Touch Up Painting

Kind of a crappy day weather wise to be doing any priming and painting but oh well, can't have perfect weather all the time. Here are a few shots of today painting progress. The paint job on the car is in pretty great shape so the whole car only needs a little spot work in a few places and it's an easy enough job to just mask off the panels that need work and just get to it. Here you can see I have begun adding a few coats paint to my Windshield window edge. Tomorrow I should be able to add a couple of coats of clear coat then let that set for a good day, leave it over night and then wet sand it before adding the polishing compound.

Some Priming And Rust Removal

Today I finally got around to doing that little bit of work along the top of the front of the car above the windshield. Last year I had done a little sanding and rust removal but it sat for a while unfinished until today when I got around to it after making a slight adjustment to the two inner most Fog Lights in K.I.T.T.s Front Nose.

I masked off the area around where I would be working and then sanded down the slightly rusty areas along the top of the windshield frame. The rust was not bad at all, just very minor surface rust so it was pretty easy to sand off with a coarse sandpaper and the gelled rust removal stuff I bought from Canadian Tire. Took a little while to sand it all down by hand and then clean up my exposed surfaces with some rubbing alcohol before priming. I want to make sure I get a good build of the sendable primer on and then sand that nice and smooth before applying my paint.

I'll let the primer set overnight and then give it a light sanding before applying another light coat of the sendable primer. Later on tomorrow I should be able to paint it. I might let the primer sit for another day to fully cure but it's not totally necessary. I'm happy this little job is finally getting done, I had kind of planed on doing later on last summer but ended up having so many other little projects going on with the car that it just kept getting kind of pushed to the side... until now that is lol ;)

Painting The S-1 Monitor Frames

I'm finally getting the Season One monitor frames finished off so I'll be able to finalize my installation of both the LCD and GPS screens into my Knight Rider 2 TV dash. Top left is a shot of the monitor frames after they had been primed a few times, sanded and then primed again with the sandable primer. On the inside edges of the frames where I had cut them out much larger to be able to fit my 5" LCD screens I had a few little pot holes to fill in with Bondo yesterday. I had filed and then sanded that all smooth before the priming with the sendable primer. On the right image you can see the final monitors frame after painting and clear coating. I may need to wet sand a few areas but other than that it should be good to go for me to reinstall my monitors.

Preparing to Paint The Knight Rider Dash

In preparing the Knight Rider Dash for painting I fist carefully masked off all of the areas I don't want affected by the primer or paint. Took a little while to get all of the masking tape carefully put on and cut around the edges of the Lexan plastic overlays. Once that was done I had a little more sanding to do in some areas but with the masking tape on it helped keep dust out of my dash display panels.

With the minor sanding done I then was able to get a couple of coats of sandable primer on, not so much to prepare for painting just yet, more for me to have a better look at where I am sitting with my progress. I can see I have some very light sanding to do in some areas but nothing major. With the first coat of primer on I can see that the glassing of the Pods to the Dash has a really nice blend, the two look like they have always been together, perfect as that's the look I want. I should be good for a few more coats of primer after that and then I can begin to paint my dash. Almost there.

I have not yet decided if I am going to paint my dash a Satin Black or a Gloss Black, although I do have to admit I am leaning more towards a Gloss Black as that I'm thinking would go well with the Lexan Plastic overlays on the display panels. Once all the painting is done I'll clear coat it a few times and then see if it needs any wet sanding.

It's sure nice to be finally getting the dash to this stage, steps closer to getting it in the car and hooked up the the connectors I have attaches to the stock OEM dash.

Headlight bays painted

Finally got around to priming and painting the headlight bays. I gave the whole area a good going over with my drill using a wire brush tip to scuff up the painting surface real good before priming. Cleaned up the surface with some rubbing alcohol and a quick going over with the tac cloth just to catch any particles of dust that might be still there. So now I'll be able to reinstall my motorized headlight assemblies. I won't put the headlights or the bezels in just yet as it will make it difficult putting the front nose on and I still need good access to those areas where the bolts attach the front nose to the fenders. I'll also probably need to still run some wires for either my existing turn signals or some after market turn signals so even though I'm anxious to get my headlamps up and running again for now I'll make do with the headlamp motorized assemblies back in place, putting the bulbs and bezels back in will be no biggie later on. 

While I was painting I decided to give the front nose support plate another coat of paint too after giving it a good cleaning with some rubbing alcohol.

Gullwing Painting

In the process of painting my Knight Rider Gullwing. Painting the "Knight" logo was a real finicky job. I had to keep tweaking it and doing some edge cleanup with Acetone. Some wet sanding too even. But so far I'm liking it. I need to get the "Quick Release" adapter to attach it to my steering column. 

Priming K.I.T.T.'s Front Nose

Finally getting around to priming K.I.T.T.'s front nose now that I have a box fan to ventilate my back room with. Now I'm finally going to be able to paint some of the larger parts like the front nose and Turbo Hood. I had been busy draping the back room in plastic also just so as to not get over spray all over the place as it's a real pain in the backside cleaning up, the stuff gets everywhere.

 I also won't end up gassing myself along with the rest of the house lol ;-)

I want to make sure I get a good high build of sand able primer just so I can make sure I work out any surface flaws. Even though I have given the front nose a good going over with sand paper I still had to add some fibreglass resin and a little omnidirectional matting to fill in a few holes and chips from some of the gel coat that had come off. It was definitely a nose that needed some work, I guess that's normal for "out of the mould" fibreglass products. No biggie, just meant more hands on fun for me to play with.... I love this stuff ;)

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.