Finishing The Calipers

Yesterday afternoon I did a quick touch up coat on the interiors of the calipers. I was mainly concerned with the "mistake" caliper as some of the lacquer thinner had worked its way onto the interior surfaces. 

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Painting The Calipers

My friend Cary was in town today and asked if I wanted to meet him for lunch on my lunch break. I mentioned that I was going to paint the calipers after work and he decided to stick around town so he could help me when I got off work.

When I got home today, I used the air compressor to blow the dust off all of the calipers. At this point they all have just one coat of the POR-15 black. You can see my "mistake" from Monday in the lower right corner. :(

Don't Make The Same Mistake Twice

It is said that we learn from our mistakes, or rather that we should learn from them. The latter applies to me today as I did not learn from my first attempt with the POR-15 Caliper Paint on the rear differential cover. Painting that red was a nightmare. It took four coats before it even began to look solid red and another three before I was satisfied enough to give up. I decided that the result was not worth the effort.

So today in my infinite wisdom, I decided I was going to paint the calipers red. Brilliant, I know!

Here are the calipers with one coat of POR-15 black. Don't they look awesome? Wouldn't they even look better with another coat of POR-15 black? Did this occur to me this afternoon? Nope, not once.

KITT, As He Sits

Today after work I stopped down to see Troy and find out how KITT's rear end was coming and when he planned to come over to do the welding on KITT. Right now, we are planning on an evening this next week.

I decided to shoot a quick video showing KITT's current status. The video gives an up close look at the finished firewall pad we made. We will be finishing the rest of the sound deadening this month.

Trunk Lid And Spoiler Back From Paint

Mario dropped off the trunk lid and spoiler today. These were the last two pieces he still had. The rest of the car will wait until this fall to be painted. He color sanded and buffed the spoiler but not the trunk lid. He wanted to give me the option to choose which finish I preferred.

It was raining when he dropped them off so they had dust and water spots on them. I used a damp microfiber cloth to clean them up.

Knight Designs Order Update

I got an email from Billy at Knight Designs today. He said he is finishing up a few orders and then I am up next. I cannot wait to see the 3rd season front nose, rear bumper, and rear stone guards! 

Painting The Calipers, Part 2

I just have a quick update for tonight. Dad came over and helped me paint the opposite sides of the calipers tonight. Thanks Dad! 

Painting The Calipers

Tonight I started painting the calipers. The first step was to mask off some of the hardware so I could keep it paint free. I noticed while doing this that painting the entire caliper in one sitting was not going to be possible. I only intend to paint the outsides of the calipers red, but I want to coat the whole caliper in POR-15 black for the rust protection.

Prepping The Calipers

On Saturday I started prepping the calipers so I could paint them on Sunday. In between the MarineClean and Prep and Ready treatments I picked up the garage a bit. One thing is certain, space is at a premium now that the hood, doors, and back glass Mario dropped off are being stored in the garage.

Here are the re-manufactured rear brake calipers.

Scrap Metal

Today after work Sara helped me move the doors, back glass, and front bumper Mario dropped off so we can get the Freestyle back in the garage. We also took the old axles, original driver door, and the donor trunk lid down to Troy's shop. Once he has a full bin he will take them to the scrap yard for recycling.

Multiple Delays Bring Project: K.I.T.T. To A Crawl

In 2012 we were able to make so much progress on KITT it is almost mind boggling. So far in 2013 we have not been as fortunate and our experience thus far has a recurring theme: Delay.

It all started with the engine rebuild which was supposed to be done and reinstalled in early January. The engine was not finished until mid-March and when it arrived it was the wrong color. Troy and Joel are working to repaint the engine red to match the transmission.

The car was supposed to go to paint at the end of March, but that required that KITT be back on his wheels. The rear end has been at the shop for over a month now and little progress has been made. The fuel sending unit needs to be rebuilt and there is welding that needs to be done to the Panhard/track bar bracket and subframe connectors. Troy has been very busy at the shop and has not had time to assist me with this. Although I feel I have done great so far, there are some things I am just not comfortable doing myself and would prefer the help of a mechanic I can trust.

I have also been waiting for my front nose, rear bumper and rock guards to arrive from Billy at Knight Designs. I recently contacted him to see how they were coming along and found out they too had been delayed due to a necessary shop relocation. 

