1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Longroof Limo

[Joe Handley]

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about since 2017 and finally decided to get going on it!  I’m taking one of Round 2’s reissues of the AMT/ERTL  Ecto-1a kit and making a long roofed limo out of it, mixing interior and a few chrome parts from this kit and a Revell ‘59 Eldorado Hardtop kit with a crunched roof.

Already smoothed the roof, adapted the tires and caps from the Revell kit  and started hopping up the ambulance kit tub to start adapting the floor and seats from the Eldo kit for the back.

[Cool Hand]

Pretty cool idea, something different other than the usual Ecto or hearse.

Sometimes the ideas cant wait and need to stray from other builds to suss out fresh idea's. Happens to me all the time LOL!

Edited February 4, 2022 by Cool Hand

[Joe Handley]

Thanks Luke, it's inspired by this beauty right here, called the Thundertaker.

 

The far back seat is the part I'm trying to figure out , so I'm happy to have this as a reference photo!

[Joe Handley]

Been spending the evening working on the interior. Still have a lot of styrene to cut and fit, but here’s how it looks right now the the Revell Eldo kit’s seats back in the body compartment, with and without the body on the interior and chassis.

[Joe Handley]

A few more pics, modified the door panels from the hardtop to fit the back of the car, still need to mount the side panels and the surrounds in what is now the cargo area.

[Joe Handley]

I’m a bit further along on the interior, the floor pieces are assembled and there are some .060” tub sides, I’m still needing to enclose the rear tires behind the back seat and make some sort of driveshaft tunnel between the back seats.

 

Quick Edit, Guess I forgot to add the pics last night

Edited February 6, 2022 by Joe Handley

[Joe Handley]

Got more work done on the interior tub, the floors are bonded to the remaining parts of the tub and the new side panels, added the wheelhouse covers in the cargo area, and have the back seat fit to where it just snaps in without tape, for the time being too. I’m debating on how I want to make the driveshaft tunnel, thinking about a couple sheets of .080” cut to fit that hole in the floor to clear the chassis then stacked, bonded, and smoothed into a hump before being attached to the floor.  Had to modify the Eldo door panels by grinding them to clear the back seat, though I’m wondering if just scratch building those panels too might be better at this point……any suggestions there would be welcome too!

 

[David G.]

You certainly have my attention, amazing work so far!

For a few years I've been working on converting the Ecto-1A back into a hearse. It's been a long and difficult road, you've made astounding progress on yours.

David G.

[Joe Handley]

1 hour ago, David G. said:

You certainly have my attention, amazing work so far!

For a few years I've been working on converting the Ecto-1A back into a hearse. It's been a long and difficult road, you've made astounding progress on yours.

David G.

Thank You David, I've been plugging away at as much as possible from the time I grabbed the kit out of one of my stashes here at home last week  and have been trying to maintain momentum on it since I've been knows to kind let projects fall off the map, either via a something new and shiny to work on, or winter weather making it difficult to do the paint work outside......like everything else I've posted in the last few weeks......

That said, with it being winter here in Chicago, there's not much to do outside either other than clearing snow and trying not to freeze

[Cool Hand]

Progressing well on the interior, starting to take shape. Keep at it.

[Joe Handley]

39 minutes ago, Cool Hand said:

Progressing well on the interior, starting to take shape. Keep at it.

Thanks Luke!

 

[Bainford]

Interesting project. It's coming along nicely. That's a lot of plastic to wrestle with.

[Joe Handley]

Thanks Trevor and you're right, it is a lot of plastic, but these are a lot of car in any scale too.  I never had a frame of reference on how big they were until I saw a HotWheels 1/43 Ecto-1 diecast sitting next to one of their 1/43 A-Team Vans from their TV and Movie Car line some years back.  When I was growing up, we had 2 CHevrolet G20 Beauville window vans that were the Chevy passenger version of the GMC van that was used for B.A. Barackas' van, with the 1st being bought when I was 2y/o in '78 then that one being traded in on a nearly identical '87 that year and was eventually scrapped in '06.  Having those vans as a size reference, I was surprised to see that the 1/43 Ecto-1 was almost an inch longer than the 1/43 A-Team Van and about as tall once all the roof mounted equipment was taken into acct as well!  From what I've been able to find in the last few days, these hearse/ambulance combination vehicles were 7000lbs+, I think the G-Vans we had were each maybe 5000lbs or less!

