Ghostbusters Ecto Magnum

[Boomerjinks]

I've been a lurking member for a while, and made a few threads of little adventures here and there, and I think I had a megathread back on the old boards, but I guess it's time to finally put everything back in one place. Enjoy!





Long story. Bear with me.

Back in 2005 at a midnight showing of Ghostbusters, I started joking to my friend Will about how funny it would be to run out of a supposedly-haunted place like the Stanley Hotel or some large building in ghostbuster uniforms, carrying smoking ghost traps, handing the manager a bill for $5000, and disappearing before anyone could ask any questions. The goal would be to record the whole thing and put it on the internet. He laughed and said he knew how to build proton packs. I owned a white Subaru Outback at the time and I told him that if he built the packs, I'd build us an Ecto-1.

Flash forward nearly a year.

My friends Austin and Will and I are talking about doing something spectacular for Halloween. We lived in a small college town with a young and progressive population that was usually very supportive of creative stunts and the like. After much debate we decided to go with the Ghostbusters prank idea. In June of 2006 I start researching lightbar laws, construction costs, and ways to convert my car temporarily, with nothing permanent.

By September 22 I had completed the first iteration of my Ectomobile. It was a very simple and crude construction, but it had working lights and siren from the movie, as well as the ability to blast the theme song from the rack. In retrospect it was very poorly-built and was on a shoddy car, but for a couple of college guys and a temporary prank, it did it's job very well.

Anyway, we roll out the newly-christened ECTO-1K (for Ecto-1...kinda) and people start going crazy. Within days, it's on the cover of the local newspaper, radio djs were trying to find out who we are, and the general public thought we were real ghostbusters. It was ridiculously popular and enjoyed wherever it went. A few days before Halloween the car is rear-ended by a semi truck, totalling it. BAM. We didn't know what to do until suddenly donations started flowing into our myspace page, and radio shows are encouraging people to call in and help keep the "Fort Collins Ghostbusters" on the roads. Shockingly, they raised enough money to pay for new vinyl and electronics. With the insurance money I bought a 2003 Outback, and we swapped the equipment to the new car. From there the popularity of car took off into the realm of the surreal. In 2007 I took a break from the Ghostbusters thing and branched back out by building a Jurassic Park Jeep.

Through the winter I got back to doing stuff with the Ecto. Most notably, the car won the Fox News "Colorado's Favorite Car" contest. It spent a week at the Denver Auto Show, which was a pretty awesome experience. The loading line-up was hilarious; Lamborghini, Lamborghini, Porshe, Aston Martin, Aston Martin, ****ty 2003 Subaru, Lamborghini... well I thought it was funny.

After that we scored an article in the national Subaru magazine, and then another full-page spread in the official British Subaru magazine. My mind is still being blown at this point...

Then we got the real kicker. I received a letter from Sony Home Entertainment. I'd been using the Ghostbusters logo without permission, but I had not actually profited from the car in any way other than nerd XP, why the heck would the be messaging me? Turns out they wanted video of the Ecto for the Ghostbusters 25th Anniversary Special Edition Blu-ray! I obliged, but figured it was all too good to be true. A year later the release dropped onto store shelves and now you can see my car on the "Ecto-1 Restored" video in the special features! :confused Not bad for a station wagon with trash cans on the roof.

So, finally, the story of the Ecto Magnum, or as we call it; the Ecto-2K!



In January of 2009, my buddies and I are debating what to do with the Outback Ecto. The wood roof box has fallen into disrepair, and we now have so many people in our group that piling into the car is becoming uncomfortable. 2009 marked the 25th anniversary of the original movie, and it had occured to us that now might be the time to take the car across the states and hit some conventions. At any rate, the XBox game was coming out and there would be release parties and crap that we could go to. Ever since the Magnum rolled out, movie replica fans have been abuzz about the conversion of one into a "modern-day" Ecto. For a long time, the community regarded the Magnum to be THE choice for a modern conversion. I went with a Subaru because it's what I had and frankly, had I a black corvette or different car during that one Halloween season, I may just as well have ended up driving around a weird Batmobile conversion.

So, with a new job working for Apple, Inc. from home, I went out on a limb and found a 2008 SXT. The car was found in Arizona, and we had it shipped up in March. I took a few weeks to consider what I was undertaking, and construction officially began in May.

The general reasoning behind sticking with a modern car instead of making an all-out restoration of a 59 Cadillac was that the newer car would be easier to maintain and far more capable of making cross-country roadtrips under it's own power far more reliably. This reasoning would eventually bite me in the ass, and seeing other screen-accurate ambulances being completed does in fact make me die a little inside each time, but it's still a lot of a fun, very comfy, and cheaper than a classic car.

And so it began.



A good friend of mine who happened to be an art student drew this up for inspiration.



But I wanted to aim for something closer to this.



hings started with an ABS box, which would resist the elements far better than the previous wooden boxes.



Followed by a steel frame.



Followed by vinyl.



Then four marine speakers and all the little "equipment" greeblies on top.







And before you knew it, we were ready for launch on July 4, 2009!

 

[Boomerjinks]

To really test the car before taking it to New York, we opted to bring it along on our trip to San Diego Comic Con. The Magnum performed admirably, getting better highway MPG than the Outback, withstanding high speeds for long durations, and the plastic of the roof box held through Nevada quite well.





The Ecto survived 3,000 mile trip perfectly, and we even got The Horns for CHiPs!


The rest of the summer was marked by trips to local conventions and having the car on display at an outdoor screening of the movie at Red Rocks, where we greeted 14,000 people with lights and sound. We also got the opportunity to meet up with the other movie car builders in the area and take some great pictures.

 

[Boomerjinks]

In September 2009 we were invited to bring the car to a 25th anniversary event at DragonCon in Atlanta, GA being hosted by GBfans. Since we had already made plans to visit New York with the car we decided to make it one giant road trip. Denver to Indianapolis to Centralia, PA to New York to Philadelphia to Washington D.C. to Raleigh to Atlanta to St. Louis and back to Denver. The event was called Ecto Across America and we blogged the entire trip. We even rigged up our phones to broadcast the current location of the car so it could be followed with up-to-the-minute feeds.





Then, disaster. While passing through Cambridge, Ohio, we suddenly lost power in the car. We pulled over and found we couldn't start the car. We had it towed and found out the following morning that we'd spun a bearing. Luckily, the car was still under warranty so I did not have to pay for the replacement of the engine. But the trip was aborted. We rented a car and drove home and tried to avoid spending any more money that we had since I would have to fly out and retrieve the damn thing as soon as it was fixed.


Was a fairly interesting trip, though.























After a few weeks I flew back out and retrieved the car. We stopped in Chicago while I was out there and tooled around on Whacker Drive and seeing the sights on a Friday night.











