 Project: K.I.T.T. is the restoration & conversion of a 1983 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am into Knight Rider's KITT |
Project: K.I.T.T. Blog
KITT Turns 35 Today! Happy Birthday Buddy!
Knight Rider debuted on September 26, 1982 and introduced KITT to the world!
KITT will always be the original smart car! Happy Birthday Buddy!
Join us tonight in watching the pilot episode "Knight of the Phoenix" in honor of KITT's birthday:
Part 1 http://goo.gl/bmlyhi
Part 2 http://goo.gl/L8AZQi
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Installing KARR's New Gauges
I wanted to give KARR's instrument panel a little more of a Knight Rider look, so I purchased a set of digital Fiero gauges from Tom's Digital Electronics. I had them custom built to look a bit more like the bar graphs seen on Knight Rider. They took six weeks to build, but they arrived a few days ago and I couldn't wait to get them installed. As you can see KARR was just waiting to pull into the garage too!
Here are the current stock Fiero GT gauges.
This is everything included in the Fiero GT digital gauge kit.
The volt meter and oil pressure gauges.
The tachometer
The water temperature and fuel gauges.
The speedometer.
One last look at the stock gauges before tearing them apart.
I started with the volt meter and oil pressure gauge pod.
Comparing the analog versus digital.
I had to remove the stock connector and hard wire the new digital gauges in.
On to the main gauges...
With the main gauge pod removed, I just had to remove the plastic lens and metal fascia to access the stock gauges.
For those of you who have never had the gauge pod apart, the back of the metal fascia is painted orange. This is actually what makes the gauges appear to be lit by orange bulbs. It is just the light reflecting off this panel as it illuminates the gauges.
Comparing the digital and stock analog tachometer.
Comparing the digital and stock analog water temperature and fuel gauges.
Comparing the digital and stock analog speedometer.
Here is the back side of the main gauge pod. I removed the six bulbs that were used to illuminate the analog gauges.
With the gauges installed, I reassembled the pod.
I mounted the gauge pod back into the dash.
The tachometer, water temperature, and fuel gauges all use the stock connectors so there was nothing to wire. The speedometer wires needed to be spliced into the existing speedometer connector which was still needed to power the odometer.
Powering everything up for a test.
After installing the black outs, if they are in direct light, you are just able to see the circuit boards peeking out. I love that look!
When they are not in direct light, they are totally blacked out.
Digital glory! What a transformation!
I am thrilled with the digital gauges! I will be doing a video showing the before and after with the gauges working shortly after this post, so be sure to watch for it.
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Time To Fly The Flag
When Joe Huth, of the Knight Rider Historians, announced that he was making a F.L.A.G. flag...I knew I had to have one! Joe's stuff is always top notch and his attention to the smallest detail means you will end up with the most authentic prop. This flag is the proud symbol of Knight Industries and the Foundation for Law And Government as seen in Knight Rider.
Here is Joe's description:
NOW ACCEPTING ORDERS for the “F.L.A.G. flag”! Modeled after the flag seen flying high above the Foundation for Law and Government in “Goliath Returns”, our large 3’ x 5’ waterproof flag is double-sided and made of a high quality knitted polyester. The back side features the Knight chess piece in reverse. Grommets at all four corners allow you the flexibility to mount it to a flagpole, hang it on a wall, or stretch it between two posts! Perfect for car shows, garages and man caves.We are offering this flag in two color schemes – black graphics/yellow background (similar to the “Goliath Returns” flag) and a more traditional gold graphics/black background. We had a limited run of 100 made (50 of each style), and when they are gone – they are GONE!
I ordered the black and gold color scheme. Mine arrived today and I couldn't wait to get it open!
The quality of this flag is absolutely amazing! I cannot wait to get this hung up in the garage. Thanks Joe!
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It's Unboxing Time!
I couldn't wait to get home today so I could get this bad boy open!
Wait a minute, this isn't a TV!
It's my new, non-defrost, screen-accurate back glass for KITT!
You can see in this picture just how massive this back glass is! It's one of the largest pieces of glass ever used on an automobile. It provides a large amount of structural support for the rear of the car .
Here's where the back glass I bought a few years ago has been sitting. This is the one that was supposed to be scratch-free but came with a large scratch. It also has the rear defrost because I had given up on ever finding a new piece of back glass.
Side by side comparison of the non-defrost glass and the defrost glass.
Defrost glass.
I found one blemish on the new glass, but it turned out to be just some sticky gunk from shipping.
Thanks to my friend Kevin Knight, I was able to find new old stock non-defrost, screen-accurate back glass from Ira Turner with Glass Seekers. He actually had a few available! This is 30+ year old back glass!
New back glass safely stored.
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A Day In The Garage
Sara and I are back to feeling ambitious again so we tackled a bunch of projects this weekend. After church this morning we fixed a rock chip in the windshield of the Freestyle, then rolled KITT out of the garage so he could enjoy the sun.
With KITT out of the garage we swept and vacuumed the tiles on KITT's side of the garage. When we cleaned and restored the tiles last week we couldn't get to this side with KITT in the garage.
Here you can see the scuff marks the auto dollies left on the tiles when we moved KITT the first time after installing the flooring.
We had some bubbling issues in the tile in this corner and needed to remove the shelving so we could get to the problem. We cut the tiles down a little more to allow them room to expand during temperature changes.
