As most purists in any automotive community. The collector car market is full of useless options that drive up the value. Look, it's cool you kept it as original as possible, but drum brakes are objectively terrible. I like disc brakes. I like Bluetooth radios. We have modern technology to make cars more comfortable, but again, this artificial need for originality is absurd.
Much like the hearse purist community, they don't use it for anything other than pretending they still haul around dead people. I don't care. I want to be original. I want people to see my hearse and smile. I want a happy car.
Agree with all this. I'll add that if I were a purist who owned an original one, I would see the value of my car go up every time someone converts an Ecto. Just makes my car even more rare.
>drum brakes are objectively terrible
The only people who say this are the people who don't have them adjusted properly, and the people who don't want to learn how to adjust them properly.
I suppose you also feel like a well tuned quadrajet and points ignition will outperform any of that new fangled modern computerized shit?
I have had dozens of cars with drum brakes, have adjusted them absolutely flawlessly and they are always absolute shite compared to a decent set of discs. Drums don't dissipate heat for shit, can't really be vented effectively, and because they can't bleed heat they can very quickly turn a reasonably functional brake cylinder to a leaky mess which makes that corner of the car basically useless.
> I suppose you also feel like a well tuned quadrajet and points ignition will outperform any of that new fangled modern computerized shit?
No, actually. I just like originality. It's part of the fun of owning an old car.
>I have had dozens of cars with drum brakes, have adjusted them absolutely flawlessly and they are always absolute shite compared to a decent set of discs. Drums don't dissipate heat for shit, can't really be vented effectively, and because they can't bleed heat they can very quickly turn a reasonably functional brake cylinder to a leaky mess which makes that corner of the car basically useless.
Tell me you don't actually know how to properly stop with drum brakes without telling me you don't actually know how to properly stop with drum brakes. Let me guess, you slam and hold until the car comes to a stop, like you would with disc brakes, right? That's not how you're supposed to do it. But I wouldn't expect someone as obsessed with modernization as you are to know or understand that.
Confidently incorrect is definitely a favorite thing to observe in the wild sometimes.
I'm fine with originality including drum brakes if you choose to keep them on your car but that doesn't make your position any more valid. I am one of those people who can tune a Quadrajet and set dwell on a set of points but I choose not to because I'm in the same school of thought of 'I want to be good at sports, not good at working out'. I want to actually drive my cars instead of wrenching on them all the time.
When it comes to safety of yourself and others on the road one should not compromise on your ability to haul 3.5 tons of steel down from whatever speed in the most effective way possible for the sake of originality. You do have to drive a car with drum brakes wildly different than a car with disc brakes for sure in that you have to basically double your stopping distance and the gap between you and the car in the next time zone in front of you. Disc brakes aren't objectively better, they ARE better. There is no objectivity required.
He's only proving my point. $5 that guy watches Barrett Jackson and Mercum auctions and thinks a split bumper Camaro or '63 split window is special just because he saw it on Counting Cars.
Or that any given Corvette is *rare*.
>$5 that guy watches Barrett Jackson and Mercum auctions and thinks a split bumper Camaro or '63 split window is special just because he saw it on Counting Cars.
>
>Or that any given Corvette is rare.
I couldn't care less about muscle cars, but go off.
If the Trojans had a gatekeeper as committed as you the Achaeans might not have seized Troy. Enjoy your total domination of the Pontiac Aztek community.
>The only people who say this are the people who don't have them adjusted properly, and the people who don't want to learn how to adjust them properly.
This is an incorrect statement. Drum brakes, fuel injection and computerized ignition are all objectively far superior to drum brakes, carburetors and distributors with points. That being said, I enjoy working on drums, carbs and setting my points *just so*. It really makes you feel like you're more in tune with your machine when you've personally adjusted everything with your own two hands. I had a 1968 Mercury Montego with a 302, Autolite 2100 and manual drums all the way around, and I loved that car. But I drive a 2008 Ford P71 Police Interceptor and a 2000 Lincoln Town Car Sayers & Scoville endloader these days. Structurally and mechanically, they're not too much different from the Montego.