After that, a whole lotta nothing. Getting ready for the Halloween season (haunted house appearances, charities, costume parties), and taking a variety of weird pictures.








We did get to lead off a Coffin Race parade near Colorado Springs. That was a kick.








We participated in the local Denver Zombie Crawl.

 

[Boomerjinks]

And then, like many fans did before us, we got to meet Dan Aykroyd.











One of my good friends runs the local hearse and ambulance club, and we would often go on late-night photography outings. His car is FAR more interesting that mine.

 

[Boomerjinks]

When the Ecto broke down in Ohio, a bunch of people raised money to help pay for potential repair and transportation costs. Since I do not see myself a cause worthy of charity, (I have two movie cars, worked for Apple from home, oh poor me!) I got their permission to donate the money they raised towards something that could benefit others. It was then that we heard about an art auction and movie screening in Pasadena that was part of a fledgling charity. Basically they have screenings of classic 80s movies along with an art show, where you can bid on pieces made specifically for the charity. The money raised then goes to help various programs to help schools around the nation.


All this pretty much caused the Perfect Storm of epic road trips. With the car back on the road, and about a $1000 for us to re-gift, we headed out to California!


Leaving a horrifying -10 degree Colorado, we drove 16 hours to Los Angeles.





I'd made the trip down I-70 and I-15 before on our way to San Diego, but that was in July and we managed to make it all the way to Vegas before the sun went down. Not so on this trip. We hit darkness about halfway through Utah, and experienced some truly chilling temperatures.


Welcome to Utah. "It's an ugly planet! A bug planet!"








We stopped in Las Vegas to cruise the strip for a bit, and then headed on to L.A.





I wanted to stop and get a really good long-exposure of the Ecto in front of a casino, but time constraints prevented this from being possible. Next time, Vegas. Next time!


We arrived in Burbank around 1AM and crashed at a friends house in. In the morning, we got up and planned to go over to the Scrubs hospital (North Hollywood Medical Center) to see if it was being used and if we could coerce whatever guard is there to let us in. On the way there we stopped at Fry's (which we don't have in Denver), where we started thinking about the rest of our day.


The original Ecto had recently been restored for the video game and Blu-ray release, and there were rumors that the Ecto-1A(from the second movie) was currently being worked on. We googled the company doing the work and found our way over to Cinema Vehicle Services. Basically, they are a company that owns nearly a thousand cars used by the entertainment industry. When you see NYPD cop cars, NYC taxis, news vans, SWAT vans, school buses, or period cars on tv or in a movie, odds are they came from this place. Stuff like this:





Rows and rows of fake cop cars from Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, every place you could think of.





Tons and tons of ambulances and news vans, too. These were used recently in Angels and Demons.





Really, if you've seen it on TV or in a movie, it probably came from this shop!


I figured it would be closed or gated off and we wouldn't even be allowed into the main office, but when we arrived we had no difficulty driving in and parking next to a pair of 300Cs used in The Island. :cool


I asked Bob, the rental coordinator, about the Ecto-1A, and he replied saying that Sony had bailed on the restoration and taken the car back just as they were getting started on the engine. Lame.


And then, without any kind of provocation, Bob stood up and told us he was going to show us around the lot. We must be the luckiest guys in the whole freaking world! We piled into an electric cart and cruised over to the first of several warehouses. Right outside he point to this, the truck from Tango and Cash.





Good lord! Bob owns the Tango and Cash truck, as well as this monster.


Yeah. Screen-used, Fast and the Furious.





Upon entering the first warehouse, he drew our attention to this unsuspecting motorcycle.





That's the motorcycle that Iron Monger throws at Iron Man. Directly behind it, Bob flipped up a car cover to reveal...





One of the many screen-used General Lees!





Over in the corner, a pile of Eleanors from Gone in Sixty Seconds.





Next to that, oh hey it's Tony Stark's Cobra, which was crushed by the Mark II suit!





[Broken External Image]:http://www.imcdb.org/images/173/154.jpg


At this point, we were having trouble breathing. We were so surprised that it wasn't until later that we realized we could have asked to lay on the car and have our pictures taken. GODDAMMIT.


A ways over, one of the Goldmember Sparrows from Austin Powers.





Porsche from Californication... complete with smashed headlamp!





Fast and the Furious... 4, I think?





He then took us outside and drove us around the lot, where we saw a ton of 70s cars currently being used in the Green Hornet, the Landcruiser from The Mist and 50 First Dates, and several old Broncos from Suns of Anarchy. We passed more cabs and random police cars with markings from departments both real and fictional. There was an entire row of SUVs with news antennas that were apparently used in Angels and Demons last year.





If you look closely, you'll see a repainted Bluth Staircar from Arrested Development.





Their rear lot. Right up next to the fence, those weird blue pod-things, those are the snowmobiles from G.I. Joe.





Down at the end was this





Casanova Frankensteins stretch-Stingray from Mystery Men. Currently for sale, apparently! As we walked back to the car, we noticed they had just brought in a pair of old Broncos from the set of Sons of Anarchy. This place was a madhouse!


We thanked Bob profusely for such an incredible opportunity, took one last look around, and left for our next adventure.

 

[Boomerjinks]

After that, we headed over to Sacred Heart, the former hospital that served as the set and production facility for "Scrubs".





We found the gate wide open, with no guards, and no "no trespassing" signs. We drove right in and started taking pictures.








After wandering around and peering in the windows we left for Warner Brothers.





I'd talked to Wes a bit on IM about us heading out and he said he'd pass the word on to his boss. I called his boss and tried to set up a time, but never heard back from him. I was fairly pessimistic at this point, preparing myself to be told "no, there wasn't enough time to plan a special tour for you guys, you'll have to take the full studio tour with other guests" and having to pay $45 a person to do so.


We showed up, and I managed to catch Wes while he was in the main lobby. A few moments later, out comes his boss who shakes my hand and tells me how excited he is to have us there. He then brought out his assistant and told her to take the three of us on a free private tour of the transportation museum and whatever else we anted to see. What the hell? Who the **** is this lucky?


The assistants name was Amanda and she loaded us up in a cart and took us to the vehicle department. My. God. We got a first-rate tour of the facilities at our own pace. We visited Hazzard County, the city street facades, saw the Tumbler and a Keaton car, Clint Eastwoods Gran Tourino, cars from A.I., the Batpod, all kinds of crazy stuff. Truly an amazing turn of events. Amazing stuff, positively blew my expectations out of the water.























