Gutting The Doors, Intermission

Mario called tonight to let me know that he has the underside of the hood and the fender jams painted and they are ready to be brought back over. He would also like to pick up the doors, so he can begin the prep work on them.

Lately it has been very cold so I have not been working in the garage. Although this is not conducive to working on KITT, it has allowed me to get caught up with a few other things that I have been needing to get done. I told Mario that I would have the doors ready for him by the end of the week, so no matter how cold it is in the garage I need to get those doors finished. 

Anyone want to help? ;)

Gutting The Doors, Part 3

I was planning to work in the garage most of the night, but for some reason I could not get the garage to warm up. I worked out there for a while before deciding it was just too cold to work comfortably. I left the heaters running hoping that I can warm it up a little overnight so that I can work out there tomorrow.

I started by drilling out the two remaining factory rivets (the other two had been replaced by bolts) that held the regulator. Once these were drilled out I turned the two bolts out and the regulator and motor assembly was free to pull out of the door. This is not easy, but it will come out the rear access hole in the door with just a little flexing of the regulator arms.

Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment Series

I have been searching the local stores for the Hot Wheels Retro Entertainment version of KITT which came out in early December of last year, but have come up empty. None of the stores, in this little town known as Aberdeen, have even been stocking the Retro Entertainment series. Tonight we went to Walmart - thrilling to be sure! I checked the Hot Wheels aisle, as I always do, and lo and behold there was the Retro Entertainment series.

They had two of four pegs filled, one of the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine and one of the '32 Ford from American Graffiti. I was excited to see that they were finally stocking the line, but disappointed that was all they had. Then I spotted KITT lying on the shelf down below. Score! 

I quickly snatched it up only to hear a little boy come running over and say "Oh man! Do you know what you just found? That is KITT! You know from Knight Rider! That is soooo cool!" I said "Yes, yes it is cool!" 

So...here is KITT in all his coolness:

Now, I just need to find at least one more so I can open one of them.

Gutting The Doors, Part 2

I only worked on the car for about an hour today, but I did manage to get a few more things off the driver side door. I started with the exterior handle and lock cylinder. I will be replacing both of these with new ones.

Gutting The Doors

It seems like ages since I last posted, but in actuality it has only been a week. It was a long, busy, tiring week at work though and to be honest by the time I got home I did not feel like doing anything other than relaxing.

Today I started the task of removing everything from the driver side door. I started with this door because I knew it was not the door I was going to end up using. That way I could experiment with just how to remove everything.

The first thing I wanted to remove was the window triangle, but I needed to get the weather strip corner out of my way so I removed the two screws that fasten it to the door. There are two more screws on the other side which I removed as well. 

Installing KITT's Subframe Connectors

Today Sara and I installed the Alston subframe connectors we purchased for KITT. We started with the driver side. Once in position we used jacks to hold it firmly in place.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.