It all started with the Matyy Mattel Ray Stanz figure. He needed a place to stay, so I went on eBay and found him a Firehouse.
Of course it was missing a few parts, so I had to find a 2nd to complete it. That gave me one to display and one to play. Then Egon showed up and now they needed wheels. Back to eBay for an Ecto and because you can’t get one for cheap that’s complete, you need to buy 2 or more.
This is Ecto Wrecto-1. It was made from 2 doner Ectos. Ectos are like potato chips. I wanted to have one for display and one to play, so I bought 2 more.
My only critique, is that the red “scope” on the roof that’s facing toward the rear of the car, should actually be pointing toward the front
I agree with you as that is the way it is shown in the movie, but if you look at the way the Ecto is modeled, they have what I would think is the “fridgeration unit” at the back instead of the front. I just wanted to put trim on the wheel, not re-invent it. Besides, wasn’t that “thing” suppose to rotate?
I do have some progress pictures That I’ll post under Ecto Wrecto-1 a bit later.
Here are pics I took during the building of Ecto Wrecto-1 (when I remembered to take them). The first Wercto was missing all the doors, very scuffed up and had a smashed in headlight section. But it did have the fins! I got this for $10.00 plus shipping.
The 2nd Wrecto had a good body and the rear door but not much else. I got this for $7.00 plus shipping.
The Wrecto the third, was the “dream car”. It had all the doors and the fins. The only dark cloud was it was skuffed and the rear window post was broken. This beauty set me back $30.00 plus shipping. I had enough basic parts to make 1 “complete” Ecto.
The first step was to take them apart and wash all the dirt off. Where better than the laundry room?
3 “dead” Ectos and you would think I could find at least 1 passable windshield set. Nope. The best of the 3 still had lots of scratch whorls and paint skuffs, so I did what any good model builder would do.
I sanded it down.
Then dipped it several times in a bath of Future floor polish.
Several coats of Future will usually fill in the fine sanding lines and restore the clearness to the model windshield. This method works well on most clear plastics but not all. Such was the case here. It’s still transparent, but a bit hazy. It is still an improvement over how it looked to beguin with.
I filled in the “Ghost Holes” in the doors with white putty then sanded them and the body before spraying them with white primer. The undercarridge got a spray of flat black and a dry brushing of silver.
The dashboard gets the same treatment of black and silver.
After spraying the body and doors with gloss white, I applied the decals and brush painted the chrome. I then gave the doors a spray of clear coat to seal the decals.
You probably could have used the future on it before sanding it down. Have you tried rubbing compound on it, or other auto polishers?
That sometimes works if the scratches are light and not too deep, but it would only seal in the paint marks. I did try a chrome polish that has a very fine abrasive in it, but the polish part didn’t play well with that particular plastic. Which I believe is why the Future had a rough go of it too. It was still the lesser of the evils.
Thanks for the Oxy tip. I’ll have to give it a try.
Just a heads up, your No-Ghost logos are missing the ghost’s chin. Seems like there are some bad images floating around the net that many people use. Always check for chins!
i always wondered what to use to get scratches out of windows to my old vehicles. there was rumor to some people actually polishing their plastic glass.
I was reading up on plastic headlight restoration a few weeks ago.. sounds like people use the oxyclan/hydrogen peroxide method to remove the yellowing, and then use plastic polish, or car body gloss of some kind.
I don’t think future is durable enough for a headlight clear coat.
I next brush painted the body chrome and the tanks on top of the Ecto using a lot of blue painter’s masking tape cut into thin strips. The yellow tank ends were half round plastic pieces I had lying around. The top cage was made using square styrene strips and the hose is 1/4 inch diameter electronic loom painted blue. Ray approves of the test fit.
Next, I spray painted the blackout stripes on the back windows. Then chrome brush striped the fins and fit them in. Decals went up on the roof tanks and 'fridge unit and a spray gloss was laid on to seal everything.
Winston show up to check out the new paint.
The ladder is more of the square styrene and the red “sniffer” uniit is styrene rod attached to a styrene block, sitting on a plastic bottle that happened to fit on top of the round roof unit. More decals and gloss paint tops it off.
The licence plates are sheet styrene. I took a still from the movie and paint shopped the decals.
The last fiddley bit to go on is the fan for the “fridge” unit fan. It’s a mag wheel cover from a model car that I shaved down and reverse painted to give the illusion of fan blades.
I think I covered everything, at least all I had pictures for. If i made a jump and missed a step, let me know and I can fill in the blanks.
Very nice man. I always love seeing custom Kenner ecto’s, someone always has a new idea. I really like how u made the frame that goes around the roof with the ladder thats a great idea. also the ends on the yellow tube thing gives it a good look , what did u use for that? And like how u blacked out the windows are they painted? I also have done a custom kenner.
I like your window technique.
