#473514
I was browsing Reddit earlier and on the front page someone had posted a slide show of a "making-of" book in celebration of the 30th anniversary. The post is here. I had never seen this book in its entirety before and something interesting caught my eye. I came across a drawing schematic of Ecto-1 and noticed this:
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Particularly this piece is what I am inquiring about.
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The drawing has this part listed as a marine radome. Google searched for vintage marine radome and I get some pretty interestingly close results when it comes to submarines. Now, I don't know if this part has been identified yet. Not too long ago I remember reading that the community consensus was that this was a fabricated piece. It's looking like it might possibly be a direction-finding antenna w/ a radome cover made for a submarine (mini-sub?). I wasn't able to pull up any other info for it in the forums, so I am inquiring about it here. Anyone know more about this part?
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Last edited by 910dohead on February 28th, 2014, 1:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By Boomerjinks
#473527
The drawing also lists the scope/sniffer as a "T.V. antenna," and I've never seen a tv antenna that is made up of two adjacent hollow tubes.

While the part on the car definitely LOOKS like a marine radar, would be amazed if the radome you found was smaller than a few feet tall. Even today's consumer marine radars aren't compact enough to be the ~6-inch piece used on the Ecto.
By ramcuda
#473606
hi 910

are you building an ecto?

I can and will only tell you most built Ecto's are using a fab-ed part as a raydome ...
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By 910dohead
#4781972
Boomerjinks wrote:The drawing also lists the scope/sniffer as a "T.V. antenna," and I've never seen a tv antenna that is made up of two adjacent hollow tubes.

While the part on the car definitely LOOKS like a marine radar, would be amazed if the radome you found was smaller than a few feet tall. Even today's consumer marine radars aren't compact enough to be the ~6-inch piece used on the Ecto.
I guess that's what the original intent for the part was supposed to be, but I believe I may have identified exactly what this part is made from.

Here is a picture of the radome before the cars restoration provided by the site.

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Take a good look just underneath the lowest red sticker stripe and you'll notice a weld line. To the left and below the weld line going to the base of the radome, you'll notice that the outlining shape starts to come in.

Now for the reveal!
This is basically an A-6 aviator oxygen tank that has been cut a few inches above the halfway weld, painted white and welded to the base of the rack frame. It's the exact same size and shape as the A-6 oxygen tank. It makes complete sense to do this instead of sourcing a totally different part. The weld is what gives it away. Now, the weld line isn't as prevalent after the restore because the red sticker tape was lowered and now runs along the weld line, covering most of it up. However, it's still there. Here is a comparison:

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Simple, yes. The devil is in the details. What do you guys think?
SPJ, AJ Quick liked this
#4783008
venkman71 wrote:While the pic may be in scale, the radome is considerably smaller in size than the A-6.
Do you have measurements we could compare them to?

It looks like the Radome is that Oxygen bottle to me, but we all know scales can be way off with this kind of thing.
#4783514
Do you have measurements we could compare them to?
Absolutely,....observe!

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First, here it is, as is, off the car. The radome itself is 5 inches wide by 8 inches high.

Second,...compared to an A-6

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Sobering, right? Even Robocop is like,..."Whoa!"

What I did was get the proper diameter ABS pipe, and a corresponding acrylic cap from a local plastics place.
I assembled it, painted it, polished it and molded it..

After which I took another piece of ABS pipe, shopped off a 2 inch high piece, fit it into the mold, poured resin and slush cast the final piece. The resin bonded to the ABS which acts as a uniformly thick "collar" which is great for mounting.

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There ya go, lads!

V71
gb4ever, SPJ liked this
#4783524
I don't want to be the bad guy here when I put this into words, but I still don't see any valid proof that debunks my claim. Here is what I am talking about:
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The ruler itself doesn't provide any real measurements. It's just to show that both tanks are in relative scale to each other and that they don't significantly differ from each other. If anything, the A-6 is closer in the picture than the raydome and technically should be noticeably bigger if what you guys all claim is true.
Azevedo, SPJ liked this
#4783533
910dohead wrote:That's a building!?! I thought it was some sort of weird filter or louvers attached to the top of the TI box. So those tall things aren't antenna's? You mean they're just lights?
Its nice to see someone understand boomer's sense of humor lol
#4783544
The oxygen bottle and Radome are practically on the same plane in that photo.

They look the same size to me.

EDIT:

Overlaying them makes it more obvious.

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The Oxygen bottle is just a hair bigger when you overlay them, which would be expected since the Radome is a few inches behind the plane of the oxygen bottle.

Sean, where did you get your measurements? How sure are you that they were accurately done? Your radome does look a little on the small side to me.

The only part that might not add up is the curve of the end (the radius) looks a bit different. But that might just be the contrast to the background.
Kingpin, SPJ liked this
#4783650
Yes is look the sames but is not ,here somes pictures with measuring to compare and the Radome accurate pattern hope this will help you .

