ECTO-1T........

Equipment Ectomobiles
1

So I am working another Ectomobile that we will add to the So-Cal GB fleet.

Using my 1995 F-250 I turned it into the ECTO-1T. This will serve as a mobile command and K-9 Unit, yes, K-9 Unit.

Anyways here are pics of the truck. I did this all today, by myself. I would like to take the time to thank Nate (cptnjg) who was generous enough to let me use the left over tape so that I could decal my truck, otherwise this build would not have happened so quickly.

This whole thing took from start to finish about 8hrs.

First, I had to paint a red stripe, I decide to paint along the length of the truck bed, just below the camper shell:

Taping off the area that I will painting

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I forgot to take a picture of the primer, but I put a couple of coats of primer before putting this flat red

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This is the stripe after a few coats of red gloss

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After that I started on the decals, first thing was the silver/red reflector tape:

rear bumper

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front bumper/grill

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After that I added some taxi cab checkerboard tape just below the red stripe, which not only looks good there, but hides the imperfections of the red stripe

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After that I added the hazard tape

tailgate

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side

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zooming in on the door, you can also see a piece of reflector tape I added there as well

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added some to the front bumper because, well…why not?

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Here’s a few pics of the finished product

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I ordered some magnetic logos that I will be putting on the doors. Later on I will be added more decals, and eventually some light bars and equipment. Inside the camper shell there is a carpet kit that I will be making a removable “control panel” of computers, monitors and other random electronics set up to look like they function.

I will also be posting a few more pictures tomorrow that give a better full view of the whole thing.

2

That doesn’t look half bad! I like it…

question though: K-9 unit? please tell me you aren’t gonna make doggie proton packs >_<

3

lol I might use the RGB pack I have more as some piece of “equipment” that he would carry, but not actually serve as proton pack, it wouldn’t have the gun and I would add some other stuff to make it look different.

I also want to later buy him some doggie saddle bags and slap some GB logos on it, fill it with a few gadgets.

4

wow… had to read that twice… I totally missed the "bag’ part of “saddle bag” so I was all “he wants to put WHAT on his dog?!”

anyway, love what you’re doing to the truck… not really a fan of the dog gear thing. Just in general I kinda hate the idea of animal clothes and costumes.

But yeah, anyway, I’ll keep my comments focused on the vehicle :slight_smile: Oh, one last thing. I’d probably avoid putting anything like “K-9 unit” anywhere on the truck just to avoid any legal issues that may or may not exist :slight_smile:

5

I think the truck looks great! That red stripe turned out better than I would have expected. :cool:

Why magnetic logos for the doors? You might just as well go for permanent vinyl ones, so that they can’t be easily stolen.

6

Reflective tape may seem useful, but it’s going to destroy any pictures taken with a flash.

7

magnetic ones fit the budget for now, but yeah I will be getting vinyl eventually. Thanks for the compliment on the stripe, still needs work though; when you look at it up close, it still needs a few more coats. But after the hell I went through to make em, I see why now why body paint work is so expensive.

8

Yeah that’s what I was thinking, someone said there’s a way to reduce that effect though, something about spraying a coat of something over it? I read it on on of the threads…

9

I have a nice set of vinyl door logos, but they’re the “3D” version. Let me know if you want to work something out for them, I just need to find them.

10

Naw, if I’m gonna put the vinyl logo on it it’s gonna be the original version. I don’t like how the 3D one looks. Thanks though.

11

Yeah, we have a cop on our team. He’s been spearheading our ECTO-1E project. It helps having him as part of the team for just such concerns :slight_smile:

12

nice work so far boys!

13

thanks man!

14

So for the time I’ve done all I can do in terms of body work, I will be working on the command unit inside the camper shell soon, and adding the CB radio. But until I get my magnet logos, I was able to borrow a friends and slap them on right quick for some pics.

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I also added a tiny little vinyl sticker my buddy gave me, later down the road I will add a larger one in the back but for now that’s what is gonna be there.

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And here is a full frontal picture just for the heck of it:

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This is a simple layout of the command center, all of this will be housed inside some homemade shelving that I have to make. For now, none of the gear will actually work, just look like it. But eventually I would like to set it up to function.

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15

You beheaded a NES! Nooo! Also, I think I had that same model Thinkpad :slight_smile: Again, safety concern: with all that equipment, isn’t it going to impede your rear-view vision?

16

If he was driving a hearse, he’d have none anyways. :roland:

Anyways, I like it. Keep the updates coming.

17

The NES has long since been dead, so I am reusing it as a prop. And as for driving safety,it’s fine. I put everything on the driver’s side, right behind me, so I don’t lose anything with the stuff there. It’s also not high enough to block the rear window. If I put it all on the left I would be totally blocking my blind spot, and then we would have problems. Also, I have blindspot mirrors.

Thanks for the concern, trust me it was something I considered as well.

18

UPDATE 7/16/10

Okay so the magnet logos came in today and they look awesome! I ordered them from vistaprint.com for just under $40(shipping included). Like I said this is for the time being until my budget allows for vinyl decal logos, but I’m still really happy with them.

Like I said I ordered them from vistaprint.com, which does a lot of custom printing. I’ve used them before in the past and have been happy with the results, and for a little under $20 for a nice GB logo (about 8 1/2" x 9 1/2") I think it was well worth it.

One thing about vistaprint is that while they offer a lot of merchandise, they are fairly rigid in what you can do, so while I was able to get car door magnets of the logo, they were printed on large place-mat shaped magnetic sheets. Originally when I ordered them I figured I would just leave them like that, but when I got them today I found they they were very thin, and I could easily cut out the logos with some scissors

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After carefully cutting out around the edges this what the final product looks like

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Had I know the magnets would be so easy to work with, I would have made a “sticker sheet” of decals to be printed on a set of magnets so I could add more to my truck, but I’ll just keep that in mind for the future.

19

9 inches seems awfully small for door logos, especially on such a large vehicle.

20

I don’t understand why you went with a computer comand station instead of a sliding proton pack storage track. Seems more practicle of a thing to have in the back of a truck since theres no seats back there to sit at when using a computer station.