. I plan to work on the following:

Heatsink box
Sniffer Tower
PVC Frame
HVAC
Directional Dish

In my head I'll have all of these things completed tomorrow. We shall see.

I ordered labels for everything but I kind of doubt they will show up on time.

The Heatsink box area is scaled down a bit but I plan to leave the HVAC box its fuller size.

Im going with a 6" base section for the Sniffer, a 4"x4" pipe for its mid section and 1 1/2" for the pipe the box connects into.

Im going to try to find something at Home Depot or Lowes for the main box and will probably use pvc pipe for the arms.

Im not sure if im going to go red on the whole thing or if I'll go with the original grey and red color combo. Which do you guys prefer?

I want the Sniffer and the dish to move but dur to a lack of time I might skip doing that for now. If I do it Ill probably put small motors in for each.
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By Creativeguy
#4940834
Well some build progress happened today but not nearly as much as I hoped. I spent the good part of the day shopping for building supplies.

I did manage to cut some wood sheet to make the HVAC box. I know the real deal isn't wood. I'm not concerned.

I also cut the wooden slats for the box the heatsink sits on. I had to order some vents for it off of amazon which will be arriving today, Tuesday.

I got supplies for the Sniffer as well. 6" base pipe, 4" middle pipe. A smaller pipe for going into the box and 2 pipes and pvc caps for the arms. Planning on making a lot more progress later today but for now I need sleep.
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By Creativeguy
#4940927
Progress pics of my Ecto Soul roofrack build. These are progress pics of my version of the HVAC unit based on the original car equipment. I could make it look like the original but I'm intentionally making some parts look different as I am not trying to 100% replicate the original car or its equipment. The box and vents will be painted white. The HVAC motor and supports will be painted black. I do like how they look in chrome though. I still need to add the fan blade and support inside the box. In the film the hole was just open but I might add a flat metal grate over top too.


Image
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By Creativeguy
#4940975
Making progress. My main box is smaller length wise but with a wider width at a little over 3 ft. I might add some additional panels inside the box to fill some space.

You can see in this photo I've started laying and gluing down the slats on the heat sink section. The slats look a bit smaller to me than the real thing and I have more of them too. I also bought two vents and built the boxe for them. I need to replace the screws holding the vents down. They dont sit properly. I used them just to put things in place temporarily. The vents themselves seem a bit short now that I look at them in the photo. Might have to extend them.
Image
I used 6" pvc pipe for the lower section if the Sniffer and to hold it in place used a drain cover screwed into the wood base of the box. I then screwed the sniffer into it to hold it in place.

I have ordered a metal box for the top of the sniffer. I have also ordered a sheet of perforated metal to add to it. I do have some more vents coming as well. A good cheap source is adjustable screens with louvered aluminum vents.

Thrres still so much to do. I really want it to be completed by Halloween.
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By Creativeguy
#4941242
Image This past Monday and Tuesday I worked on:

Sniffer Tower:
Drilled out holes in box for Sniffer arms.

Cut out 2 perforated sides to mount onto Sniffer arm box. Going to just use epoxy putty to fix them to the sides.

Cut Sniffer arms to length.

Pvc welded Sniffer arms to caps to be screwed into Sniffer mounting box.

Drilled holes for threaded rod into sniffer tower.

Added wooden center braces inside the large and small pvc pipes for the sniffer tower.

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Freon Tanks:

Built Freon tanks using 4" pipe, 4" couplings and 4" caps. Still need to add gauges and hoses. These are probably the heaviest items on my roof rack. Going to reinforce the walls of the main box where they attach. Going to screw into the backs of them through the wall as well as attach them with wrap around clamps.

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HVAC:

Added 3rd vent plate of 4 vents to 3rd side of HVAC box. Although not film accurate I also bought plastic fan guard that will go over the HVAC hole. That part just looks so unfinished to me on the actual car. I may not even put a fan blade in the box, just a tube leading through thr grill. I might add the blades later but for now I'm pressed for time and money. Already spent quite an amount of cash on this. I still need to paint and mount the HVAC box. Thr grill I have is blue. Debating on leaving it that color or painting it black. Blue would sure stand out though against all the white and red on the rack so I might leave it for some colorful contrast. Same with the motor and its arms. They are currently all silver on my build. Originally planned to paint them black but I may just leave them with their chromed look.

Thoughts?

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Heat sink / Vent box:

Finished gluing down all slats onto heatsink/vent box.

Finished sides of taller louvered vent on vent box.

