Thread: Car to Space Ship

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Yesterday I saw that BIG LOTS! has gray car covers in this week's ad ($20 & $25 depending on material). Has anyone used a car cover before to convert their car into something else for your haunt?

At least one of our cars is typically sitting outside in the driveway at Halloween and I've wondered about maybe turning one of them into something that could be tied to my haunt theme. I have two space helmets (Star Wars Baba Feit toy helmets) that gave me the idea to turn a car into a 2-person space ship that has been drifting in space for some time. I'm hoping I can add on shaped foam pieces to the cover to form the ship's fins and other distinctive outer components. A cut out for the ship's window area would let me dimmly light the car's interior and make the skeleton pilot and co-pilot visible to TOTers walking past it.

I'm going see if I can find one and pick it up today. Quantities are limited in the stores (it's an in store only item) so I hope I get lucky. If I do, I'd love to get feedback from you guys on how to attach the foam, paint the "ship" with decals etc. I think it could turn out pretty cool.

That's a great idea, Spookie! I never would have thought of doing that.

OK managed to hit two Big Lots today. Found one cover in a size that I hope will work for my car. I wanted the XXL size for extra room for padding if I needed to add any to the design, but they only had the L and LX size in stock. The LX should just fit, so I'm a bit nervous until I know for sure. It's a Premium cover in a thin but solid (non-transparent) looking fabric, kind of a silver gray aluminium color with a sheen, $25. Rocket material I hope! They had a cheaper $20 Deluxe cover in an XXL (larger than listed on web page) but the material was cheesy and a darker gray. I think the Premium cover will be easier to find in a coordinating spray paint color and thought the Premium material would be a better surface to paint and glue on to. I found the Deluxe cover was more transparent and wasn't sure it would look as good.

Will post pics soon of the cover I bought.

I'll have to start thinking about a space shuttle design now.

Maybe add some rope lights and other doo-dads to make it look "spacier"

It CAN be done. This thing below was actually a PT Cruiser with a bunch of DIY panels thrown on.


I have never had this issue, because my car fits my displays well enough, but if that is not the route you end up taking (I suppose maybe your yard is space themed?) you can always just have the skeletons sitting in the seats/hanging out the windows and kind of creep it up with those sticky blood-drip window clings.

OMG The Dullahan, that is outstanding. Wow. And to think what's underneath is a PTCruiser. Thanks for posting the inspiration. The kids in your area must have flipped over your car transformation. I'm pretty psyched to see what I can do with the space ship idea. One of my haunt themes has to do with a military base that found an extraterrestrial that spread a zombie contageon among the base and townsfolk. So the car/space shuttle would tie into the other world theme that way.

I went to another BL last night and found a XXL Premium cover so feel better knowing I definitely have a cover to fit my car between the two I picked up. The weather here was nice but is turning cold with chance of rain so I'm hoping it will warm enough to get the car washed and try on the covers by next week. Want to take several photos of the car with the cover on to do some initial drawings for the space ship.

What did you use to make your panels? And how did you attach them together? I'm thinking this will be the biggest challenge.

I'm going to explore using small diameter sonotubes (concrete form cylinders--available at Home Depot etc if unfamiliar) or PVC possibly for the booster tanks or weapon tubes. Want to attach after burners to the trunk maybe. It would be cool to add some kind of grating over the burner ports and have lighting inside simulating heat. Figured I could run a fogger underneath the car. Maybe low lying fog would look cool coming out of the after burners as well. Hope I can locate our old Gravis gaming steering wheel to add as the ships steering (better than a car's steering wheel) or make one out of pipe insulating material. I have a few interior/exterior LED light tubes that run off the car battery that might do the trick for supplemental lighting in the cockpit or under the ship.

I don't have a lot of time to work on this concept right now but welcome suggestions. I'll come back and post a photo of the cover material so you guys have an idea what I have to work with.