Turbocast Rims Cleanup Continued

Well the rims are starting look a heck of a lot better now after hours of scrubbing with Easy Off Oven Cleaner and Aluminum polish. They still have  good deal of work left but they are definitely a vast improvement from how they looked when I took them off of the parts car. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get them gleaming like new again but I'll sure try. If I have to I'll prime, paint and clear coat them if they look like they will never get a good shine on them.... Time will tell ;-)

Turbocast Rims Cleanup

The Turbocast rims were in really rough shape with baked on embedded breakpad dust and oxidization,  I experimented with all kinds of cleaning methods after doing some research online.  First I tried a metal polish for aluminum and an old toothbrush which removed a little but was just not powerful enough to remove this very stubborn and tenacious grime embedded into the rims.

After many hard hours experimenting with the first rim I discovered that good old Oven Cleaner really is the best thing so far to remove this really baked on and embedded grime. You still have to work at it very hard using a small wire brush to get into all of the hard to reach places, which on these Turbocast rims is pretty much everywhere. They have to be the most, or at least one of the most difficult rims to clean because of their intricate design.

So far I'm still working at getting all of the tough stuff off and I'll see where I'm at once that job is done. If you don't have a lot of time but have the money I would say get them Glass Beaded. But if you have the time and patience go with good old yellow here and save the aluminum polishes and cleaners for when the rims are in much better shape.

K.I.T.T. parts waiting to be cleaned up, painted and refurbished

A whole bunch of K.I.T.T's parts waiting to be cleaned up and refurbished.  I still need to prime the underside of the Turbo Hood with some Red Oxide primer before putting on a few coats of sandable black primer before painting... got a lot of prep work to do first.

I've got to find a good product or method to clean up those Turbocast rims. I could get them glass beaded but I really much prefer to do as much by hand as possible. I'm looking into what types of cleaners are available for rims with this kind of tarnish due to breakpad dust and oxidization.  My guess is that these rims had sat neglected for a long while.

K.I.T.T. Goodies from Knight Rider Shop

Awesome!  Just arrived today in the mail my steering wheel adapter and door LEDs (episode 3 "A Good Day At White Rock") I ordered from Knight Rider Shop online. I can't wait for warmer weather to install these. I'm going to hold out for when I can get the power mirror door bezels and switch so as that way I can do both of those little jibs at the same time... at least that would make sense to me to do it that while the door is all disassembled.  ;-)

Turbocast Rims Off

Using my new tire changer I picked up from Princess Auto I was able to get the tires off of the Turbo Cast rims from the parts car with very little effort. The job most definitely would have been easier with the tire changer mounted securly to the garage floor but Canadian Tire didn't have the right concrete floor anchors that I needed and I was impatient.  lol

I was trying to clean up the rims last night using Scotch bright and some all purpose metal polish but was not having much luck. They appear to have a great deal of oxidization and break pad dust coating them. Also because of their design they are not the easiest rims to clean as you can tell by the picture. I'll have to see if there is a better product out there that will take all that crap off of the rims... I'm sure there is??

New Tire Changer

I picked up a tire changer from Princess Auto for around $85.00 I figured seeing how most places charge about $11.00 to remove a tire per wheel and that I have to

1 - Remove the tires from the aluminum Turbocast rims so I can clean those up for K.I.T.T.

2 - Remove the tires from the Trans Am thats being converted into K.I.T.T.

3 - Put the tires onto the cleaned up Turbocast Rims and then put the wheels back on.

At a grand total of $132.00 approximately before taxes I was well better off to buy the tire changer, learn how to use it and already it will have paid for itself. Plus I figure it's not like I'm not most likely to need to do it again at some point ;-)

Changing the Battery For The Very First Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-tuamwoVsI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Turbo Cast Wheels Removed

Special thanks to my brother Alan for popping by this afternoon to help me jack up the parts car and put it up on cinder blocks so we could take the wheels off. K.I.T.T.'s proper shoes are now stacked neatly in the garage.  Just need to take them in and have the old tires taken off the rims so I can clean up the aluminum rims.

Insulating the garage

Yesterday I started to get the insulation up into the rafters in the garage.  I have a good 3rd of it done and will be doing the rest today. Hopefully this will help make the garage a little more bearable for working out there on cold days.

Also got 4 good cinder blocks to put the donor car up on so I can take off the Turbo Cast rims for K.I.T.T.

Knight Rider Dash Arrived Today

I'm very stoked that my 2 T.V. Knight Rider Dash arrived by Fed Ex today all the way from Italy. I ordered on December 11th from Knight Rider World on eBay. You may recall that I chose this dash over many of the others available  because this one has the extra side and centre panels for a much better dash placement. I was very impressed when I saw this version available from Italy, it cost a little bit more but for me it made sense to spend that little extra seeing how I saved so much on the other parts such as

 the gullwing steering yoke, upper and lower consoles that I also got from eBay from Knight Scan. 

Now I need to find some instructional videos on what type of rotary tool is needed to make the cut outs for installation of the electronics and installation of the dash onto the current one in the 1982 Trans Am Firebird.

