The $80k was for the Universal Studios Ecto. Some could regard it as a “show car” or at the very least having significantly more connection with the franchise than your normal replica. But in the end, it didn’t have working rotators, the paint was actually cream instead of white, and there was quite a lot wrong with the car.
However, it was also at Barret-Jackson, which is one of the highest-pressure, wildest auctions of cars in the world. Everything goes there for significantly more than someone other than a high roller would play.
Bryan has consistently argued that $40,000 will get you a 1959 Ecto, and I think this is true. Loren will claim even less, but his numbers are a bit foggy due to the massive sponsorship, donated restoration and who he is telling the story to. I’ve even seen a 1959 in the local hands of a collector who had no intent of turning it into an Ecto - even then, 1959 MM for less than $25,000. Regardless, the additional stuff that “makes it an Ecto” is going to be a drop in the bucket compared to the - PROPER - restoration of the vehicle itself.
Lots of people have made a point of the ■■■■ Stars commentary on how Bob’s DeLorean smelled of gas and was garbage on the road. This is consistent with his focus on style over substance and the absolute lowest-quality possible of his builds. I imagine any hearse or procar in his hands could be considered a weapon of mass destruction and would be dangerous to not only the owner, but the county in which the car resides. Procars don’t ■■■■ around.
I really dread the shitstorm of misinformation that is going to come from him trying to publicly sell either of this cars.
So let’s be upfront here…the price I paid for my 59, I STOLE it. Not in the literal sense, but I paid the man’s asking price. The money out of my own pocket I stopped counting at $20,000 so I don’t know exactly how much I spent, or the total investment made by my gracious business partners. All the metal work was done by myself and my dad which saved a boatload of money, but we aren’t painters so we left that to the professionals. I will say though, that based on the last two 59s that have been on eBay, you won’t be able to buy one for less than $16,000.
So, the cost of the purchase of $16k, and at that price my guess is it’s a complete car but you’ll need a good body man to repair the rust that’s another $12,000 at around $65/hr. Paint and prep work would probably run around another $12k based on the size of the car and then finally, I estimate I spent about $15k getting/making all the Ecto-specific parts. We add all those numbers up and it comes out to be around $55,000 which is somewhat inline with other estimates. Keep in mind I’m not considering the costs to redo the engine, the brakes, transmission, interior and other miscellaneous ankle biters that are necessary evils of restoration. Factor those in and the price quickly climbs above $55k.
Precisely, but who knows if that work would be done on a car coming from the slop shop. I’m sure it’s just paint, working lights, mp3 player, and slap an FUAJ on the roof box and that is a “complete” Ecto to him, that he is then trying to sell for $75k. Ridiculous.
My best guess estimate was that when I was ready, I would spend between $40-$50K. It seems as though if things were to fall into place, it wouldn’t be out of the ballpark, and for a '59, no less. That sits much better with me than $75K for Bob’s sloppy '60.
I’m late to this thread but Kevin and Loren have this pretty well summed up between both of their statements.
The Volo car is self-inflating because they think things like George Barris’s signature should inflate the value. I’d make a lowball offer then offer to increase it by another grand if they remove that autograph with a bottle off Goof-Off before I pick it up. That’s the only way to raise that Eureka to anything worth over $40k. Volo is assuming a higher than reasonable price by a wealthy buyer with no common sense; it’s their personal ■■■■■■■■■.
Based on the statements they make on their website ( where it’s currently for sale, it seems they didn’t wait until November 1st ) they are quoting something I said in the CraveOnline video. Also, what I said in that video wasn’t accurate, it was a bastardized mixing of numbers by the director just to make things speed along faster. I warned him there could be fallout of doing something like that and now it seems there is. Volo is claiming there are only 100 possible cars left to make an Ecto out of, and that there are precisely 8 Ectomobiles in the U.S. These were approximates based on some seriously fuzzy guestimates.
I wish I could contribute more to this discussion but it’s probably not of much usefulness considering I waved goodbye to $55,000 a long time ago. The one thing I can say is that if you go into “restoring” an old car with a limit to your budget it can be quite stressful. My project started as something I was willing to spend 50-75K on…then 100K…now I’m hoping I keep it under $125K.