The next day we started off by downtown to see the police station, USBank tower (Independence Day explosion, woo!), and the SR-71B at the Memorial Coliseum. After that we headed over to the Biltmore Hotel, where the first "bust" from Ghostbusters was filmed. We pulled up lights and siren flashing, the whole deal. The ballroom is now the main lobby, but other than that the interior is identical.








After the Biltmore we headed over to Ladder 23, which served as the interior for the firehouse. It's been used in tons of other stuff like The Mask, as well. The immediate area around the firehouse was, pretty much, a demilitarized zone and our friend from Minnesota refused to get out of the car to see the firehouse. So a driveby had to suffice.








I plan on returning this summer and putting my car in there, if the ghostheads arranging the open house manage to pull it off!


Then we headed up to the Griffith Observatory, got some pretty cool pictures up there, too. I knew this tunnel in Griffith Park was used in the chase scenes for Back to the Future, as well as the tunnel to "Toon Town" in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I had no idea it was even dressed-up and used as the entrance to NORAD in War Games!








lol








The charity event took place that night, and we headed over to a friend's house. A terrific propper and artist, he was one of the artists contributing to the art auction.


Anyway, we pull into his driveway right behind his recently-completed DeLorean Time Machine.





But in the back yard, in front of his shop...





1959 Miller-Meteor Duplex. Spot-on model and year, and in better shape than the original car, even after it's restoration!





His workshop was a nerds wet dream!


The charity screening was a lot of fun.








The next morning we shot the shit in his garage for a half hour or so before driving home.


Side-by-side, at last!











We said good-bye drove AJ, the fellow from Minnesota, to LAX. We dropped him, got interrogated by a biker cop for bringing a car marked "Radioactive" into an airport, and were on our way. Since we were so close, we stopped by the ocean to spend a few moments taking California in before heading home.


The drive home was far more difficult. We encountered two blizzards which took our 16-hour drive and turned it into 22 and a half hours. Thank goodness I put snow tires on the Ecto before the trip.





We arrived home at 6am, and crashed hard.


Hell of an epic trip.

 

[Boomerjinks]

Denver St. Patrick's Day Parade 2010! By this time the Colorado Movie Cars group was starting to pick up steam! We had a lot of fun with this one!

 

[Boomerjinks]

Around this time we started to get a little more adventurous the photography.


We hit the town late on the evening of the Superbowl, 2010. The streets of Denver were totally deserted and we got to take some really killer shots.





This is Larimer Square in downtown Denver. After 4pm it's pretty much the busiest, most-crowded street in the city. Clubs, restaurants, bars, everything is 5-star on this block, so it's always full of cars. That night was the first time I had ever seen it completely empty and I couldn't waste and opportunity like that.

 

[Boomerjinks]

This chapter needs a bit of setup.


Interesting story that needs a little setup.


We all instantly recognize the Ghostbusters firehouse, which is actually Ladder 8 of the New York Fire Department in Tribeca, Lower Manhattan. What you might not know is that the interior you see on screen is actually a completely different building in Los Angeles, CA. Ladder 23 in the Toy District of downtown LA has been used in many films over the years, the interior in Ghostbusters, The Mask, Police Academy, Flatliners, and dozens of others.


In July of 2010, my buddies and I got together for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter and explore this abandoned building.





There's a man who actually lives inside the building, part caretaker, part squatter. We arranged the tour with him, but when we arrived he was a no-show for over an hour. Finally we crawled through the fence, banged on the door, and blasted the Ectos siren for a few minutes and got his attention.





Backing in, the 2k is the first Ecto to roll into the bay since 1989!

















We explored every inch, with a large number of us documenting the buildings layout for the massive replica prop archive on one of our sites. We even got to try out the fire poles!











My buddy Vinny....





****ING LASER CONTAINMENT GRIDS, HOW DO THEY WORK?





With a brief stop just down the road at the Biltmore Hotel.

Pretty amazing opportunity, and a ****ing ton of fun.

 

[Boomerjinks]

Before moving on, interesting shot with the Denver Girlbusters...





In 2010, we started preparing for our second attempt at a road trip to New York City. The car was built for this purpose, so we weren't going to let our defeat from the previous year stand. The journey actually began several weeks before Ecto Across America 3 officially kicked off. In the weeks before we were to leave, I began putting the finishing touches on the Magnum. We rolled the car out in July of 2009, but only then did it start to resemble the original vision we conceptualized.


The first addition was a set of blacked-out wheels.











Followed shortly by a Setina PB400 pushbar, things really started to cook!











We pulled the hood and handed it over to Stever (one of our Knight Rider guys) who proceeded to pull all the hail dents from the previous spring.





Positively beautiful!





As the side stripes never really jived with me, and because my vinyl guy actually put a lighter shade of red on, he offered to re-do all the pin striping and rear hatch work. It came out look immaculate.








Then it was off to Charles' place to re-run all the wiring for the lightbars using a wildly more efficient relay setup. We drilled some holes to hide the wires in the rear hatch channel, positively SEAMLESS!





And I managed to get the new "Tumbler" lights hooked up to a flasher and three-way switch.

We were treated to Steak and Shake, quite the midwestern late-night treat, a first for us!

 

[Boomerjinks]

The next morning we set out early for Huntsville and Atlanta.





Richie, where the hell are we?


I will say this, Tennessee was probably the prettiest state we drove through.





I passed out in the passenger seat and we missed an exit, officially failing my shotgun-seat role as Rabbit. We detoured south back into Missouri and across some very rural backroads, but were rewarded by getting to drive over some incredible bridges.





BAAAARGES








Our trip through the backwoods was made even better after we discovered that the region we were traveling through was actually named Blandville, poetic justice is alive and well.


Arriving in Alabama, we discovered a climate entirely alien to us. The humidity we encountered absolutely ridiculous, never before have I seen rain falling up. Alabamans, you need to fix that ****.





Seriously, the entire time we were there I didn't know if my pants were soggy or if I was just continuously ****ting myself. Ugh.


Anyway, we made it to Huntsville and U.S. Space and Rocket Center.





We met up with gbMatt, who promptly began lecturing me about jumping fences to touch exhibits and how I would "get in trouble" or some nonsense. Feh. Judd, another member of GBfans met up in costume for some pictures with the car.





The rocket center was, well, pretty amazing. I've never really seen any sort of full-scale shuttle or manned spacecraft aside from the Titans and Redstones at certain other museums, it really was a sight.





Playing around on one of the umbilical arms.





Richie, succumbing to one of my stupid ideas for a stupid picture. Stupid.





Shut this off, shut these all off.








Yup. We're gay for shuttles.


Probably the best part of the whole place, the Space Monkey Graveyard. Memorials to monkeys who helped us edge closer to manned space flight. People leave bananas on top of the markers, amazing.





