The build
“Whoa. It has a gunner seat?”
Of all the new gadgets introduced in the 2021 Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie, I think we all would agree the Gunner Seat is the most incredible. We decided we just had to have one on our Afterlife Ecto-1. After a year of research into the suicide door and gunner seat used on the movie cars, we started the project.
At FanExpo 2024
Phoebe approved!
We had the opportunity to have Phoebe (McKenna Grace) sit in our newly completed gunner seat at FanExpo. She was so amazing and spent time at both the local Ghostbusters franchises’ tables and our car.
Step 1
The suicide door
The first major hurdle was the reverse (suicide) door. This is way more complex than any of us thought: taking a factory door, making it open from the opposite side, and swinging it back to 180 degrees. Normal doors swing 45 degrees at most.
That means moving the hinge point to the opposite side of the door, to a location not designed to handle the weight, not to mention a door frame with nowhere to attach it.
Step 2
The door frame
After measuring, staring at it, remeasuring, staring at it, and measuring again, we started cutting into the door frame to see what was behind the metal. Surprisingly, we found lots of great steel inside the door frame for attachment points.
We scrapped the idea of fabricating a hinge system from scratch and opted for a third-door hinge set from a 2010 Chevy 1500, a solution recommended by friends on Facebook. After buying a used hinge on eBay, my fabricator built a 2-piece mounting system for the hinges to mount inside the fender. Luckily we had several places with steel to weld the bracket to. Once the hinges were attached, we moved on to the door and the “pocket.”
Step 3
The pocket
Interestingly enough, you need a lot of room for hinges in a door. I mean a lot! Especially for a hinge designed to swing 180 degrees. So my fabricator came up with a pocket design to move the hinges deeper inside the door, accommodating the extra depth of the hinges and pushing the pivot point closer to the door edge.
After attaching the pocket we found the metal on the end of the door was very thin, so it needed more inner support to keep the pocket from flexing. The fabricator added a U-shaped internal support above the pocket. Between this and welding the pocket completely to the door, the flex was virtually eliminated.
Step 4
The swing
I cannot tell you how many times I removed the door from the pocket or the hinges from the door frame. Each time, after shimming and adjusting to raise, lower, or push the door in or out, it would still be far from hanging or swinging correctly.
Finally I started making very small changes to specific attachment points, and we started making progress. After 5 weekends of work, we finally had the door swinging properly and hanging straight.
Step 5
The cage
I spent many hours researching the gunner seat, both the movie cars and the amazing version built by a Ghostbusters Germany member. It’s hard to find source material for the actual gunner seat; the few photos are mostly from the front or side. The most iconic parts are the “cage” around the modified pack and the “arm” used to deploy and stow the seat.
The cage scaled out to 1/2″ perforated steel sheet and 3/4″ angle steel. Not having welding equipment or the skill set, I opted for aluminum: it weighs less and is much more forgiving. I riveted the cage together and finished it in a day.
Step 6
The seat
The rails are mounted, and so is the seat! Everything is functional and you can sit in it. It still needs some tweaking: it feels a little too high, and the center of gravity is a bit far back. Then it’s on to weathering the pack and seat and adding greeblies to complete the look.
Step 7
The arm
In the movie, the gunner seat arm is used to open the suicide door, swing the seat out, and rotate it to face forward or backward. I used photos of the movie seat arm to scale out the size.
Video
Gunner seat progress
A quick inside look at the gunner seat progress.
Gunner seat
More behind the scenes of our gunner seat.
From the movie
A clip from Ghostbusters: Afterlife shows the gunner seat in action.