Products Used In This Project

Front Nose

For my front nose I went with the one from Knight Rider Shop Online. This was a first time project experience for me and I'm not really familiar with all of the various vendors of Knight Rider products out there. This one seemed to be pretty good as far as overall reputation for accuracy, quality, speed of delivery and price. At first I was not crazy about the yellow colour of the nose although it did make it easier to mark the holes I needed to drill for mounting the nose to the fenders although if you have a silver marker that would have done just as well for marking the holes.

Overall the nose from Knight Rider Shop fits well although I am having some fitment issues with the passenger side. I can work on it but it would be nicer if it just fit better. It does look like Knight Rider Shop has made an all new nose that fits much better with the side mounting tabs. This generation nose that I have I found the side mounting tabs to be not so great and I am very tempted to buy his latest generation front nose.

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2 TV Dash

For my 2 TV Dash I went with the one from Knight Rider World. One of the things I liked best about this dash verses many of the others I was researching from other vendors at the time was that this one has extra flanges down the sides that make it easier to mount onto the stock OEM plastic dash at the sides. This feature I figured would be a great asset to the dash. I can't speak for the quality of any of the dashes offered by any other vendor but I am very happy with the quality of this one from Knight Rider World, it's very sturdy and not made of flimsy construction, it's a very solid dash.

I found it very easy to glass on Aluminum mounting brackets for the electronics, most use wood but I wanted something more durable and I had no problem using Aluminum for this purpose. Adding the few extra layer to secure in the brackets probably adds even more strength to what is already a very sturdy product. 

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Switch Pods Unit

Building any Knight Rider project can be an expensive hobby so trying to save money wherever possible is not necessarily a bad thing. In most cases it may just come down to a simple matter of how much you are willing to pay for parts versus how much work you are willing to put into tweaking or modifying any parts you buy. I knew I was in for some hefty expenses doing this project but I'm pretty creative and I don't mind being patient and doing additional work on parts to make them work.

For my Switch Pods Unit I went with the one from Knight Scan Industries. I bought it from his eBay shop. The price was right versus what I saw other vendors charging and it looked to be of good quality, his reviews were good on his eBay shop so all the better. Now I do know from reading various blogs and Face Book posts that Knight Scan takes a lot of flak for their parts. Personally I found no fault with this particular part. I found it to be of solid construction, it's made good and solid, it's hollow at the back allowing you to do your own customization work and close it in in any way you see fit.

I added an Aluminum brace into the back of the Switch Pods Unit to give it more support, I only did this because I had heard stories about how some people had broken their pods by accidentally banging their knees on them getting in or out of their car. I probably did not need to with this already very sturdy Fibreglass part but I like to go that extra mile. I also glassed in thin metal tubes to run my wires through. I probably should have used plastic but I used what I had on hand.

I closed in the back by simply cutting out plastic shapes that I fitted into the back of the pods and glassed them in place.

With the backs of this particular pod closed in and Aluminum access plates added to the back of the pod when I pick this thing up it is built "Rock Solid." So from my experience with this particular part from Knight Scan Industries it is a very well made part for the price you pay, and if you put a little work into it it is even better. As I say I can't speak for the experience of others but outlined above is my experience and I am VERY happy with it's performance in my case.

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Upper Console

I originally was going with the Upper Console from Season 3/4 because I kind of liked it's sleek design and that it fit closer to the top of the roof allowing the rear view mirror to be used without being moved. I bought my Season 3/4 Upper Console from Knight Scan Industries from his eBay shop again because the price was right and it looked to be of good construction, which it is. My only issue with it was that I was having slight difficulties getting it to fit nicely into the T-Top. First I had to cut out part of my Head Liner in order to make it fit and then add Aluminum brackets to give something for the mounting screws to latch onto. This is all detailed in my Blog. The other thing that was bothering me was the fit of the part that sort of "Wings Out" on the drivers side. I found there was too much of a gap that would need to be filled by most likely adding some extra padding into the Head Liner. I don't know if that is a manufacturing flaw or not? The final thing, and this has nothing to do with the Upper Console itself, was I was a little bored with the style of the electronics for that Upper Console. So I ended up going with the Season 1 Upper Console instead because I like the electronics for that console WAY better. I'm also discovering that it seems to fit much nicer into my T-Top so that is a major plus. The one from Knight Scan was going to be a lot more work.

I bought my Season 1 Upper Console from someone on Face Book who had two that they were selling so I don't know who the vendor is for that part and neither do they recall when I asked them. So all I can tell you is that it fits my T-Top WAY better that the one from Season 3/4 and that I like the electronics that fit that console better.

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Electronics

Dash Electronics

For my 2 TV Dash Electronics I went with Knight Rider World which to me seemed the logical choice seeing how my Dash was also purchased from them and I am extremely happy with that. The Dash electronics arrived very quickly and after examining them I found them to be of very high quality. The Dash Electronics are sold by Knight Rider World and are made by Ideegeniali. My ONLY bone to pick and it's minor is that given my lack of experience with electronics and the installation of electronics I did find the instructions that came with the Dash Electronics a little hard to understand in the wiring area, most of it was easy to figure out but there were holes, so I had to ask a lot of questions and eventually make up separate wiring diagrams that made the job a lot more easier to understand. I out line this in great detail in my Blog complete with my updated wiring diagrams that I put out there for anyone else who is not very electronics savvy. ;) To those who are knowledgeable with electronics the job is no doubt very simple.

P.A.N.P. Buttons (Power Auto Normal Pursuit) buttons are also very well made and easy to install. Apparently you can swap out the bulbs for LEDs if you like, although I have not yet looked into how to do that.

Count Down Indicators. I found them a little cheaply made, they are made of plastic and lack any sort of mounting holes or hardware so I had to get creative with my installation process which I detail at great length in my Blog.

Voice Box. One of the things I really liked about the Voice Box from Knight Rider World is that it has many great features. There is a Knight Rider theme that plays during the startup sequence that you have the ability to disable by either placing a simple jumper wire between two of the screw terminals or in my case I have hooked that up to a simple latching on/off button. The Voice Box also controls the P.A.N.P. buttons and Count Down Indicators. Also included among the features is a built in random DTMF tone generator that you can hook a fair amount of buttons up to.

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Taillight Blackouts

For my Taillight Blackouts I went with the ones from Knight Designs I found out of all of the ones I looked into that Billy's were the best as they do not screw onto the back of the car, they are held very securely on with Velcro attached to a custom steel powered coated frame that replaces the stock OEM smoked covers. So from a legal stand point all you are doing is swapping your smoked covers for a more uniformed look smoked cover and in no way do you reduce the amount of light emitted by your taillights.

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