Also there was the first Blackbird of the trip. Technically an A-12 Oxcart, this is the plane I had to hop the little fence to get up close to.





We said our good-byes and bugged out for Atlanta and DragonCon, pushing hard to arrive before registration closed at 10pm. If we didn't make it, we'd have to register in the morning and that would interfere with the parade line-up.


The Ecto pulled into the Sheraton loading area at 9:52pm, I bolted out of the car and ran in to register. There was no line by that time, so I was in there maybe four or five minutes. After that we headed out in search of the GBfans members who were currently dining at a downtown chinese place. We found them and started a ruckus on the side of the street, running lights and sound as loudly as possible. Soon we were joined by the Georgia Ecto, built out of a 2007 Dodge Magnum.





Around this time we had our first encounter with police. Several cops on foot had walked past the cars at this point, some even stopping for pictures. Eventually a crown vic rolled up and the officer asked to speak to whoever owned the car. I walked over and he proceeded to tell me that the lights on the car were illegal. I asked if I should cover them, or deactivate them, or what I should do to best comply with the local laws. The cop gave me the annoyingly vague advice of "be careful." The hell? Anyway, after that we picked up Kris at the airport, got situated in our hotel room, and headed back downtown for some cruising. It was late and I managed to somehow get confused at an intersection and made an illegal right turn. I was promptly pulled over by an officer who gave me a dressing-down, but did not run my license or registration. Weird.


The next morning we washed the Ecto and joined up with the other guys for the parade. I didn't take hardly any pictures for the rest of the con, but here are some that were found online!














Saturday night was off the ****ing chain! We started ferrying people back and forth between hotels just for fun. Pulling into the Marriott every 30 minutes we were greeted with some form of the following....


Ghost Buster's dance party. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!


I also managed to get with two of the other Ectos for an impromptu photoshoot out near the old Olympic stadiums (Turner Field now, yes?) I thought the results were pretty neat.











Wild stuff.


Sunday I actually got to do con stuff, and that was great. Too much to explore for one day -I'll have to come back- but it won't be for several years, unfortunately. While heading out for lunch I came across this group of donkin' hip-hop car enthusiasts (is there really a name for these guys?) cruising super slow through Atlanta with their 24" wheels and stick on vents and spinners and floaters and bumpers and thumpers.








I took it as my solemn duty to keep pace with them for their entire route through the city and play "White and Nerdy" out my roof speakers the entire time.


Also, Lady Stig!





Hop on in!





Sunday night the remaining gbfans members headed to the Vortex, several miles from downtown, to try their famous quadruple bypass burger. I had a lesser form, 1/2 lb burger, 6 strips of bacon, 6 pieces of cheese, with two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of buns. It was glorious, though I didn't finish the whole thing. Very tasty.

 

[Boomerjinks]

Monday morning we set out with two new people, AJ (who founded and runs GBfans.com) and Chris, another friend. We drove to Raleigh to drop Chris off, and then Richie, AJ, Kris, and I proceeded to our next stop in Washington D.C.


Thanks to AJs advantageous viewpoint from the Westin, we managed to catch the Mach 5 for a few pictures.





Then we were on our way.








The Carolinas were fairly pretty.





By sunset we'd made it to Richmond, where I hopped another fence and fondled another Blackbird.





Shortly before midnight we'd made it to the outskirts of D.C. where we set up camp on the floor of an old friends apartment. Thanks, Lacey!

 

[Boomerjinks]

Tuesday morning we were up and out to visit the Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian Air and Space annex.





Here we got to see the Enola Gay, the shuttle Enterprise, and the record-setting Blackbird, among other enormously historic pieces of history


.


Kris was flipping his shit the whole fucking time.

















The mothership from Close Encounters of the Third Kind!





There are some tiny planes!





There's R2!





There's a tiny TIE fighter!





Here's a missile that is fired from a submarine, flies through the air, then goes back underwater to **** up another submarine. Christ, I love engineering.





This is kind of lame.





But this is KICKIN RAD!





At the UH center we met up with George, another GBfan member. Wherever we went we offered to meet up with people and he is one of the guys quick enough on the twitter feed to pin us down to the right location at the right time. He perused the museum with us and even gave offered crank knobs as gifts.





This sums up the whole thing quite well.





From the Udvar-Hazy center we booked it over to Langley, where we had the balls to snoop around the CIA headquarters to see if I could spy the A-12 on display there. From an access road around back I managed to see the vertical stabilizers, but nothing beyond that. You win this round, Central Intelligence Agency!


We headed into D.C. and looped around the main sites, settling on the a parking spot smack in the center of the mall. We left the car for about two hours as we explored the main Air and Space Museum.





It was my third time, so.... the usual.














After the A&S I experimented with getting as close to the White House as I could in a car market "radioactive." Turns out the answer is "about a block." Just southeast of the parade grounds we were intercepted by three Secret Service vehicles.





We were greeted with a less-than-friendly "Do you have any idea where the hell you are?" My credentials were taken, as were the IDs of everyone in the car. Several of the cops really pushed at the "bad cop" thing, but we could hear them chuckling over how "****ing badass" the car was. Eventually we were asked to step outside and sit on the curb and dogs were called out. The dogs never came, but several plain-clothes specialists did come out to inspect the Ecto. I gave one officer a walkaround, detailing what each of the roof parts were made from and how they were put together. The specialists laughed at the cops, saying "Oh yeah man, that's some WMD!" then proceeded to take pictures for their kids. One officer began harping on a lower-ranking cop for saying the words "radioactive materials" over the radio. "They're freaking out up there," he growled while thrusting a finger directly at the White House.


After about a half hour, we'd all checked out and wished a safe trip, the majority of the agents were fairly amused, but I wouldn't be surprised if our names are all on some list somewhere.


Our first sign indicating a direction to New York!





Of course we had to stop in Philly to run the Rocky steps!

No time for cheesesteak, unfortunately


We entered New Jersey and were completely stumped by the gas station laws there. Apparently you guys aren't allowed to fuel your own cars? We had a guido assistant there to fist-pump ours for us, pretty funny.


We crossed the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn and unloaded at our hotel off of 3rd and Union. Not a bad place, tiny, but better than I've had in New York before! Four guys to one two-bed room? WE CAN DO IT!





From there we set out to do quick drive-bys of the areas we wanted to visit over the next two days. Times Square, the NY public library, Ladder 8, and...... 55 Central Park West.

 

[Boomerjinks]

Wednesday morning we were up and ready to hit Manhattan. Since there aren't any self-service manual carwashes - apparently, fucking anywhere- in the five boroughs, we washed the Ecto off by hand, shining the wheels and scrubbing bugs off the lights. A quick re-attachment of the satellite dish and we were good to go.