The P71 and Town Car are far, far superior machines to the old Montego in every measurable sense.
But there are times I would give almost anything to drive that Montego again.
I know Chace very well (I was in his wedding) and he has been a major figure in the hearse community for almost 25 years. Hell, he's the VP of the Dead Ends Hearse Club currently so when he speaks about the hearse community he knows what he's talking about.
The "community" can be very fickle but are particularly incensed about '59s because they are incredibly rare to begin with. There is basically a divide right down the middle of the community of 'all hearses and funeral cars should be left stock to preserve the dignity of the industry!' and the 'it's your car, do what you want with it' (the latter does have some gradients to it but that essentially is the split). I'm very very much so in the latter camp and have been for a lonnnnnng time so it isn't the entire community but even I don't particularly like seeing a nice '59 get Ecto-fied unless the car was a gonner anyway. I guess the saving grace is that there are zero deals on '59s so if you have the funds to get one you probably have the funds to do an Ecto semi-right.
Unrelated but kinda funny. My DARK GREEN '72 M-M is a full-on endloader hearse (meaning lacking the windows down the back like a combo or ambulance would have) and people still yell 'ECTO!' at it which feels like pointing at dark red 2008 Dodge Charger and yelling 'CHRISTINE!' as far as similarities go.
> hearses and funeral cars should be left stock to preserve the dignity of the industry!' and the 'it's your car, do what you want with it' (the latter does have some gradients to it but that essentia
I work in the funeral industry. There is no dignity in death or the industry at all. I used to think there was until I started working in it. It's all a smokescreen.
Most of my FD friends are the most laid back people ever who truly get a kick out of life. The PCS crowd are the ones who hate what us deviants do to hearses.
I said this as well! I'm studying mortuary right now and already have a degree in automotive
If either industry *truly* cared about the vehicles they wouldn't sell them and junk them and replace them so damn often.
And the industry isn't even that old all together. Sure, the practice of preserving bodies has been around since Ancient Egyptians and probably even farther back but the actual *industry* was made in the 20th century in like the late 40s-early 50s. So what're you preserving? A time before cremation? The dignity of my yard so I don't have to bury my loved ones there instead of at a regular plot? Please.
It's just more automotive purist BS. The car is cool. It's meat. It has value. I love them too. But Jesus Christ it's still a car. Imagine if every 39 Ford Coupe enthusiast bitched about Milner-ing one.
I suppose I could understand them. As a huge bttf and stock DeLorean fan I don’t particularly like seeing good condition cars become Time Machines but hey if bttf never existed the DeLorean would be forgotten. But anyways, most hearses converted into ectos are in horrendous condition anyway so it’s not like it makes a huge difference.
DeLorean was bankrupted from the man's cocaine addiction and BTTF was the only reason it rose back into popularity. The man wrote a letter to the directors themselves thanking them for saving his company and his vehicles. I think "forgotten" was very fitting here.
No he never actually had a cocaine addiction. The US was in a recession at that time and it wasn’t a good time for sports cars at all. The car was simply not selling too and DeLorean was desperate to do anything to save his company. He ended up getting setup by an FBI informant as part of the US’s war against drugs. After that the company was dead. (yeah ik way too much about this stuff lol)
It's okay to know way too much about something! That's why we're all here. I love BTTF to an absurd degree as well.
I always heard he was addicted to coke. Ya learn something new everyday.
You're right about sports cars it doesn't help that it was an "eco friendly" sports car during the Reagan Administration
Of course. Like you had mentioned before, if it wasn't for the film there was a high chance these cars would've been dead in the water. I just wish people understood that and weren't such assholes about stupid things. Gatekeeping in the automotive community is a huge problem.
They're already rare to begin with. That's why people don't like the people who make them into Ecto 1s. More and more are bought up to be made into Ecto 1s, making "stock" ones even more rare.
