KARR - Carpet, Door panel, scraping paint

 I pulled out the stained, water soaked, worthless gross carpet out of the car along with the jute padding. It was rotten and falling part from the years of being left out in the weather. Getting to the frame revealed some much expected rust spots.

Removed the arm rest, electric lock panel, and door panel. The elements had warped it and the sun had made it brittle to the touch. You can see where the previous owners masked off the door to paint it pull-me-over-Yellow. How do I get the sand and dirt out of the inside of the door frame? I need to test the power window motor, as well as the side mirror motor.

 Rear hatch carpet, and weather stripping removed. All (most) interior panels taken out too. For the most part, its still pretty clean. Need to wipe off all the years of sand and dirt. Remove the yellow over-spray paint to the underneath black.

Took a new razor blade to scrap off the first layer of paint, to reveal the primer applied on top of the OEM black. It works OK to get the paint off. But very time consuming. I will need to get a little oil and a sharpening block to keep things moving.

1982 Pontiac Trans-Am KARR

Found an ad on Craigslist for an 1982 Trans-Am for under $500 and had to jump on it. The car is in really bad shape, in regards to interior and drivability. In fact, the previous owner sold the engine and transmission separately. He also removed and sold off the PMD seats separately. Would have been nice to at least get those with the car. The Trans-Am was originally black, and was painted over with yellow at some point. The interior panel parts where also originally tan, but spray painted over with black. It had moved from one state to another. Came from California, then to Nevada where it sat in the desert for years. Story goes, that it was sold, the new owner didn't register it. Sold it to a Auto Mechanic, who didn't register it. Sold it to the guy whom I bought it from, who didn't register it. So, I had to go through a little extra paper work and leg work to clear the title and register it. It had not been registered in 10 years. Just sitting. Well, I hope to breathe new life into the KARR.

To get the KARR into my tiny garage...er, Laboratory 3, I had to remove the front bumper. The drivers door wont open from the outside. The auto-windows are stuck down. Had to tow the KARR to the DMV to get the VIN verified. But it has some after marked American Racing Rims on it, that I am sure I can re-sell to make my money back.

Season 1 TV Monitor frames

 I picked up two Panasonic Portable B/W TV's off eBay pretty inexpensively. Dissembling them was fairly easy. You have to be careful not to damage the TV tube as it could explode on you as it is under pressure. Once the front frame is removed from the rest of the TV housing, I need to trim out the inner frame as it is molded as a solid piece.

I could use the monitors in my car, but hooking up the tubes is more cumbersome than I want to take on. Plus, I want something more modern

than the 80's style TV with low resolution. I hope to use touch screens, or more modern monitors. The trick will be to find ones that are the right size and wont look funny with the curved frames, as all monitors are flat these days. 

In the show, the corners are drilled and a flat head screw is used to mount the frames to the dash. I have seen most replicas omit this detail for a cleaner look. I will incorporate them in my replica to maintain the Season 1 look that tried to stay true to the cars original aviation design.

I just saw this the other day while watching the first season. In this particular screen shot of the interior of the car, the outer frame wasn't removed for this dash. Comparing the above photo of the Panasonic TV, you see what I am talking about (I hope). It does appear that they sanded down the face of the frame so it did not protrude too far out from the inner frame. I do not recall seeing this particular option of TV frames at any other point in the show.





What is more common (before they changed it again during the first season) is this version (left), with the outer frame removed. In this screen shot. You can see the screws in the four corners to mount the frames.

All Knight Rider images are Copyright Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Replica KITT Functions - License Plate Flip

This is a video by Bo McDonald on his license plate flip. This is a good idea to not only have functionality to the original button, and allows you to have your street legal plate during drives, and flip it to your KNIGHT plate when at car shows. No need to uninstall and re-install.
License Plate Flipper Video

1983 Pontiac Firebird S/E - Original Body - Exterior

The car had not been registered since 2003, so I had to get that done first thing. I decided to get custom plates for my KITT, so the original plate is no longer. The first thing that I just had to do was remove the trailer hitch. I had a neighbor who said he was interested in that if I decided to remove it. KITT was not designed for towing anything. Unfortunately, my S/E didn't come with the spoiler, so I will have to pick one up used, to keep costs down.


 The nose appears to have a little denting at the top, and it was raised up enough that it was preventing the headlight from going up. My father-in-law and I readjusted the lights and tried to bend the bumper back into place, and the drivers headlight popped up without any problems. It's great that both lights still work. Rumor is that the motors on the lights are one of the first things to go and are really expensive to get fixed. I was told that the car had been repainted black some years ago. Not entirely sure why, but it looks great. Just needs a coat of wax and something to get rid of the wax buildup in all the crevices. I am so glad that the car came with the correct style rims. I will need a Trans-Am hood, the fenders with the scopes, and ground effects.

originally posted July 2, 2014

1983 Pontiac Firebird S/E - Original Interior

The  Interior is a combination of brown and black. The T-Top is a brown with brown sun visors. The visors feel like whatever cardboard is inside of it is in bad shape. Like when cardboard has gotten wet and dried again, then baked in the sun. The review mirror doesn't want to stay put, and the glass is either cracked or scratched. No matter as KITT does not have a review mirror. There is a thin piece of wood with black fabric stapled on to it, with foam and tinfoil shading the glass of the T-Top. The previous owner used caulking to attempt to seal the leak around the T-Top, but since they didn't seem to know where it was coming from, the caulked all over, but still managed to miss the leak.

The dash is cracked in several places. The gas gauge was jumping all over the place on the drive home. I assumed that that when it flicked to the left, it was it's actual gas, then it would flick to the right as if it was full. I tried keeping my eye on the gauges during my first drive, but the steering wheel sure did block my view of the dash really well. It certainly wasn't designed very well. The steering wheel may have a bearing loose inside as it just rocks up and down. Plus there is a lot of play in it.

The back seats need to be reupholstered. They have been sun damaged and torn at the head. The rear seems to be in good clean shape. One or two of the plastic screws will need to be replaced as the have broken. All the lights work. The hatch lock in the back had its face cover broken. But that's no bigy as I wont use it again once I get the blackout installed. Spare tire was intact along with the black jack.
 There was a leather steering wheel cover that was all sticky with something so I took it off.

originally posted July 2, 2014

1983 Pontiac Firebird S/E V8 5.0L 4-Barrel Carburetor - KITT

I found the car in Bend Oregon. The story goes that the car came from Los Altos California back in the 1990's. It made its way up to Oregon where it it was purchased by its third or fourth owner in '97, who owned it till they passed away. The car has been sitting for 11 years before I brought the car home. The front nose has some crumpling. The rear bumpers paint is coming off, probably due to being painted with a non-flex paint. T-Top leaks. A/C doesn't cool. Torn up drivers seat. Hood struts no longer hold it open. There was a trailer hitch added. Oil leaks. Transmission leaks. Rear breaks need replacing. Brake fluid 4% contaminated. Needs tune up. Needed carburetor adjusting. And so on. The second I saw the car, I said it was beautiful. I had to have it. This is going to be my base in converting it to KITT from Knight Rider. My father-in-law is an electrical engineer, so with his help, we will get KITT working with all kinds of gadgets. He will be the car of the future.

originally posted July 2, 2014