Surprisingly, the construction traffic we encountered coming to Brooklyn the night before had completely disappeared, and we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge in a matter of minutes. Yep, playing "Judgement Day" out of the roof. Come on.





Since it was completely covered in scaffolding (curse you, fall in NY), we skipped the NY public library and starting visiting the usual sights.








Here we stopped for the breakfast of champions, cart food!





I'm probably just retarded, but I seem to be incapable of ordering mediterranean or greek food. I always seem to get some form of gyro, no matter what I order. I'm not complaining, at all. Anything the guy behind the counter produces is a little slice of heaven wrapped in tin foil, but it just feels like there is no point in me actually looking at a menu and ordering something. It always comes out in the shape of a gyro, even if I'm ordering shwarma or kafta kebab or shish kebab. It's getting to the point where I am not going to even bother with the pictures of the food at one of these carts or here at Ya Halla in Denver, I'm just going to say to the cook, "You pick what I am about to eat, I have no say and I'm going to ****ing love it anyway."


After breakfast we made our way to Ladder 8 in Tribeca.





If you recall, this firehouse was used as the exterior location for the headquarters in both Ghostbusters films, though the interior was actually a separate location in another firehouse in Los Angeles.


The engine was gone so we waited around, exploring the nearby shops and streets, enjoying the wonderful weather. Fun fact: the blue fenced-in area under construction at the bottom of the picture was the location of the gas station used in Zoolander. Freak gasoline fight accident.





Also, there was this lady, who was walking her dog down the street as he peed on the tires of every single emergency vehicle parked there.





God I love New York.


About a half hour later the engine returned and backed into the station. We asked the firefighters for a moment of their time, knowing full-well how sick of Ghostbusters these guys must be. We introduced ourselves, stated we were from Colorado, and he chief replied with a dismissive "don't dent the rig."





Green light, GO GO GO GO!





We backed in, left the engine running, and started snapping pictures. In an ironic twist, just as we parked, a film location tour bus pulled up and offloaded about 60 people. What was supposed to be a quick little thing immediately turned into a fiasco of hilarity. The firefighters had to be thinking, "ya give 'em an inch...."














We did our thing for ten minutes or so, trying our best to avoid confirming or denying rumors of Ghostbusters 3 to the tourists. We loaded up, switched everything on, and blew out of there moments later, not providing any answers. Also, let's run some red lights!

Kind of an epic thing.

 

[Boomerjinks]

After the firehouse we headed West to the Intrepid Air Museum. By this time we'd discovered that the car could get away with being considered a "commercial vehicle" so finding cheap parking became remarkably easy.


The Intrepid had been on my list of things to do in NY since my first visit in 2008, but during that time it had actually been towed out to New Jersey for renovations. Will, AJ, and I went to the museum while Richie and Kris poked around for a bit.


I'll spare you the relatively boring pictures of the Intrepid, as we really only skimmed the surface. I did however get to get my mitts on another Oxcart.





I didn't even see the sign, and apparently the dude in the background is one of the guards. Heh.


After the Intrepid we made our way back to the hotel room. We got to experience REAL New York traffic, JUST LIKE YOU SEE IN THE MOVIES. This just meant that my buddies were getting out of the car to smoke and buy snacks while we creeped forward.


Now this, this is where things start to take a turn and get really freaking...I-I-I don't know how to describe it. Frankly, the whole night has barely sunk in -even 3 years later.


So we're back at the hotel. We've been tweeting the entire journey and Kris has been following the tweets of other people since DragonCon. People like Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage and mc Chris. We'd actually met mc Chris months before at one of his shows, and he'd absolutely loved the car, then we got to talking about the Jurassic Jeep and all this other shit, mostly just really casual stuff like comments here and there on Facebook. Apparently mc's cousin had recently committed suicide, and he was taking it pretty hard. I suggested, jokingly, that we should take him for a spin and let the amazed shouts of New Yorkers get a chance to lift his spirits. Kris immediately started messaging him, but we didn't hear anything back for some time. Eventually this popped up on the feed: _mchris - because someone up there likes me, the ecto 1 is gonna pick me up and we're gonna drive around and bust ghosts.


So, it was on. He texted us his number and we got ready. We picked him and his assistant/friend Cat Greenfield up in Brooklyn. AJ climbed into the trunk to make space and we were off, hanging out with mc Chris. I'm pretty sure this is going to warrant some posts of "mc chris is a joke act" or something else along those lines, but we all really like Adult Swim and we enjoy comedy hip hop, so... I guess, go for it?


Around this time I wanted to do a run through Times Square, as it was early evening and we hadn't done that yet. So we drove over and did a slow cruise right through it, with everything but the lights absolutely maxed-out. Cat was laughing non-stop from the fun and Chris was keeping his twitter feed flowing steadily. EVERYONE inside the car and out seemed to be having an awesome night.





Now, we'd had some pretty heavy experiences with police during this trip, and it wasn't until we cruised Times Square that I really thought we'd show up on the NYPD radar as something that might need to be addressed. I mean, come on. It's New York freaking City, they have bigger fish to fry than a nerdmobile filled with nerds. But as we pulled out of the Square, a police car whipped in behind us and followed at a very close distance. Sphincters tightened and I prepared for the lights to turn on us to get our asses handed to us on the side of the road. But there were no lights - at the first opportunity the car pulled up alongside and the officer simply asked, "Hey, can you pull over so I can get some pictures?"


Suddenly the mood was completely changed. We pulled over, got out, and turned everything on. The officer and his partner we so jazzed to see the car come to life and started snapping pictures.





It wasn't even two minutes before Chris had their police lights on for a "siren party." *rolleyes*





The cops finished up their pictures and thanked us. Not one to ever waste an opportunity, I politely asked if there was any place in Times Square where the Ecto might pull over so we could get photos a little better than if it was in the middle of traffic. Something like a taxi pulloff or a vacant ambulance spot, anything. I knew it was an impossible question but one would have to be an absolute idiot to come this far and not even ask. The cop began to describe an area off to the side near one of the police towers, but then cut himself short and simply said, "Follow me."


We immediately piled back into the Ecto and began following the police car as it headed back toward the Square. The officer had radioed ahead and arranged for Broadway to be shut down in order for the Ghostbusters to drive directly into the middle of Times Square.





At the earliest chance, I flipped on our lights and followed our GODDAMN POLICE ESCORT around to a barricaded area, where an opening was made. One cop car blocked off traffic in one direction from 47th, and another veered off to cover the other side. We then drove into the pedestrian area of the Square, next to the TKTS stage.








For the next forty minutes, tourists and New Yorkers alike mobbed the area to see what all the excitement was about, and thousands of people crowded around the car for pictures.