Don't have time or money to track down an accurate large heatsink for the rear vent box so I bought a pest barricade for dryer vents. Will probably paint it silver. Just wanted something interesting looking to take up space in that spot for now.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Frame:

Fitted pvc pipe frame top around main white box will need to remove to paint black.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Storage Tube:

Built and attached end caps and handles to downsized storage tube. The tube is 4" drain pipe and its 46 1/2" long to fit my build. The end caps are made from round wall protectors that shield walls from doorknob impacts. I cut the protectors down to fit the 4" diameter of the pipe. On the back of the protectors are thin 1" wide wooden slats that the handles attach to. The wood also allows me to secure the ends to the tube with screws. The handles are cheap 3 dollar cabinet handles from Home Depot.

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Clear Directional Dish:

Finished cutting out 1/4th of an clear acrylic dome directional dish. Cut wooden base for dome. Trying to decide best way of attaching the two.

Drilled center hole for directional dish.
Still need to make the red arrow section.
I probably at least for now wont have an accurate arrow piece for this. As I said before, time and money. I do have some extra pvc pipe I may use to make a temporary one.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Radome :

Not sure how accurate this will be. Planned on making it the same way I made the freon tanks but that would be rather heavy. Im trying to keep this build light. I want to the supporting pole to be pvc but I might go with a metal base and pole to keep the wind from vibrating it.

I bought a cheap game today at Family Dollar called Boom Blast Stix. It comes in a cylindrical plastic container. Its not screen accurate and I'll need to sand down and fill in the logo sections on the canister but its light weight and has an interesting shape. I might cap the top off with a plastic sphere to round it out. I might still go the more accurate route in the future but this could work for now.

Thoughts?
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By Creativeguy
#4941390
Well I've completed the build of Sniffer tower. Just need to touch up the area around the perforated panel a bit and paint some areas with brush on metallic paint to make it all match up. Then I need to paint the sniffer arms red and the tower white. Except for the box itself and the perforated metal sides, the tower is plastic.

Tomorrow Im going to try to finish everything. Including painting everything. The only thing I probably wont have done before Halloween is the mechanisms to move the Sniffer and the dome. I'd love to have at least the dome turning. Do you guys ever run the sniffer and dome while driving?

I haven't even really started on my version of the control box on the roof yet. I know its not going to look like the film version but that's okay. I need to completely build and possibly paint it tomorrow if not Tuesday. I need to go buy a bunch of cheap tubing from the local Habitat store. I'll try to find some interesting stuff for the control box too.

Still working on a way to have the blue hose mounted to the side of the car without it coming loose. Got magnets but need to work out how to mount it all. Hoping to have that by Halloween too but worst case is I have it done at a later date. I just really think they make an Ecto of whatever kind look more... Ecto.

I did end up buying some close enough heatsinks that look kind of like the silver versions on the restored car. Hopefully those come in time.

Also still need to mount the HVAC box to the main box. Still thinking Im going to leave the motor and supports on it chrome and the fan guard blue. It should look cool. The blue goes with the blue rv tubing thar will run down the side of the car that's another reason I want to leave it as is. I like making this a bit of my own style.

The Freon tanks need gauges as well as painted and the storage tube needs painted as well

I have stickers on my way from etsy but they are taking some time to arrive unfortunately. Thankfully I just received in the mail a roll of yellow and black checker board tape for the dome. At least that will be decorated if nothing else.

I know there's not been many photos of progress but I kind of prefer it that way. There will be plenty posted upon completion.
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By Creativeguy
#4941935
Macktacular wrote:Yo, that looks great! The tubes down the side really complete the look!
Thank you! I was determined to get those on. They are held on with magnets rated to 95lbs.
I have ordered and recieved labels and even had them on Hallowen but was running out of time. I worked on this project on Halloween right til about 5:30 pm and decided it was finished enough for our Halloween drive. We wanted to start out when it was still daylight. We drove around until about 9pm. It was the best Halloween we ever had. Tomorrow Im going to work on it more. I want to properly do my own version of the Texas intruments panel. I rushed the one on the car last minute. Put it together about a half hour before we went out. I'll probably take it for another drive this week too just because its so fun. :D Our dash and rear cams wernt ready for our drive on Halloween. I wish they had been. They are now. Im also thinking of getting another camera or two to get the reactions of people as they drive by on the driver and passenger sides.

Here is another photo.


Image
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By Creativeguy
#4942053
So it seems as if you're never really "done" completing and Ecto. We took the car out again yesterday just for kicks and the magnets on the ends of the blue hoses held up pretty well, until they suddenly didn't. See the wind can pick up on the hoses and for a long time they just wobbled. It was fine, until all of a sudden BOOM, one of the magnets lifted off the car due to the wind lifting the hose. I was probably going about 50. It hit into the side of the car. Then BOOM another impact into the side of my car. I quickly pulled over preventing any more impacts. I was expecting to see dents and dings and scratches. I was surprised I didn't see much more than the old scratches that the car already had. The magnets are also covered with a layer of felt that helps prevent scratching. I'm sure glad it prevented it with this.