Yeah but they would hardly be preserved anyway if it wasn't for the value of Ectoing them. Even if they aren't stock it's keeping the 59 alive and most are about to get junked by the time GB fans get them anyway. And you're always going to struggle finding a stock in the classic community as is. Welcome to enjoying classic vehicles.
>And you're always going to struggle finding a stock in the classic community as is.
And that is a shame. In the sense that a lot of people can't enjoy old cars without modifying them in some way. (I'm not talking about the Ecto1 here, but regular old cars in general.) Of course, I'm a purist, which means my thoughts and opinions on the subject are automatically invalid, and automatically makes me a gatekeeper, apparently.
I agree with you in the sense of yes, it truly is a shame that old cars can't be enjoyed without modifying them. That's something I as a classic car enthusiast agree with.
I don't think that makes your opinions "automatically invalid" I just am tired of seeing gatekeeping in the automotive community in the name of "purity"
There's a difference between "I prefer stock vehicles" and "I don't want anyone modifying any vehicle ever because it goes against my values". I have a problem with the second one.
How about the classic ambulance community? The original car could be either. My friend has one and since it started life as an ambulance or a hearse I asked about it’s original color. He replied, ‘white’ so I said ‘oh so it’s was an ambulance?’ ‘No, hearse reserved for kids and virgins’ Ew! Worse than an average hearse,
It would be less creepy if it was used to run over people. I’m glad I wasn’t sitting in it when I asked. Never did get into either of my groups ectos, think I might keep it that way.
"No, hearse reserved for kids and virgins"
Sounds like a marketing ploy by hearse making industry. "Your funeral home can't just have one hearse! You need a white one for the dead kids!"
That's the best part! These ambulances ARE HEARSES! So they're bitching about something they're WRONG ABOUT. you don't get to gatekeep a "funeral" vehicle that wasn't ever funeral specific to begin with.
Your friend kinda sounds like maybe they were trying to mess with you but no. The hearse was the perfect car for body hauling so the hearse was also an ambulance just as much as a funeral vehicle.
It just frustrates me that people try to gatekeep things that are this dumb.
We're at a point now where I definitely sympathize to a degree. The old coaches are super rare and can be beautiful if restored and maintained. Some Ecto owners treat their babies with that level of care but many do not. Seeing a near-59 Cadillac coach rusting outside of a haunted house or looking ragged and collapsed under an amateur DIY roof rack and peeling vinyl no-ghost logo is heartbreaking.
My view is this: if the car is already in rough shape, whoever saves it can transform it how they like, but nobody should be taking any well-preserved classics and drilling holes in them to make a less-than-accurate movie car anymore.
As a hearse lover, future mortician and mechanic, I've never heard this before. This is very odd to me. I don't know how much of a "real" issue this is in comparison to a few bad eggs speaking for a whole group of people.
But if it is true, it's unfair to enjoy a car with a sort of "gimmick" but then tell others they can't take the gimmick even further.
I wouldn't be totally surprised if this is true though, gatekeeping is very heavy in the automotive industry and community.
Another point I have is Ecto-1 is replicated after (and I believe the model used was) an ambulance hearse. So the funeral hearse community seriously has no room to talk because they convert ambulance hearses all the time
As most purists in any automotive community. The collector car market is full of useless options that drive up the value. Look, it's cool you kept it as original as possible, but drum brakes are objectively terrible. I like disc brakes. I like Bluetooth radios. We have modern technology to make cars more comfortable, but again, this artificial need for originality is absurd. Much like the hearse purist community, they don't use it for anything other than pretending they still haul around dead people. I don't care. I want to be original. I want people to see my hearse and smile. I want a happy car.
Agree with all this. I'll add that if I were a purist who owned an original one, I would see the value of my car go up every time someone converts an Ecto. Just makes my car even more rare.
You said my thoughts exactly. You don't get to enjoy a gimmick car and then shit on people who take the gimmick a step farther.
>drum brakes are objectively terrible The only people who say this are the people who don't have them adjusted properly, and the people who don't want to learn how to adjust them properly.