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The A-6 aviator oxygen tank measuring is 5 5/8 " OD
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The A-6 aviator oxygen tank measuring is 13 7/8 " Long
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Kris karlsson (gb4evers) made this Radome pattern review measuring take from the original ecto-1 in 2011 .
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I know many old timer ecto-1 builder like V-71 and others including my self made the radome 5" OD and 8" hight remember we didn't have the accurate measuring available and do not access to the real car in those old days we have to figure everything out.
Today is verry easy to get those ecto-1 equipment info but the hard thing is still to find a 1959 Miller Meteor .



Martin Caron
gb4ever, SPJ liked this
#4783676
I agree kingpin - when Thiago measured the car way back when it was in dallas promoting the game, I don't believe he was able to measure it because it was too high to reach, or something along those lines.

My vote is for the A6 tank, unless someone can provide a pic of their tape against the actual radome to prove that wrong.
#4783683
I was able to actually get on a step stool (luckily I'm pretty tall) to measure the radome. The measurements were taken right from the radome and how it correlates with the radome base. To make sure there was no margin of error, I measured the bottom of the base from side to side and then subtracted the space between the OD of the radome and the OD of the base. I don't have pictures of the tape measuring due to the lack of available hands... Now The 3/8" isn't much of a difference, The bottom of the A-6 tank would be a suitable Radome. the 3/8" could just be built up paint. We have no clue how many layers are under there, there is a chance that they are the one and the same...
SPJ liked this
#4783993
I didn't know that kriss take the measured from the bottom of the base from side to side ,now I do undertsand the radome base with the welding could be the 3/8 " extra now I think that the radome could be matching the A-6 thank .

Martin
#4784068
You guys are using a tape measure to measure a circular object, and you don't think they're the same because there is a 5/8" measurement error?

The plans Kris karlsson made, and the measurements drcaron took if anything... prove that they're the same.

Why? Because the length measurement and the plans almost perfectly agree with where the seam is on the Radome itself.
The diameter is well within the error possible by eyeballing something round with a tape measure.

Why is there a conspiracy regarding this piece?

Is it possible there are different sizes of Oxygen bottles, and some people have the wrong size?

If Sean's radome is 5", his oxygen bottle is likely much larger than 5-5/8" OD.

EDIT: I looked at it in photoshop, and Sean's oxygen bottle would be approx. 7" in diameter, vs 5-5/8" for the one drcaron posted.

If you have an oxygen bottle. Are you absolutely sure you have the right one? Seems like to me that there would be different sizes.
o0Ecto1A0o, 910dohead, SPJ and 1 others liked this
#4784081
when this thread was first posted, i have to admit i was pretty skeptical, but after measuring some of my tanks, and looking at the original blue prints they used to create the rack, i gotta say im a believer.
the orginal blueprints call for a
6"Ø x 9" plastic (metal) dome as a marine radar
platform to fit aerials & dome
please note: overall height of dome from ground to clear firehouse entrance

using a seamstress tape i measured the tanks i have came out to 18" circumference, the other one was a hair less but being stamped parts its understandable, but an 18" circumference comes to a 5.72 Ø

and using prop making logic, i have no problem believing they would have chopped a tank up to make the part, its close to what the blueprint would have called for and readily available. (well at the time)
SPJ liked this
#4784268
It's also hard to imagine them at the shop finding this stuff and going "yeah, half of that third tank is exactly what we need to make the Radome, let's instead go track down some other cone-shaped object and try to make it work. Whatever delays the shoot.."

I think another hint is the 1A's radome being yellow. it's like they just threw down the stock tank, tossed some quick yellow spraypaint over the yellow that was there and went on with the build.
SPJ liked this
#4784415
TexasBuster,

The ecto-1a make me think of something about the paint i know that the made somes of those A-6 oxygen tank white for the small air plane and I think the are still available today .

This is why that we can see on ecto-1a the color turning white on the oxygen tank and the radome after all those year exposed on the on the sun but the one on the ecto-1 are still yellow .

Martin
#4788881
My plan was to visit Ecto-1 at Sony, measure the raydome, take pictures and compare everything to the A-6 tank. However, I discovered that Ecto-1 has gone on a promotional tour for the 30th anniversary and isn't currently parked at Sony. My visit is on hold since I haven't been able to find any mention of it being scheduled to be at any particular place (in southern California). Now, my group is going to be at Wondercon Easter weekend and there is a slight possibility that Ecto-1 will be on display there. If so, I'll be armed with measuring tape and a camera to record my findings. However, if Ecto-1 doesn't make the rounds at the so-cal cons, i'll just have to wait until the car makes it way back to Sony.

As far as measuring the A-6 tank, I can have pictures of ours with measurements on site by the end of the day.

EDIT: I have just found out that the Ecto-1 is in fact back at Sony. However, instead of sitting on the backlot bearing the elements, it is now on Sony's "Main Street" which is part of the tour. It looks to be parked right near the gift shop.

Also, I will post pictures of the A-6 tanks when I can. I don't have immediate access to them and I need to wait until a group member is able to take the pictures.
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