[cobraman]

Cool project and coming along nicely.

[Joe Handley]

16 minutes ago, cobraman said:

Cool project and coming along nicely.

Thanks Ray!

[Joe Handley]

Ok, the tub is more fleshed out, made the driveshaft hump and taped that in folate for now, also started making my own door cards and will blend them into the tub sides  once I get those closer to done.

[David G.]

Great progress on this Joe!

It's gonna be awesome when it's done.

David G.

[Spottedlaurel]

Great to see your progress on this. What a useful thing it would be at 1:1, ideal for carrying lots of people and 'stuff'.

Your work here is much more thorough then my Ecto to hearse conversion.

[Joe Handley]

1 hour ago, David G. said:

Great progress on this Joe!

It's gonna be awesome when it's done.

David G.

Thanks David, once this one is primer ready, I think I'm going to dig out my second kit and make it as Dan Aykroyd had originally intended for the movie, but wouldn't work due to all the night scene.  Apparently it was to Black and Purple with Black Lights being used for the emergency vehicle lights instead of the White and Red with Blue Lights on the cars in the movies.  Here's the only renderings based on what Aykroyd has said that people have made for that that I can find though.

1 hour ago, Spottedlaurel said:

Great to see your progress on this. What a useful thing it would be at 1:1, ideal for carrying lots of people and 'stuff'.

Your work here is much more thorough then my Ecto to hearse conversion.

I was thinking that having an Ecto-1 that looked like the original movie car on the outside, but fitted out on the inside like I'm trying to do here would have been a great movie premier limo if there had been the opportunity to have one.  Load up the remaining guys from the original movie and the kids from Afterlife and use it to roll them up to the red carpet, though even what I'm building here and/or the Thundetaker I posted a few days ago would be good for that too, plus the Thundertaker actually exists!

[Cool Hand]

Nice work on the interior Joe, just needs a doof doof system in the back, couple subs and amps. Maybe even a tv as a partition wall from the driver.

Aykroyd version looks gangsta with the black and purple, makes me think Nissan midnight purple for some reason. 

Keep at it.

Edited February 9, 2022 by Cool Hand

[bisc63]

Really fun build going on here! I like what you're doing, and I LOVE the idea of the Akroyd concept. I had never heard of that, but I can see that looking all kinds of cool!

Edited February 10, 2022 by bisc63
typo

[Rob Hall]

Very cool idea and execution so far..

[Joe Handley]

55 minutes ago, bisc63 said:

Really fun build going on here! I like what you're doing, and I LOVE the idea of the Akroyd concept. I had never heard of that, but I can see that looking all kinds of cool!

This is where I saw it at, it’s from when the Ecto-1 was restored for the video game that came out some years back.

 

[Joe Handley]

46 minutes ago, Rob Hall said:

Very cool idea and execution so far..

Thanks!

[Joe Handley]

15 hours ago, Cool Hand said:

Nice work on the interior Joe, just needs a doof doof system in the back, couple subs and amps. Maybe even a tv as a partition wall from the driver.

Aykroyd version looks gangsta with the black and purple, makes me think Nissan midnight purple for some reason. 

Keep at it.

Funny you mentioned Midnight Purple, I keep thinking a color like that would look good against black on the Aykroyd 1st Draft car, especially in the areas that are red on the movie cars.  I have no idea what I’m going to paint the Limo though, since that is A LOT of car and I want to keep it classy like a “Professional Car” like a hearse, limo, flower car, ETC should be, but I don’t want to riff that much off the Thundertaker and paint it silver either.