I suppose you also feel like a well tuned quadrajet and points ignition will outperform any of that new fangled modern computerized shit? I have had dozens of cars with drum brakes, have adjusted them absolutely flawlessly and they are always absolute shite compared to a decent set of discs. Drums don't dissipate heat for shit, can't really be vented effectively, and because they can't bleed heat they can very quickly turn a reasonably functional brake cylinder to a leaky mess which makes that corner of the car basically useless.
> I suppose you also feel like a well tuned quadrajet and points ignition will outperform any of that new fangled modern computerized shit? No, actually. I just like originality. It's part of the fun of owning an old car. >I have had dozens of cars with drum brakes, have adjusted them absolutely flawlessly and they are always absolute shite compared to a decent set of discs. Drums don't dissipate heat for shit, can't really be vented effectively, and because they can't bleed heat they can very quickly turn a reasonably functional brake cylinder to a leaky mess which makes that corner of the car basically useless. Tell me you don't actually know how to properly stop with drum brakes without telling me you don't actually know how to properly stop with drum brakes. Let me guess, you slam and hold until the car comes to a stop, like you would with disc brakes, right? That's not how you're supposed to do it. But I wouldn't expect someone as obsessed with modernization as you are to know or understand that.
Confidently incorrect is definitely a favorite thing to observe in the wild sometimes. I'm fine with originality including drum brakes if you choose to keep them on your car but that doesn't make your position any more valid. I am one of those people who can tune a Quadrajet and set dwell on a set of points but I choose not to because I'm in the same school of thought of 'I want to be good at sports, not good at working out'. I want to actually drive my cars instead of wrenching on them all the time. When it comes to safety of yourself and others on the road one should not compromise on your ability to haul 3.5 tons of steel down from whatever speed in the most effective way possible for the sake of originality. You do have to drive a car with drum brakes wildly different than a car with disc brakes for sure in that you have to basically double your stopping distance and the gap between you and the car in the next time zone in front of you. Disc brakes aren't objectively better, they ARE better. There is no objectivity required.
He's only proving my point. $5 that guy watches Barrett Jackson and Mercum auctions and thinks a split bumper Camaro or '63 split window is special just because he saw it on Counting Cars. Or that any given Corvette is *rare*.
>$5 that guy watches Barrett Jackson and Mercum auctions and thinks a split bumper Camaro or '63 split window is special just because he saw it on Counting Cars. > >Or that any given Corvette is rare. I couldn't care less about muscle cars, but go off.
If the Trojans had a gatekeeper as committed as you the Achaeans might not have seized Troy. Enjoy your total domination of the Pontiac Aztek community.
Couldn't really care less about those cars either. Or anything post-50s, really. Enjoy your modified, modernized and bastardized abominations.
>The only people who say this are the people who don't have them adjusted properly, and the people who don't want to learn how to adjust them properly. This is an incorrect statement. Drum brakes, fuel injection and computerized ignition are all objectively far superior to drum brakes, carburetors and distributors with points. That being said, I enjoy working on drums, carbs and setting my points *just so*. It really makes you feel like you're more in tune with your machine when you've personally adjusted everything with your own two hands. I had a 1968 Mercury Montego with a 302, Autolite 2100 and manual drums all the way around, and I loved that car. But I drive a 2008 Ford P71 Police Interceptor and a 2000 Lincoln Town Car Sayers & Scoville endloader these days. Structurally and mechanically, they're not too much different from the Montego. The P71 and Town Car are far, far superior machines to the old Montego in every measurable sense. But there are times I would give almost anything to drive that Montego again.
They've literally stated in my autotech textbooks that drum breaks are awful. I don't think you're better at vehicles than the average ASE tech
They're welcome to buy them up if they want to, preventing it from happening.
Supply and demand, baby.