What started off as a lark and a potential traffic violation had turned into an unforgettable and unprecedented moment for us. We shook hands with police and thanked them profusely, but it seemed the whole ordeal was enjoyed equally by both parties.





Not wanting the moment to grow stale or outstay our welcome, we gave one last round of thanks to the members of the NYPD present and loaded up into the Ecto. Traffic into Times Square was once again shut down as the Magnum backed out of its spot and into the Broadway intersection. After receiving a send-off salute from the crowd present, the lights and siren were turned on and we departed down 47th in true "end credits" fashion.


Un. Freaking. Believable.





Here's the video.

Forgive our gooniness, but we were all just moment from ****ing soiling ourselves.


After that we headed back to Brooklyn and trolled some of Chris favorite spots to grief hipsters. There is almost nothing as fun as watching groups of people seeing something that makes them really excited, and watching them try very hard not to look excited.


Anyway. Yeah. I don't... I don't know how this happened.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Been following your CMC FB page since you first posted here on ELB.


This this thread is a FANTASTIC write-up!!!!!!!


Whenever you are back in NY, it is a requirement I meet up and get some pictures!!

 

[TritonBoulder47]

I WANT!!! I've wanted this truck since I first saw the movie!!! LoL


This was an awesome thread... I literally sat and read the whole thing... lol

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Now, we'd had some pretty heavy experiences with police during this trip, and it wasn't until we cruised Times Square that I really thought we'd show up on the NYPD radar as something that might need to be addressed. I mean, come on. It's New York freaking City, they have bigger fish to fry than a nerdmobile filled with nerds. But as we pulled out of the Square, a police car whipped in behind us and followed at a very close distance. Sphincters tightened and I prepared for the lights to turn on us to get our asses handed to us on the side of the road. But there were no lights - at the first opportunity the car pulled up alongside and the officer simply asked, "Hey, can you pull over so I can get some pictures?"


Suddenly the mood was completely changed. We pulled over, got out, and turned everything on. The officer and his partner we so jazzed to see the car come to life and started snapping pictures.





It wasn't even two minutes before Chris had their police lights on for a "siren party." *rolleyes*





The cops finished up their pictures and thanked us. Not one to ever waste an opportunity, I politely asked if there was any place in Times Square where the Ecto might pull over so we could get photos a little better than if it was in the middle of traffic. Something like a taxi pulloff or a vacant ambulance spot, anything. I knew it was an impossible question but one would have to be an absolute idiot to come this far and not even ask. The cop began to describe an area off to the side near one of the police towers, but then cut himself short and simply said, "Follow me."


We immediately piled back into the Ecto and began following the police car as it headed back toward the Square. The officer had radioed ahead and arranged for Broadway to be shut down in order for the Ghostbusters to drive directly into the middle of Times Square.





At the earliest chance, I flipped on our lights and followed our GODDAMN POLICE ESCORT around to a barricaded area, where an opening was made. One cop car blocked off traffic in one direction from 47th, and another veered off to cover the other side. We then drove into the pedestrian area of the Square, next to the TKTS stage.








For the next forty minutes, tourists and New Yorkers alike mobbed the area to see what all the excitement was about, and thousands of people crowded around the car for pictures.


What started off as a lark and a potential traffic violation had turned into an unforgettable and unprecedented moment for us. We shook hands with police and thanked them profusely, but it seemed the whole ordeal was enjoyed equally by both parties.





Not wanting the moment to grow stale or outstay our welcome, we gave one last round of thanks to the members of the NYPD present and loaded up into the Ecto. Traffic into Times Square was once again shut down as the Magnum backed out of its spot and into the Broadway intersection. After receiving a send-off salute from the crowd present, the lights and siren were turned on and we departed down 47th in true "end credits" fashion.


Un. Freaking. Believable.





Here's the video.

ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I cannot express in words the awesomeness of this epic story!!! I definitely would have legit soiled myself if I were in your shoes, hands down!!!


Not to mention being an [as] fan myself, meeting mc chris is pretty sweet too!!!


I think we need to help you upgrade those Edges to Freedoms!!!

 

[Retired1]

You are to be truly commended for this thread. It is obvious that a great deal of time, effort, and enthusiasm is incorporated in it. Your wonderful photos and excellent narratives are superbly chronicled. Your endeavors and adventures will make you memories to cherish for a lifetime. Thank you for sharing your amazing documentary with us all. I read every word and enjoyed every photo.

 

[vonirkinshtine]

B'jinks, I remember your thread from the other board! Every time I read and see the pictures of your adventures I am beside myself. It should be illegal to have as much fun as you do (I only say that because a part of me is crazy jealous).


The level of detail that went into your Magnum is remarkable. The cosplay that goes along with the car is fun to see too.


Have you ever considered upgrading the lightbars to LED? I don't know if battery drain is a concern for you when you're parked at an event.

 

[strobecrazy]

Great Thread! You boys need to stay out of trouble when you roll into town for D*C.

 

[Boomerjinks]

Thanks guys! I'm glad this stuff isn't too stale!


I've been really fortunate to be surrounded by fun and interesting and talented people, and none of this would have happened without them. Of course, the car itself generates this weird sort of "warp bubble" where the normal rules of the world just don't apply, so go figure. Weird, fun, wacky doors continue to open themselves!!

Have you ever considered upgrading the lightbars to LED? I don't know if battery drain is a concern for you when you're parked at an event.

I think we need to help you upgrade those Edges to Freedoms!!!

I wouldn't be opposed! The 9000s do the job, but they definitely look tired. My requirements for the bars are that they have blue lenses, so that they appear as the right color even when they are off, if that makes sense. Also, taller bars fit the shape better, as anything low-profile would probably make the roof rack look GIGANTIC!


I would go BANANAS for Freedoms with blue lenses or something similar, lol!

 

[hooknose56]

Great thread! Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

I wouldn't be opposed! The 9000s do the job, but they definitely look tired. My requirements for the bars are that they have blue lenses, so that they appear as the right color even when they are off, if that makes sense. Also, taller bars fit the shape better, as anything low-profile would probably make the roof rack look GIGANTIC!


I would go BANANAS for Freedoms with blue lenses or something similar, lol!

Well the two lines of thinking would be to just upgrade the bars you have now, or, if you put a little more money into it, could buy some old TXDPS bars, they're a dime a dozen, and can get them fairly cheap.

 

[proudfirefighter]

This quite possibly may be my favorite thread I have ever read on this site/the internet.


I am so jealous, that is such an amazing experience you've had. Awaiting more stories!


Also, Changing my pants after some of those photos..

 

[Boomerjinks]

Not only are we still in 2010, we aren't even done with the New York trip!


Waaaay more craziness ahead, though I want until the next page before I post the next part of the story and those pictures, don't want people's computers blowing up whenever this thread pops open!