We cleaned the tiles in the picture above as well as on KITT's side of the garage. While the cleaner dried, we went to visit our two favorite dogs. While we were visiting Kayser and Knox, Troy left a package for us in front of our garage. When we got back home, we moved it inside the garage. The Freestyle is going to have to sit outside tonight.
Next we applied the restorer to the tiles. Here's KITT enjoying the sun while the restorer dries.
End result:
Scuff marks are gone! Tiles are shiny!
Garage just needs to be put back together...
Now the question is: Once I get it unpacked, what wall should I put my new 75" TV on?
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Shifting Things Back Into Gear
As more and more vendors seem to be leaving the Knight Rider conversion parts scene, I have been keeping my eye out for last chance deals. That's exactly what I was able to score with Billy Chingas's billet aluminum black anodized shifter knob! He has painstakingly recreated the iconic shift knob from the '82 Firebirds, but in aluminum. I managed to get one of the last three he had. :)
It arrived today and I couldn't wait to get it opened!
Everything was well wrapped and protected.
Billy includes everything you will need to install the knob including the drill bits!
Here it is in all its glory! This thing is built like a tank!
I am so glad I was able to snag one of these. It has such a solid feel to it. Thanks Billy!
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Wait, I Never Finished This?!
I decided this weekend to dive back into working on KITT, and realized I never finished the taillight harness. Just for curiosity sake I pulled up the blog post where I started on the taillight harness, and realized it was in July of 2012. That's insane! I really need to get back to work on this project!
I started this weekend by putting a new section of wire loom on the section of the harness I had already cleaned and restored.
With the loom in place, I just had these last two sections to restore.
I started by peeling off the old electrical tape on the junction just before the grommet. You can see how much dirt was still trapped in there.
This plug had a zip tie with a pin style mount. I am not sure if this means the original clip broke off, but I will have to deal with this when it gets reinstalled.
Metal mounting clip -- needs to be cleaned before reattaching.
I removed the smaller loom from the upper section. The wires seemed to be in good shape, just needed to be cleaned.
I decided before I got too far on wrapping the new section I should probably tape off the junctions coming out of the loom on the main section. I bought 3M Super 33+ tape as it is supposed to be the best stuff to use for wiring harnesses. It does not unravel and the adhesive does not get gummy.
I started to peel off the old electrical tape from the remaining section.
That's actually black duct tape on the brown wires. I will definitely have to check this out...
With all the wires uncovered, I hit them with the air compressor to blow all the loose dirt off.
Then I wiped the wires down individually with a Gojo wipe.
I'm not sure why someone used duct tape, but the connection underneath was clean and solid and looked factory. I taped the connection properly and then retaped this section of the harness.
I installed the smaller loom on this upper section.
I taped off the main harness wires and the junction of the upper smaller loom.
Once the loom was properly taped off, I cleaned both of the connections on this side with all-purpose cleaner and a scrub brush, then rinsed and dried them thoroughly.
On the way back out to the garage with the clean harness, our neighbor saw us with it and commented, "Oh, the new wiring harness came in!" I thought that was quite the compliment considering this is a restored original harness.
The next thing that needed to be done was to clean the two side marker light sockets. I used the same vinegar/salt (acidic) solution as before to eat away at any corrosion.
I was able to get both side marker light sockets in the solution at the same time.
While the side marker light sockets soaked in the acidic solution, I used contact cleaner on the two connectors that had not been previously cleaned. Both of these connectors were in great shape to start with.
I followed that up with DeoxIT D5, which is a cleaner and protector for connections.
Once I was done cleaning those connectors, I gave each light socket a bath in the water/baking soda (neutralizer) solution.
Time to reassemble the sockets! I am not adding dielectric grease at this time. I want to do more research to find out how much is necessary. These were packed full and being an insulator, electrically that does not make sense to me.
Final step: adding the foam seals.
Taillight harness has been restored!!
Next up, this bad boy! What is it? Stay tuned to find out!
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New Garage Floor
I had been looking for a way to improve on our cracking and salt-eaten cement garage floor for a while. I saw some Craftsman garage tiles at Sears a couple of years ago, and had been thinking about them ever since. Sears no longer sells the Craftsman tiles I first saw, but I was able to find an online source for PVC garage tiles.
These are twenty inch square interlocking tiles. They sit on top of the floor and require no adhesive. They are water, chemical, and solvent resistant. I chose black tiles with a leather-like look.
Garage floor before tile installation:
Garage floor after installation:
The tiles are advertised and reviewed as being used in a garage, and able to withstand high loads and the use of a floor jack. We noticed as we were putting the garage back together after installing them that the tiles scuffed and scratched incredibly easily. Also when rolling KITT back on his auto dollies, the auto dollies left indents in the tiles, and scuffs as they rolled. This was not the type of durability I was expecting, or that was indicated by the company we bought them from. I contacted the company and worked directly with the manufacturer, who eventually gave us a partial refund.
On the plus side, the tiles are extremely comfortable to walk and kneel on. Liquids clean up easily, and I am hoping it will be easier now to push out water and salt in the winter.
I wish I would have bought a more durable garage tile (ie a commercial-grade tile), but I am happy with these for what I ended up paying for them after the partial refund.
I found a product line called Rejuvenate at Menards that is made for vinyl floors. I bought both the cleaner and the restorer. We applied them today.
You can see the difference in the tiles below. This is the same tile, dry in both pictures. The Rejuvenate cleaner and restorer are easy to use and I highly recommend them. :)
Before:
After:
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