So anyway, I decided to go back to one of my original ideas for the magnets. I had thought of attaching pvc pipe that would screw into the caps the ends of the blue hoses connect to. I figured this would help prevent lift and keep the magnets more in place. I should have did that from the start but in initial tests the magnets alone were holding up well until the above happened.

So after our drive I got to work and here is what I did.

Image


It took some work, cutting, measuring and adjusting the bend of the pvc pipe with a heat gun, but I managed to put these together.

We took the car for another test drive. These held up well at 55 miles per hour. I have yet to take the car on the interstate at all due to fears of things flying off. I'm glad I never took it on there before doing this additional modification to the hoses but I have faith this new set up will work well.

I also need to order some red magnetic sheet as the vinyl applied to the magnetic sheet i currently have is doing weird rippling.
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By Creativeguy
#4956190
Swirlfire wrote: June 10th, 2021, 1:46 pm I'm curious, what did you use to make the makeshift hvac?
Very thin wood from home depot and some small square woodedn slats for the frame inside it. I also bought an old removable window screen vent from a Goodwill and tracked down a few new ones online and removed the metal vent section and cut them to size.

RealGhostbusterJay wrote: June 11th, 2021, 12:04 am Wow that's top notch work. You should sell kits man

Thank you! :) I'm not into selling kits but that's a huge compliment :D Much appreciated!



Bonus tip:

If you make the red strips like I did, do not leave them in the car over the summer in the back. I went to put them on today for the first time in months and the heat actually shrunk the red vinyl AND the vinyl magnetic strips about half an inch of length. Whoops.

Now I need to make new ones.
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By Creativeguy
#4958202
Well, gearing up the Ecto Soul for a trip. Heading through several states. I've been working on securing all the parts on the roofrack for the 18 hour round trip. Going to be in North Carolina, Kentucky and Indiana :D

I'm sure it'll be a bug splattered mess by the time we return home, but hey, what a ride huh? :D
By BRD 527
#4958236
I drove out to NC to visit my folks in July was suprised how popular my car was at the various rest area's and restaurant's I stopped at along the way and I dont even have a roof rack lol

You shouldnt have to worry to much about the bugs this time of the year
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By Creativeguy
#4958932
BRD 527 wrote:I drove out to NC to visit my folks in July was suprised how popular my car was at the various rest area's and restaurant's I stopped at along the way and I dont even have a roof rack lol

You shouldnt have to worry to much about the bugs this time of the year


Haha nice! Yeah we had people slowing down taking photos and videos of the car. It was a lot of fun. Traveled through South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and of course to Indiana. On the way back we went through Ohio for about an hour. Strange the GPS took us that way.

I wish you would have been right about the bugs, but WOW, this morning I went outside and wiped off an absolute massacre of knats, etc from the front of the roof rack box and other items. YUCK!

I should have took a gross pic, but maybe it's best I didn't.

I will be posting some photos from our trip here soon.
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By Creativeguy
#4972969
Well, gearing up for Halloween, added a small detail to the car I've wanted to add for a while now.

Same deal with this one. Pvc pipe inner, magnet on the end covered in felt, and then the pipe is covered with the hose.
Image

The pvc pipe is heated with a heat gun and bent into shape. The pipe is screwed to the top of the main box of the rack. This all keeps everything from flying off at high speeds and banging around into the car. It also allows me to not drill into my car since the bottom end is attached with a strong magnet that can support 95 lbs of weight.

No decal magnets on the car in this photo. Just put the roof rack on to work out the placement for the grey hose.
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By Creativeguy
#4974095
Had quite the 3 day weekend, if you count Saturday to Monday :D


The car got a lot of driving in over those 3 days. Here's a new video.


Thanks for the edit, Kingpin!
Last edited by Creativeguy on November 4th, 2022, 9:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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By Creativeguy
#4974125
Macktacular wrote: November 1st, 2022, 6:33 pm The marshmallow smear arc on the windshield was a really nice touch. Great job!
Haha thanks! It was much more noticeable but it was doing an annoying drizzling rain before I made this video. I wish I had re-smudged it prior! :D Thanks for noticing it :D

Have some more things to add to the car in the works too! :)
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#4974227
I really want to get the half dome rotating and the sniffer waving back and forth but it's hard to find information on how to do it. I know I've seen an image somewhere showing that the two are connected by a pulley system and motor. I'm thinking of just having two small motors to move them so I can have one on and not the other, if I feel like it.

I'm also planning on making some sort of Slimer for the car as well.
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