#4965635
I’m well aware of many of the mistakes and errors made during the 2009 restoration of the original Ghostbusters Ectomobile, but I’ve never been able to find a single thread documenting all the errors, as the information is scattered across many years and websites. I know I’m repeating some and forgetting other, but I figured I might as well present the most obvious ones to get the ball rolling.
One of the most irritating overlooked details was the incorrect front light bar and mourning bracket on the Ectomobile:
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This is very clearly not the lightbar or bracket that was originally on the Ectomobile in 1983 and 1984:
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Another mess-up on the restoration “effort” was the painting of the siren (and other originally chrome parts) with silver spray paint:
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Also missing from the sub-par job is the lens for the spinning red beacon:
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In the same image is the “Sniffer”, which definitely featured a grey box back in 1983 and 1984:
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I believe the logo was also changed some:
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How the decal appeared in 1983 and 1984:
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Lastly, Sony being Sony, decided to have the restoration team hack up the interior and add some garish speaker and video systems:
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It’s unlikely these issues (as well as the barely-running engine, which I’ll admit, has historically not been a strong suit of the Ectomobile) will ever be addressed, let alone by people as passionate about the vehicle as on this forum.
Last edited by The Searcher on January 20th, 2022, 12:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Kingpin liked this
#4965636
I wonder if the original light bar and bracket were too far gone to restore.

As to the engine, I'm not a mechanic, but the issue seems to be the car sitting for too long at a time. The engine was repaired and working well in 2009 but Internal combustion engines develop problems if they aren't frequently run.
#4965638
It’s to my understanding that the front lightbar was removed from the Ectomobile during the 2000s for use on another production. The lightbar and bracket had been gone for years by 2009, so it’s more likely they just been lost rather than overly corroded/rendered unsalvagable.
#4965754
The repercussions of the terrible restoration are still affecting the GB community. The new cars in afterlife still got the wrong front bars but they almost got the same horrible brackets as well. The car team working on Afterlife really didn't do a thorough job on the research as evidenced by this photo and the hand painted logos.

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#4965758
Bison256 wrote: January 19th, 2022, 1:19 am I wonder if the original light bar and bracket were too far gone to restore.
Technically they were too far gone, as in they were "too far gone" off of the lot after having been reappropriated/stolen:

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Another mistake in the restoration: The sniffer/scopes were installed facing backwards.
#4965794
The front lightbar bugs the crap out of me too! Its the wrong model, wrong length with wrong mounting brackets that also make it sit at the wrong height at the wrong angle :-|
#4965807
The lightbar is just way too long and it looks goofy, especially compared to the rear one. It’s so unfortunate that even all the highly detailed models get big details wrong simply because they decided to study/reference the Ectomobile as it is currently. The Afterlife cars reflecting the restoration is just another pain in the side of the often-reocurring problem.
#4965853
Interesting, I was unaware of this.
The only models I can think of that weren’t completely referenced to the inaccurate restoration since its completion are the Blitzway and the new Lego set (which I guess doesn’t really count since it was based on the corrected Afterlife Ectomobile).
#4966021
Much of the paint has begun to fade, some rust is evident, the fuel cap was replaced with an incorrect one, and even the Red spinning beacon has had some of the paint removed somehow:
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The front light bar appears to be broken from a relatively recent video, hopefully they junk it and replace it with a correct one?
#4966084
Recent photos I saw show the siren just laying up there on the roof not mounted at all. But of course, photos taken right after the restoration show the mounting bolt in the pedestal missing entirely so maybe it has just been held up there with "hopes and dreams" all this time.
#4966102
There was definitely a Radio of some sort mounted up there during production. Was it the midland? I’m not sure.
Unfortunately, the restoration added a strange, somewhat garish headunit under the steering wheel, another screen, and completely massacred the poor dummy antenna by turning it into a speaker?:
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#4966141
Also missing from the restoration done to the Ectomobile (and forgotten on the Afterlife Wrecktomobile) were the yellow French “Attention” labels next to the bumper lights:
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The right part of the bumper seems to have been bent/damaged as well.
#4966329
There are way too many changes done to the Ecto since the first film that it's somewhat exhausting. Some stuff disappeared from the car shortly after. There was a long rainbow cable that came from a mysterious device (now ID'd) mounted on the dashboard that went outside of the car and wrap itself around the roof rack. It can be seen in older photos, especially around the front heat sinks just behind the siren/propello ray. This cable was most likely at some point adhered to parts of the roof rack with small microchips. Looks sorta like something you would mount/seat an eprom into.

- The heatsinks changed after the film.
- Paint changes (raydome/sniffer, etc).
- Labels were replaced, painted over or went missing completely.
- Original logos were removed from the car and replaced (there is evidence that the GBII logo may have been on it for a short time).
- There was an unidentified black box with cables connected to the back of the roof rack that went missing.
- Interior pieces are no longer in the car that were most likely there for filming (a cover to one of the radar parts is long gone. Also the faceplate for what is known as the Astrodata panel/box is long gone).
- The grey hose connector is not the original that attaches to the fender/was replaced.
- A basic plumbing bracket (yes, just a plain old bracket you can buy at most hardware stores) was added around the gas cap. I don't know why and it looks silly.
- Front deck lights were changed.
- There were female Amphenol connectors mounted in various spots in the wood of the roof rack that are gone now.
- There were also quick disconnect plugs mounted to the tubing on the roof rack that connected to the lightbars. Those are gone.
- A lot of the roof rack tubing is gone now.
- Raydome antennas were replaced.

There are so many changes done to that car over the years. The one that always got to me is that most of the labels on the car aren't even the originals seen in the film. Some we don't even have a good record of but know that they were different and are long gone. The radioactive labels on the fan box and sniffer were added after the film. Most likely sometime during pre-production of Ghostbusters II. Personally, I didn't even know that the large heatsink underneath the raydome wasn't the original until it was pointed out to me.

The car will need another restoration soon. Sony leaves it out in the elements and I have personally seen that the roof rack is falling apart. I know that they do some work in-house with their maintenance department. It was seen in public in 2014 with a badly rusted rear bumper but eventually repaired shortly after. I just hope that Sony doesn't give the car to Cinema Vehicle Services again when that time comes.
#4966337
The deck lights is a forgivable change, those bulbs are becoming rarer and rarer with each passing year... Sooner or later we'll probably end up seeing a team whip up some LED facsimiles, if they even bother to replace them once they've died.
#4966351
Kingpin wrote: January 28th, 2022, 9:19 pm The deck lights is a forgivable change, those bulbs are becoming rarer and rarer with each passing year... Sooner or later we'll probably end up seeing a team whip up some LED facsimiles, if they even bother to replace them once they've died.
Nope, not a forgivable change. For what CVS charged they could have easily had the 4 housings re-chromed and reinstalled.
#4966353
sprprops wrote: January 29th, 2022, 7:03 am Nope, not a forgivable change.
Of all the changes done to the car a different but similar bulb in the deck lights is the least offensive and obtrusive, and as I touched on likely motivated by a lack of available vintage parts...

The lamp housings being re-chromed would've been nice, but to be honest I'd forgotten they were even chromed until you mentioned it.

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