The market has sure changed. A 59 M&M in rough shape will sell for $20K easily now…unless you find someone who doesn’t know what they’ve got (you have a better chance of being struck by lightning). The one that just sold on Ebay went for 21K…and it needed A LOT of work…if you want the work done well and of top-quality, that’s another 30-50K of work. Then, if you need to address the interior, which is likely going to be the case for any car this old, that’s pricey. Not to mention the engine…is it a POS that will cause frequent headaches or is it reliable? Then if you want to convert the brakes to disc etc. etc. etc.
Then there’s the roof… If you want movie-accuracy, be prepared to spend months to years looking for the right parts (it took me 2 years to find the right lightbars for example…most people use the newer model that looks exactly the same…it depends on how accurate you want really). And, of course, when you find the accurate parts, they are pricey.
All in all, having a ceiling as to what you’re willing to spend on something like an Ecto can handcuff the finished product significantly.
Does anyone even remember why we do this? Was this supposed to be “fun” because God knows I’ve grown numb to even remembering?
Sean and I were talking about it and it feels like every time we take our cars out it runs about $500. I don’t mean just gas and insurance, heck that’s cheap. I mean something else that was just fixed or replaced has somehow broken again.
Ever since the brakes were done last November this car has been out a total of 11 days. The brakes currently need to be redone, definitely adjusted and possibly replaced. …because of 11 trips. The coil I bought last November? Yeah, that’s boiling over despite me moving it to a cold part of the car and protecting it with heat diffusers. You can only start the car cold. If you try to start it right after driving then prepare to hold on that key for 15 seconds and see if it fires up. The figure of $500 per trip is pretty accurate for the two of us, I’m not sure about the rest of you.
Just a thought, but wIth that kind of dough being spent, why not upgrade to a more modern drivetrain? Something like an LT1 or LS1/T56/disc brake conversion seems to be pretty common in older GM vehicles. I’m sure it would be pricey… especially if you don’t do the work yourself. I’m guessing you would have to do a little more custom fabrication than with a standard 59. Even then, at $500 per trip, surely you would make up the difference in cost pretty quick.
Of course, it’s none of my business at all… just curious.
Is the ecto on volo cars the only one for sale right now? Anyone know of one for sale elsewhere?
I am looking for either an ecto already done up. This route I am a little more open to if it is not a 1959 Miller Meteor.
OR
I am also looking for a 1959 Miller Meteor. If I am going to spend a lot of time, effort and over 100k turning a car into an ecto- I am only open to investing that into a '59 miller meteor.
Nope, good question. I’ll tell you why not. We already tried that. The Ecto that Eric and I own was out of commission and in drydock for 13 months while 2 different mechanics worked on it. Two different engines were tried. Everyone that 'knows cars" has these simple-sounding shoot-from-the-hip answers like just putting in a different engine but then you’re actually out there in reality trying to make it work and it doesn’t. Various motor mounts were tried and eventually it was determined that the motor mounts would have to be cut out, new metal welded in and a whole new system of how to mount and engine and transmission figured out. MONTHS! I was there on several attempts to lower the engine in and line it up but each time it got worse and worse. Meanwhile all the people who were NOT involved in actually making it happen offered tons of glib advice like “Why don’t you just…?”
We did. We really did.
My point never felt more justified than when I saw an Ecto auction earlier this year where someone had dropped in a Chevy 350 into a '59 or '60. ( I forget which ) When you looked at pics of this Chevy 350 seated in the engine compartment you could see the tilt of it. it wasn’t level, it was tilted back just like the engine looked in my car. The only way it can fit inside is to have it at an angle which means the transmission is going to be at an angle too. When I saw the pics of the car I tried looking for the end of the transmission and sure enough, it was hanging low enough that the differntial was protruding. Go over one high speed bump and you’ll be grinding your diff on the ground.