If anyone knows of any good ones I would sure appreciate the pointing in the right direction ;)

  

Knight Rider Parts Arrived Today

Some of the interior Knight Rider parts arrived by mail this morning. Steel throughout Gullwing Steering Yoke, Switch pods, Overhead and Lower Console. So can't wait for warmer weather to arrive and for the electronics for a lot of this stuff to get here too. I'm not sure which part of K.I.T.T. is going to be the most fun to do, the interior or exterior??? I get all giddy just thinking about it lol

Priming Some Parts of the Turbo Hood

I sanded and painted that small part of the Turbo Hood that I removed, what it's called I'd have to look into, I'll get back to you on that ;) The pictures here probably don't do it justice but it looks like a brand new part now that it's all sanded and primed. I took off the vent screen and soaked the screws in the rust removing gel. I then sanded down each part separately before priming. Each part got a good three coats of primer even though two seemed quite sufficient. I re assembled the part and gave it it's final coat of primer. This part is ready for paint.

More Turbo Hood Prep. Work

I was hoping to not have to remove this part while doing my prep work for re painting but as I was sanding down some areas on the top of the Turbo Hood I noticed some paint chips along the seem line where this part is attached so I figured Oh hell, I might as well just take that off as it will make sanding along the seem line where the paint is chipped a whole heck of a lot easier. So I took the nuts off and popped out the part to place it aside and sand and paint it separately.

Here you can see from the underside of the hood where this piece was removed, excuse my dusty finger marks on the underside of the hood lol. 

I have the underside of the hood pretty much cleaned up and I'm just in the process of making sure I locate any rust areas or areas that look like they may be starting to develop the early signs of rust, sand and prime all of those areas. But right now I still have a fair amount of cleaning to do. Overall mostly just some surface grime.

I will most likely need to re do the gasket or seal around the edge of the part I took off of the hood. Now I'm note sure if those gaskets are easy to come by or if I should just use that liquid "Create a Gasket" stuff I've seen available?? Or option "B" I get some thin rubber sheet and cut out my own gasket?? Either way, easy enough for me to do.

As you can see here I've sanded a lot more of the top of the hood. It looks shiny here because I had just washed all of the paint dust off from my sanding job and I wanted to inspect the hood again to catch any more scratches and paint chips that still need to be sanded.

Once done I'll give the whole hood a good scuffing over with the scuff pad and clean it thoroughly before priming it.

So far it's coming along and it won't be too long before K.I.T.T. has the correct hood installed. :)

Cleaning Up The Turbo Hood

I started cleaning up K.I.T.T.'s Turbo Hood from the donor car this evening, sanded off a good deal of the scratches and paint chips. Overall condition of the hood is pretty good, it's mostly cosmetic stuff that needs doing. I still have a fair  amount to do on the top of the hood but this is a pretty good start.

Back of the hood had some deep surface rust close to the front. I used that liquid gel rust removers I got from Princess Auto, some stage 1 auto body sand paper and my dremel to remove a lot of the tough stuff, the rust removing gel did pretty much the rest. I think I have most of the rust off, I'll give it a closer inspection in the morning and see where I'm at. With a bit of hard work I should be able to prime this sometime this week depending on how many imperfections I find.

Turbo Hood Removed

I removed the Turbo Hood off of the red donor car, that was fun by myself I'm here to tell you, not impossible but it would have definitely been an easier job with two people. lol

Soon K.I.T.T will have the correct hood installed.

As you can see this hood is in really great condition. Just a few minor light surface rust spots on the underside near the front, nothing some sanding and priming can't take care of.

I got the whole car for $500.00 bucks and I know there are a lot of people paying way more than that just for these Turbo Hoods which are getting scarce. You can find nice fibreglass reproductions for around $1,200.00 - $1,500.00 but I really prefer the original steel hood.

I will definitely get a helper to help put the new hood on once it has been refinished, either that or rig up some kind of harness and lower it into position carefully.

Please keep in mind I know next to nothing about cars so all of this is pretty much a BIG learning experience for me, kinda learn as I go. I'll listen and welcome suggestions but I'm pretty much a "do it yourself" type… more fun that way eh? ;)

More Parts For K.I.T.T.

My brother John and his girlfriend from Calgary came in yesterday night for a visit and to drop off the car I bought from Kijiji for spare parts another 1982 Trans Am Firebird.

 I bought this one because it has the correct wheels and hood, but from the looks of it, it has a whole load of other parts that will be good also.

 The front Turbo hood looks to be in great shape, the rest of the body not so much but that's OK so long as the hood is OK that is mostly what matters.

The tires on the Turbo Cast wheels look to be in great shape too which will be an added bonus. Overall for $500. bucks this was a great deal to get all of those much needed parts for my Knight Rider conversion.

Some Tweaks in the Garage

I added a little work shelf near the front of the garage to place a battery charger for K.I.T.T.  and to place tools on for when I am doing any work on the front of the car. This should come in handy for when the nicer weather arrives.