 

[smokin351]

Great freaking thread! This would definitely be the experience of a lifetime for anyone. Keep us updated! :thumbsup:

 

[Boomerjinks]

Great freaking thread! This would definitely be the experience of a lifetime for anyone. Keep us updated! :thumbsup:

I have no fewer than 3 more roadtrip recaps in firing position!

 

[Jarred J.]

next time you roll through tennessee give me a shout. yall can make a stop where they make jack daniel's whiskey

 

[Boomerjinks]

next time you roll through tennessee give me a shout. yall can make a stop where they make jack daniel's whiskey

Will do! Whenever we launch a huge roadtrip we almost always make a public route and reach out to cool people to meet along the way!

 

[Boomerjinks]

Page two! Continuing where I left off! Also, this page is SUPER full of photos, so please refrain from quoting pictures...!


After sleeping surprisingly well after our little adventure with mc Chris in Times Square, we got up on Thursday morning to check out more of New York City. Our first stop was in lower Manhattan, the location of the art museum from Ghostbusters 2. The building started life as the US Customs House, but has been since repurposed as part of the Smithsonian Institution, housing a branch of the Native American Museum.








The area where the Ecto-1A pulls up in that movie isn't actually a road, it's a pedestrian plaza. Technically it's been inaccessible to all vehicles even before the film was made. Directly in front of the Customs House is the famous Bowling Green park, and beyond that the famous "Charging Bull" stock statue. Ever ones to press our luck, after surveying the scene we decided to go for it. I hopped out of the car and dashed into the museum while the guys entered a holding pattern around Ground Zero.


I asked the security guards if I could talk to the officer on duty, and they sent out a member of the Federal Police. Since the building is of the Smithsonian, it wasn't just normal NYPD running the show. I explained to him what was going on and what we wanted, he agreed to have the car pull up but it needed to pass some security first.


While waiting for the Ecto to arrive back at the museum, I snapped this picture...





Awesome.


Apparently "additional security" meant an inspection from a bomb-sniffing team.





After that we were free to enter!

We hung around a bit taking pictures, this was less about showing the car off in public and more about a fan-made vehicle going where no other fan-made vehicle had been before.

 

[Boomerjinks]

After the museum, we headed back up to Times Square to meet up with Will and drop Richie off so he could see some old friends. While trying to find parking, we managed to get pulled over yet again, but this time by an AMBULANCE! These guys were behind me when I starting hearing a repeated siren "yelp." I checked behind and didn't see any lights, so I figured it was coming from somewhere else. The yelping continued, and I finally pulled over. The EMTs hopped out and ran over to ask for photos, we busted up laughing and told them to go nuts. Hearing the one EMT calling his photographer a "retahd" in a rich Brooklyn accent for taking so long was priceless.





Apparently our visit had fallen right in the middle of Fashion Week, and our arrival in Times Square was greeted by half a dozen honest-to-god paparazzi.





I had no idea what was going on when were were suddenly hit by rapid-fire flashes and guys walking in the middle of the street alongside the car as we found a parking spot. Unreal.





This incident was most likely what resulted in a slew of Ghostbusters 3 rumors that blasted across the web around that time. LOOOOOOL





We chowed down at a horrible, horrible chinese buffet and were back on the road soon after. This time we headed out of Manhattan and into Queens, in search of the World's Fair park and our meetup with NJUKGB.


Eventually we found the park, but were discouraged to discover that the U.S. Open was going on and that access to most of the park was closed off. I got as close as I could to the Unisphere, but it just didn't make the picture. Eventually I found an access road leading around back to a barricaded area swarming with police. I asked nicely and they let me park in the middle of the road to take pictures, so long as I promised to take less than 5 minutes.


But there was a problem, every single one of those cops wanted a picture next to the car on their phones. So while I tried to get my framing right, cop after cop after cop walked in and ruined the shot...





Kind of frustrating, but ultimately quite funny.


At one point, one officer commented to Kris that he was going to get yelled at by his boss if he let us hang out any longer. Kris noted that we would finish a lot quicker if we could actually get a clear shot of the car by itself. The cop immediately started yelling at his cohorts to "get the hell out of the way."


I eventually got the picture.





We chatted with a friend from the Ghostbusters props forum for a bit and then headed out.

 

[Boomerjinks]

My last unfinished goal of the day was to get a shot of the Ecto in front of the Atlantic Ocean. The car made it to the Pacific originally in July 2009 (then again in December and a third time this July), but I wanted it to be official that the car has made it to both coasts under it's own power. Coney Island offered this, and potentially pictures in front of scary amusement part stuff.


I got much more than I bargained for.


I've been to a lot of sketchy places. Commerce City here in Colorado feels like it's straight out of a RoboCop movie. LA23 is a block from the Los Angeles Mission. We explored Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago. Also, Ohio. But nothing could every prepare me for how unnerving Coney Island in the off-season could be. Most of those other places are abandoned and decrepit, but they are industrial or very urban in nature. Take the seediest urban environment imaginable, fill it with clowns with half their faces missing and amusement rides that look like they were designed by the SAW production team, and you have Coney Island. Don't get me wrong, it was AWESOME. But it was scary.


But this was funny.





As I'd feared, Coney Island didn't really have any vistas accessible for personal vehicles, so we moved on. But not before I ran up to the boardwalk to take a few pictures for myself.








With that out of the way we headed south, toward the Narrows Bridge. Here I did manage to find a suitable vantage point along the expressway.








A few wrong turns and mixed exits ended up forcing us to cross the bridge, costing AJ nearly $20 in tolls to get us back to Manhattan. Now you know where your supporting membership fees go: out my window to a guy in a booth.


But, it afforded us a nice view of New York.

 

[Boomerjinks]

I REALLY regret not getting some Ecto pictures in DUMBO.... man.





We finished up the night by taking the subway from 56th and Lexington to Times Square for Planet Hollywood. AJ had never ridden on the trains there before and I wasn't opposed to seeing some of my favorite dystopian undergrounds again on the trip.


Planet Hollywood was as good and as expensive as ever, though I was wildly disappointed to discover that the Jurassic Park display which I didn't care about the last time I was there (since I hadn't built the jeep) had been replaced by fucking TWILIGHT COSTUMES. Bullshit. Man, I wanted to make a stun gun.


We hit up Grand Central and then made our way back to the car. Fuck, the subway is hot in the summer months....





We crossed the Queensboro bridge and I started looking for places to take pictures of the New York skyline. I wanted a shot similar to the one I have of the car in front of Denver, but in New York. Fernando recommended spots near the giant Pepsi Cola sign, and we soon found a parking lot for a Brooklyn water taxi.