If someone here has put a different engine than the Caddy 390 into a classic 50’s/60’s Caddy and had it work, I’d love to know more about it and see some pics. Until then I was without my car for 13 months while we tried different engines. What a cluster that was. Lesson learned, never again.
BTW, I forget where that Ecto with the modded engine was, but pics of it were posted on GBfans. I want to say it was Texas or maybe some outlying territory like Puerto Rico? Something south?
I have some pics of the street rod/drag car '59 Ecto around somewhere. Pretty wild! Whatever happened to that car?
Here’s a '59 convertible that was built with a new Chevy big block crate motor and modern suspension components. The Vette suspension seems a bit out there for such a heavy car, but there might be some useful nuggets of info on the engine/trans swap. Not quite a modern fuel injected drivetrain, but different than the 390. I’m sure giving a pro-car a similar treatment would be different, but there might be some ideas here. The build crew is even in Southern California, linked at the bottom of the article.
I guess anything will fit based on how much you care to cut away pieces of the car and weld in new ones. Without altering the transmission hump in my car, the engine & ■■■■■■ hits it and need to be installed at an angle if using any other engine than the one the car came with. Looks like this car isn’t far off.
I’m putting a Chevy 454 big block in my Ecto…it did require a little bit of modification, but I’m redoing the entire setup (it does sit level and fit under the hood with everything else though). The original engines just don’t cut it for what I want to get out of it…hearing everyone’s stories of how often it breaks down etc. made me realize it was essential to upgrade.
Okay, now THAT is a miracle and something I’d like to see. Congrats! Yeah, if you can get it in there and it’s level and the diff isn’t dragging on the ground then you’ve definitely done something fairly groundbreaking. I’ve been on hearse forums and not seen any good outcomes either. I’ve seen one or two that claim to have done it but then they leave out the entries that later admit it all went to hell. You have to meet them in person to hear the rest of that story.
Based on what you’ve done so far I’d say you’re the best shot at making this a reality. You’ve been batting 1.000 so far. I’d love to see this and wish you the best on this working out.
Good Lord… on top of all the time you’re spending, and the dough you’re shelling out, (and that’s even IF you can find the car to begin with), it sounds like horror story after horror story. I’m starting to ask myself just how bad I really want an Ecto… :sigh:
My opinion is that you have to be a die hard car enthusiast/lover with the patients and social connections along with a large bank account to own a 59 ecto. And then you will need to be willing to keep spending money after it is completed to keep it on the road. It is not for the casual gb fan even if they have deep pockets. If you aren’t willing to keep spending money and aren’t willing to continue putting in the time but really want an ecto you should look at a modern ecto. The last thing you want is to jump in and get in over your head. You’ll end up with a 59 rotting away in your back yard which isn’t doing the car any justice. Just make sure you are ready for the commitment before doing something foolish. In the end if you are still looking for a 59 you most likely won’t find one here. It will either be by luck on eBay, or you will need to create some connections in the vintage Cadillac circuit and make sure you NEVER mention your intentions for the car or you won’t get anywhere except maybe tarred and feathered.
Right. Both already assumed! From what I hear, the classic car community doesn’t need anymore nerds ruining perfectly good rare hearses.
Keep in mind, I’m years away from even thinking of purchasing a car for my own Ecto, to start with, but I did stumble across this, and I wondered what some of you experienced guys might think.
No, it’s not a Caddy. But, in looking at this car, i see potential for a different artistic interpretation of the Ecto-1, I would think many ■■■■■■■■ GB fans would prefer something classic like this over a modern conversion (but that’s just my perspective). It’s a little short, and I don’t know if the curvature of the body onto the doors would make the logo look warped, a large portion of the body shape of this car looks right–from the windows to the roof height, etc. Though, I would think some concerns might be, even though it’s not a Cadillac, it’s still a rare hearse conversion that needs to be restored, and THEN “Ectoed” out. So, while you’re saving some coin on the original car, you’d still be sinking major money into doing a proper restoration, and only then could you even think about adding the Ecto parts, which is a whole new piggy bank fund all itself. After the initial purchase, could this end up being just as expensive to convert/maintain as a '59 Caddy? Give or take?