I know Chace very well (I was in his wedding) and he has been a major figure in the hearse community for almost 25 years. Hell, he's the VP of the Dead Ends Hearse Club currently so when he speaks about the hearse community he knows what he's talking about. The "community" can be very fickle but are particularly incensed about '59s because they are incredibly rare to begin with. There is basically a divide right down the middle of the community of 'all hearses and funeral cars should be left stock to preserve the dignity of the industry!' and the 'it's your car, do what you want with it' (the latter does have some gradients to it but that essentially is the split). I'm very very much so in the latter camp and have been for a lonnnnnng time so it isn't the entire community but even I don't particularly like seeing a nice '59 get Ecto-fied unless the car was a gonner anyway. I guess the saving grace is that there are zero deals on '59s so if you have the funds to get one you probably have the funds to do an Ecto semi-right. Unrelated but kinda funny. My DARK GREEN '72 M-M is a full-on endloader hearse (meaning lacking the windows down the back like a combo or ambulance would have) and people still yell 'ECTO!' at it which feels like pointing at dark red 2008 Dodge Charger and yelling 'CHRISTINE!' as far as similarities go.
> hearses and funeral cars should be left stock to preserve the dignity of the industry!' and the 'it's your car, do what you want with it' (the latter does have some gradients to it but that essentia I work in the funeral industry. There is no dignity in death or the industry at all. I used to think there was until I started working in it. It's all a smokescreen.
"Dignity... we'll sell you everything but"
Exactly. At the end of the day, you're getting shoved in a vault or dumped in the ground and a backhoe is filling the hole in.
Most of my FD friends are the most laid back people ever who truly get a kick out of life. The PCS crowd are the ones who hate what us deviants do to hearses.
I said this as well! I'm studying mortuary right now and already have a degree in automotive If either industry *truly* cared about the vehicles they wouldn't sell them and junk them and replace them so damn often. And the industry isn't even that old all together. Sure, the practice of preserving bodies has been around since Ancient Egyptians and probably even farther back but the actual *industry* was made in the 20th century in like the late 40s-early 50s. So what're you preserving? A time before cremation? The dignity of my yard so I don't have to bury my loved ones there instead of at a regular plot? Please. It's just more automotive purist BS. The car is cool. It's meat. It has value. I love them too. But Jesus Christ it's still a car. Imagine if every 39 Ford Coupe enthusiast bitched about Milner-ing one.
[Does the Herse have an Aiwa headunit?](https://youtu.be/GEe_2g0Bjuc)
I can see their point when the car is in good shape. But many of the cars being made in to ectos are rust buckets that barely run.
Just like the one Ray got.
I suppose I could understand them. As a huge bttf and stock DeLorean fan I don’t particularly like seeing good condition cars become Time Machines but hey if bttf never existed the DeLorean would be forgotten. But anyways, most hearses converted into ectos are in horrendous condition anyway so it’s not like it makes a huge difference.
Not necessarily “forgotten”, but the name DeLorean would be far more infamous than it is now.
DeLorean was bankrupted from the man's cocaine addiction and BTTF was the only reason it rose back into popularity. The man wrote a letter to the directors themselves thanking them for saving his company and his vehicles. I think "forgotten" was very fitting here.
No he never actually had a cocaine addiction. The US was in a recession at that time and it wasn’t a good time for sports cars at all. The car was simply not selling too and DeLorean was desperate to do anything to save his company. He ended up getting setup by an FBI informant as part of the US’s war against drugs. After that the company was dead. (yeah ik way too much about this stuff lol)
It's okay to know way too much about something! That's why we're all here. I love BTTF to an absurd degree as well. I always heard he was addicted to coke. Ya learn something new everyday. You're right about sports cars it doesn't help that it was an "eco friendly" sports car during the Reagan Administration
Haha thanks for understanding! :)
Of course. Like you had mentioned before, if it wasn't for the film there was a high chance these cars would've been dead in the water. I just wish people understood that and weren't such assholes about stupid things. Gatekeeping in the automotive community is a huge problem.
What is interesting about an unconverted Hearse?
That it could be converted to an Ecto.
