Hi Steemians and D Liver's!
This week we start off meeting a fanatic who has painstakingly created a fully working replica of the Ghostbusters' car!
Loren Baldwin spent two years searching for parts and six months piecing together his very own Ecto- 1.
He recently visited New York City - taking the car back to its beloved headquarters at Hook and Ladder 8.
The replica was built from a 1959 Miller-Meteor chassis - both an ambulance and a hearse - that was also used for the original car.
And finding the body for the Ecto-1 was no easy feat for Loren.
Loren, 32, said: “I actually had been searching eight years to find the car.
“I had given up and six months later I found it by accident looking for another car.
“I immediately called the owner and said ‘here’s the money right now, take it’
“It was just a bare body that had been disassembled by the previous owner.”
The car itself cost Loren $2,500, but the conversion process was a true labor of love.
Loren, from Cincinnati, Ohio said: “It took two years to collect all the parts and about six months to put it all together.
“It was like a jigsaw puzzle with no instructions.”
Determined to get every detail just right, Loren spent one full day with the original car from the movie in Los Angeles - writing down measurements.
The car features recreations of the “storage tank” for captured ghosts and working blue lights. It is more than 8ft tall, weighs nearly four tons, and has a 390 cubic inch V8 engine.
He spent about $20,000 on the conversion - but estimates it would have been more than $100,000 without the help of local businesses.
Loren worked with fabrication shops and had them make parts for him in return for promotion when he shows the car in public.
Loren said: “All the lights and sirens work - I have the same exact siren that appeared in the movie. “I have a five panel mirror in the car because there are a lot of blind spots because it is 21ft long. “It doesn’t go more than 65 miles per hour - it’s not very aerodynamic.”
When he’s not driving the Ecto-1 around for fun Loren takes the car to charity and celebrity events.
Have a good week all. We’ll be back on Wednesday.
Team Barcroft
My video is at DLive
Wow this is Super Cool, as a kid from the 80's, gotta love dem.....Ghostbusters