I guess I was naive enough to believe we could maintain the pace we set in 2012. It has become apparent that I am not going to be able to get KITT to Mario in a reasonable amount of time, so although it sucks I decided that I needed to postpone KITT's paint job until this fall. This should give everyone ample time to recoup and hopefully get things back on track. 

Mario stopped by this afternoon to drop of the doors, back glass, and front bumper. I was a little worried to break the news to Mario, but I should not have been. He has been awesome to work with and said he understands that delays happen with projects like these.  Mario and I decided that we would just resume the painting when things are back on schedule. I am aiming for a late summer/early fall date. Thanks for understanding Mario!

Here is the new back glass/hatch glass.

A Little Progress, Time With Friends And A Rabbit's Review

Troy was not able to come over this weekend and as a result I did not get as much done on KITT as I had hoped, however I did get to spend some time catching up with friends. Saturday morning Andrea stopped by for a couple hours to visit. :) While we talked I worked on installing the fuel tank anti-squeak insulator pads on the top side of the tank. The pads were long enough that the excess I cut off will cover 80% of the bottom of the tank too. 

Back To Work

After a short hiatus, I am back and ready to get to work on KITT. Troy had indicated that the rear end is ready to go and we can start working on getting KITT back on his wheels. There is some welding that needs to be done on the bracket for the Panhard/track bar and also the subframe connectors. Troy will be bringing his welder over so we can start with that. 

Troy has also ordered the parts necessary to rebuild the fuel sending unit. Once this is done we can get the fuel tank mounted back up under the car. The previous owner had obviously dropped the tank at one point and removed the factory installed anti-squeak insulator pads. His solution was to replace them with good old duct tape and some carpet scraps.

I wanted to go a little higher class, so I bought two actual GM anti-squeak insulator pads I found on eBay. They are self-adhesive and precut to the right width. I will have to trim a little off the length, but I should be able to use the excess for the straps on the bottom of the tank.

  

Sick Of Being Sick

I have been sick this entire last week and I am just now starting to feel better. The thing about being sick is that on top of not feeling good you really do not feel like doing much of anything. I am looking forward to getting back to work on KITT.

We did make it to the 3M scrap sale this morning though and picked up a few supplies that will come in handy for KITT. We found some double sided automotive tape in various sizes. If you have not used this stuff you should pick some up. It is awesome and I dare say is almost as handy as duct tape. :) We also picked up some particulate respirator masks, Scotch-Brite pads, and painter's tape which will all come in handy when we start to paint the interior plastics. Thanks Jake and Jessica for the tickets!

Then we went to Walmart to pick up some cough drops and I found these!

So, now that I have at least two KITTs I can open one and display him beside the Batmobile, ECTO-1 and the A-TEAM van! The A-TEAM van was part of the second wave in this series and this wave also features KARR so I will be on the lookout for two of him as well.

Checking In With Mario

I stopped by Mario's shop to drop off the door hinge pin and bushing kits. He has the doors completely sanded down and he filled some of the small dents with polyester finishing putty. The original passenger door had several layers of paint with the most recent being the blue. It took him two hours with 80 grit sandpaper to get through all the layers. Mario said whoever painted the car this last time did not even bother to remove the mirrors or even some of the pin-striping...they just painted over it!

Mario said that overall the doors are in really nice shape and the small dents that were there are along the body line where the molding will go, so even though they have been repaired they will be hidden by the molding anyway.

The Brake Calipers Are Here

I stopped by Troy's shop again on the way home from work and found out the calipers had been delivered. Originally I was just going to rebuild the original calipers, but it turns out that I could get re-manufactured ones for less than it would cost for the parts to rebuild them. Because they are re-manufactured they look brand new! Now all I have to do is paint them red with the POR-15 caliper paint I bought.

Painting The Transmission And Engine

I stopped by Troy's shop after work to take some pictures of the painted transmission. It now has a few parts accented in black. I am really loving the red if for no other reason than it will be different.

Door Hinge Pins And Bushing Kits

The door hinge pins and bushing kits I ordered from 1A Auto arrived today. I ordered a kit for each door so both the upper and lower hinge hardware will be all new. Mario said he would install these for me, so I need to get these to him tomorrow.