This resulted in one of my all-time favorite pictures of the car. Definitely a keeper.





After that we headed back to the Super 8 and crashed, hard!

 

[Boomerjinks]

Friday morning we were up and ready to get out. To avoid as many tolls as possible we drove back through lower Manhattan and took the tunnel to New Jersey. Of course we had to stop by City Hall.





There was no time for us to work our magic, though


After heading out through the tunnel (playing Elvis's 'Promised Land', of course), we were in Jersey once more.





Horrible, horrible, rusty Jersey.


Then there was Pennsylvania.





I found PA to be very, very pretty. I wish our trip had taken us through there a month later so I could see all the colors, it must be insane.


Our first stop was actually a detour to Centralia, a small ghost town in the coal hills.





If you don't know what Centralia is, was, and signifies, then CLICK HERE TO LERN SOMETHIN.


One of the most visible areas affected by the fire is an old section of Hwy 61 that is now blocked off and re-routed. At either end of the highway are two earth berms, about six feet in height, to prevent vehicle access to the area. Here is the Ecto in front of the innermost berm.





To the left is sort of an ATV trail that provides easier, albeit still-limited access to the abandoned highway. The little trail was quite steep at the end and composed almost entirely of large loose rocks, and I didn't want to risk the Magnum shitting the bed this close to Hell. I have absolute confidence that the Jeep would have made it in a heartbeat, though. Hell, the Outback could have probably scrambled around it as well.


Anyway, this is how the road starts off.





Plants growing up and out, and the occasional spot of graffiti. From here it just gets more and more I Am Legend, though. The plants in the middle become full bushes, and spraypaint tags spot the road every few feet.


Then the road starts to do this.





The entire area was once, most likely still is, prone to collapse - it's a fact that doesn't leave your mind for a second while walking this road.


Running down the middle of the highway is an enormous fissure, now filled with garbage and - probably - urine from visitors. Hell, if I'd had to pee, you can be sure I would have done it right where the smoke was coming from.

















Richie fighting the urge to put a traffic cone on his head and start raping and killing and raping and killing and raping.





Oh yeah, the smoke. There was seriously smoke still billowing from the cracks. And the ground was noticeably warmer near the fissures, freaky stuff, and very neat to finally see in person.


We made our way back to the car and drove up through the remnants of the town, making sure to pass down every road. The signs leading to the "fire" actually take you up a hill to an older cemetery (older than the one right next to the highway) and past several areas filled with rubble and bare patches where nothing will grow. Up here there was actually tons of smoke and the smell of the fire was very much apparent, compared to the highway where you would only get occasional wafts of the odor (aside from the odorless, more poisonous fumes, that is).





Aside from them the roads (which were really neat to drive down), there was practically nothing there. A half dozen homes -including this funeral home- was all that remained.





Having our fill, and needing to get back on schedule, we departed.


Also, THIS.

 

[Boomerjinks]

October 23 marked the date of Denvers fourth annual Zombie Crawl! In case you didn't know, Denver has been -and is once more- the World Record holder for largest zombie crawl. This year it topped out at more than 7,000 shambling up and down the 16th Street Mall! We've participated in these before, but usually only in a limited capacity. Previously we've lurked in alleyways and jumped out to "fight" the stream of zombies. This year we wanted to join the vendors and exhibitors, and we did so by finally throwing our hat into the ring of ghostbuster charities.


The concept was simple. Have a table next to the car, rope off the area next to the car, and charge people for pictures with the vehicle and our group of Girlbusters. Minimum suggested donation: $1. The original plan was to have a professional photographer on hand to take pictures. We would then give the donor a GBFans.com business card with the instructions to visit the site the next day, where their picture would be uploaded to a gallery. Our photographer didn't show, but it worked out because most people wanted to use their own cameras. There was a $250 price for boothspace in the park, but since we were working for charity the people in charge of the crawl graciously let us get in at an extreme fraction of that. Big thanks to Daniel Newman for being such a great guy and all!


Anyway, to shake things up a bit we decided to give the Ecto a new look for the occasion. My wife's friend mixed up the paint, which was simple off-the-shelf Tempera. The wife and her girl friends proceeded to, uh, decorate the car.





We soaked a rag and slapped it up against the sides to simulate impact areas.





We arrived at the mall around 1 and started setting up. We positioned ourselves between the park and the mall sidewalk itself, which just so happened to be the location for the counter tent, the place with all the equipment used for counting the participants in order to establish the world record. This meant that every person present would eventually walk past our booth. While in the Ecto, I have this weird knack for finding the perfect parking spaces, so much so that everyone has dubbed them "Kevin Spots," and we definitely scored one at this event!





The work done by the girls to the car looked absolutely spectacular!











We set up our table with a donation pumpkin - we were going to use a ghost trap but it wasn't ready in time.





Shauna photobombing in the background.... lol





Eventually those stanchions are going to be mockups of tripod traps, I really can't wait to get started!


Then shit started getting crazy!











This was the first time we've actually gotten to refuse people who asked us for pictures, a really weird, kind of awesome feeling. Lots of people sneaked pictures, but even more were willing to pony up a donation and jump in with the girls, or the guys.


The mall sidewalk itself. You can't see it here, but there are two lanes for bus traffic in the middle of that mob. Whenever a bus would stop and open it's doors, we'd be treated to the sound of that entire crowd moaning and roaring at it.








To counter zombies stating they were not ghosts and therefore could not be "busted," we equipped the girls with some new equipment.

















Another girlbuster. She makes nothing but weird faces.





By the end of the day we'd raised about $500 for The Children's Hospital Foundation, which I consider to be a pretty good haul for our first day on the job. The notion that people would pay money for pictures with the car and the characters was a pretty big gamble, and I am amazed that people responded so eagerly to it, what a rush!

 

[Boomerjinks]

2010 also marked our fourth year of nerding it up at the Emma Crawford Casket Races in Manitou Springs, Colorado.


2007-





2010-





Good stuff! Also, we officially welcomed new recruit Dr. Gustafson to the crew!

 

[strobecrazy]

Hottest ghostbuster I have ever seen.

 

[TritonBoulder47]

Yes, BoomerJinks, PA is an awesome place with some "unique" areas... And a lot of haunted spots too... This thread has me thoroughly enthralled... Cant wait for more of the story!!!

 

[Boomerjinks]

So now the story shifts a little away from the Magnum and becomes more about Colorado Movie Cars, the growing club of replica owners and builders that I run in Denver. In November of 2010, we met Joe and his Starsky and Hutch Gran Torino!


Hooray for a new friend!





Joe reached out to us here on the RPF and we all met up for the first time today, on what is surely one of the last nice fall afternoons in Colorado!