Wednesday, February 27, 2013

And Now For The Rest Of The Order



As I noted in my unboxing video, the ring and pinion gear set I ordered was left out of the shipment I received from Drivetrain America. I emailed the company that night (Friday) and received a response on Saturday saying they apologize and it will be shipped out on Monday. On Monday I received two emails: one providing tracking information for my package, and one from the owner of the company himself apologizing for the mistake. I was impressed with their response, and I would definitely order from this company again.

I received the ring and pinion gear set today. Here are some photos.


Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Mario Gives The Door A Thumbs Up!

Mario stopped over to take a look at the door I picked up. He agreed with me on two points...1) it is not the best door in the world, and 2) it is better than the one I have. He said even though there is rust damage to this door, there is nothing that cannot be fixed, and he is willing to work with it.

He also brought over some of the parts that he painted matte black. 

Here are the drip rails for the A and B pillars.


Monday, February 25, 2013

Painting The Fuel Sending Unit

This afternoon I applied another coat of paint to the differential cover with a foam brush I picked up today.


Sunday, February 24, 2013

Painting The Differential Cover And Prepping The Fuel Sending Unit


On Friday I cleaned the differential cover with MarineClean and prepped it with Prep and Ready. This morning I covered all the holes with duct tape to keep paint from getting on the inside of the cover.


Saturday, February 23, 2013

Found: A Driver's Door For KITT

This morning Sara and I went to Hazer's Auto and Truck Parts in West Fargo, North Dakota to look at the driver side door. Before we left I took a quick video of my current door so I could compare it to the one at Hazer's.



Friday, February 22, 2013

Differential, Gears, Axles And Taillight Blackout Unboxing

The parts I ordered from Drivetrain America and Knight Designs arrived. Here is my unboxing video.

A Driver's Door For KITT

I have been searching for a replacement driver side door because the bottom lip of mine is just too rusted out to be salvageable. Today, after the suggestion of a member of the Knight Rider Revolution Forum, I searched Car-Part.com and located a door just a few hours away at Hazer's Auto and Truck Parts in West Fargo, North Dakota. When I called today the guy I spoke with mentioned they also have new glass for the front doors for only $55 each. This sounds almost too good to be true, but if it is true it is definitely too good to pass up. We are heading there tomorrow to take a look.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Taillight Blackout

I ordered a taillight blackout from Knight Designs. This is the darkly tinted plexiglass cover that installs over the taillights, effectively blacking them out when not in use. This cover sits completely flush with the edge of the hatch lid and the rear quarter panels.

I'll post a video when it arrives. In the meantime, here are some screenshots from the show.


Ordering KITT's Differential, Gears And Axles

The next thing I need to concentrate on is getting the wheels back on the car. I have been waiting on a guy that specializes in rebuilt differentials, axles and gears, but after three months he has not been able to produce the parts. I decided to give up on him and on Monday I ordered all of the parts I am going to need to rebuild KITT's rear end.

When it came to the limited slip differential I wanted to go with the best. The Eaton Posi is supposed to be the best there is, and is fully rebuildable. 

With the gears I wanted to find a good balance between power and fuel efficiency. The 3.42 seemed to be favored, however since I plan to take KITT on a lot of road trips, I opted for the 3.23 gears. They will provide much better fuel economy at highway speeds with just a slight loss to off the line power. 

I also upgraded to the stronger 28 spline axles versus the stock 26.

Here is everything I ordered:


Eaton Posi Limited Slip Differential

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Creating KITT's Firewall Pad, Part 2

We started on the firewall this morning at 9:30AM. The first thing I did was go over the BXT II with the hand roller we bought last night to smooth everything down.


Saturday, February 16, 2013

Creating KITT's Firewall Pad, Part 1

We began work on KITT's firewall pad today. Because the original firewall pad was not salvageable, I am creating a firewall pad based on RAAMaudio's suggestions using layers of RAAMmat BXT II and Ensolite. To construct a firewall pad, RAAMaudio suggests a complete application of BXT II, followed by strips of Ensolite with gaps in between, then a complete layer of BXT II and a final outside layer of Ensolite.

Here are two pictures of the firewall area before we started this morning.


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Just For Kicks

I have been debating where to install the 5.25" 3-way speakers I am going to be using for KITT's front speakers. The factory dash speakers are going to be replaced and upgraded too, but since they will end up being covered by KITT's Dash (the 3rd season dash had no speaker grills) I do not want to use those for the fronts. I am going to use them for KITT's voicebox instead.

That brings me back to the debate of where to locate the 5.25"s. I was originally going to purchase the Q-Logic Q Forms to replace the factory kick panels. The only thing I did not like about these was that they stick out so far. I was worried about losing leg room and sacrificing comfort.



Saturday, February 9, 2013

A Farewell To Shoes

Jonathan has been sporadically cleaning and restoring the taillight harness for the past two weeks. Here is what it looks like currently. He has been trying to find someone that restores wiring harnesses, but so far has not had any luck.


Saturday, February 2, 2013

Key Chain And Seat Extension Hardware

I ordered a couple of key chains from Billy at Knight Designs. They arrived yesterday along with the hardware for the seat extensions I ordered from him. He decided to start including the mounting hardware with the extensions after I had already purchased a set, so he included a set of the bolts with the key chains.

The key chains are plastic with laser engraving. They have a key ring and a plastic mount as seen on many rubber key chains.

Here is the front of the key chain.


Bumper Stickers

I designed some bumper stickers for our other vehicle. I am making these available in the Project: K.I.T.T. store for anyone else who may be interested in one for their car.

There are two different sayings with either the Knight 2000 logo or the Knight Industries logo. The bumper stickers are 10" x 3" and are printed on 4mil vinyl using water and UV resistant inks.