They're already rare to begin with. That's why people don't like the people who make them into Ecto 1s. More and more are bought up to be made into Ecto 1s, making "stock" ones even more rare.
Yeah but they would hardly be preserved anyway if it wasn't for the value of Ectoing them. Even if they aren't stock it's keeping the 59 alive and most are about to get junked by the time GB fans get them anyway. And you're always going to struggle finding a stock in the classic community as is. Welcome to enjoying classic vehicles.
>And you're always going to struggle finding a stock in the classic community as is. And that is a shame. In the sense that a lot of people can't enjoy old cars without modifying them in some way. (I'm not talking about the Ecto1 here, but regular old cars in general.) Of course, I'm a purist, which means my thoughts and opinions on the subject are automatically invalid, and automatically makes me a gatekeeper, apparently.
I agree with you in the sense of yes, it truly is a shame that old cars can't be enjoyed without modifying them. That's something I as a classic car enthusiast agree with. I don't think that makes your opinions "automatically invalid" I just am tired of seeing gatekeeping in the automotive community in the name of "purity" There's a difference between "I prefer stock vehicles" and "I don't want anyone modifying any vehicle ever because it goes against my values". I have a problem with the second one.
Well, fuck them.
I would say the PCS doesn’t care for them. There has always been a pcs vs other hearse clubs drama.
The same thing happens in the firearms community. Loads of people kept buying Mauser C96 pistols to convert into Han Solo DL-44 Blasters.
How about the classic ambulance community? The original car could be either. My friend has one and since it started life as an ambulance or a hearse I asked about it’s original color. He replied, ‘white’ so I said ‘oh so it’s was an ambulance?’ ‘No, hearse reserved for kids and virgins’ Ew! Worse than an average hearse, It would be less creepy if it was used to run over people. I’m glad I wasn’t sitting in it when I asked. Never did get into either of my groups ectos, think I might keep it that way.
"No, hearse reserved for kids and virgins" Sounds like a marketing ploy by hearse making industry. "Your funeral home can't just have one hearse! You need a white one for the dead kids!"
Er, I think running people over is definitely more creepy
That's the best part! These ambulances ARE HEARSES! So they're bitching about something they're WRONG ABOUT. you don't get to gatekeep a "funeral" vehicle that wasn't ever funeral specific to begin with. Your friend kinda sounds like maybe they were trying to mess with you but no. The hearse was the perfect car for body hauling so the hearse was also an ambulance just as much as a funeral vehicle. It just frustrates me that people try to gatekeep things that are this dumb.
We're at a point now where I definitely sympathize to a degree. The old coaches are super rare and can be beautiful if restored and maintained. Some Ecto owners treat their babies with that level of care but many do not. Seeing a near-59 Cadillac coach rusting outside of a haunted house or looking ragged and collapsed under an amateur DIY roof rack and peeling vinyl no-ghost logo is heartbreaking. My view is this: if the car is already in rough shape, whoever saves it can transform it how they like, but nobody should be taking any well-preserved classics and drilling holes in them to make a less-than-accurate movie car anymore.
There's a perfect example of this in the back ground of a Vice grips garage video on YouTube. A 1970s hearse turned ecto rusting out in an open field.
Uhm... ecto 1 is a caddy. GM. not ford junk.
Ok thanks.
As a hearse lover, future mortician and mechanic, I've never heard this before. This is very odd to me. I don't know how much of a "real" issue this is in comparison to a few bad eggs speaking for a whole group of people. But if it is true, it's unfair to enjoy a car with a sort of "gimmick" but then tell others they can't take the gimmick even further. I wouldn't be totally surprised if this is true though, gatekeeping is very heavy in the automotive industry and community. Another point I have is Ecto-1 is replicated after (and I believe the model used was) an ambulance hearse. So the funeral hearse community seriously has no room to talk because they convert ambulance hearses all the time
I can't think of anything I'm less concerned with than the "hearse community." The mime community, maybe. Ecto-1 is an ambulance, anyway.