Starting The Dash Painting Process

I didn't think I was going to get to this part today but as luck would have it I was able to get the first coat of gloss black paint on my Knight Rider dash. In truth I still have a few minor spots on the Switch Pods to do a little light sanding on but I can do that just as easily with the painting process started. You probably can't tell in the photos as like I say it's a few minor areas but I'm picky about it so I notice.

It's sure nice though to be finally getting the dash to this stage. It looks so nice already with just the first coat of gloss black applied, it will look even nicer once it's eventually clear coated. When it's clear coated and fully cured I'll see about doing another video with the dash turned on as it will looks so nice all lighted up, animated with the finished dash surface. :)

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

K.I.T.T.'s front nose arrived today in the mail from Knight Rider Shop Online. All wrapped up nice and safe in lots of bubble wrap and packing tape. Took a while to unpack it from all the wrapping, I was like a kid at Christmas lol.

 I had to laugh when the mail man arrived with it today, he said; "What kind of car is this for?" When I told him I was converting a 1982 Trans Am Firebird he was so amazed!! "No way!" He said.... lol

 I so can't wait to get into finishing it off and priming it and then painting. Right out of the mould so it has some rough spots and minor surface areas that will need to be filled. I'll need to get some fibreglass resin and some more primer... Curses that Canadian Tire is out of the 2 kinds of primer I like to use. :(

Yellow is so not K.I.T.T.'s colour lol gives me even more incentive to get the resin and primers I need so I can get the front nose to primer black and ready for paint. I'll fit it to the car before giving it it's final paint job and clear coat. So freaking can't wait!!

 You can see for right out of the mould it has some areas that need to be worked on but that's what makes a project like this more fun sometimes is all that hands on stuff. For me a lot of fibreglass work was done years and years ago so my knowledge is a little rusty in that area so I've some catching up to do on YouTube before I do any real work on my front nose just yet.

I'm not sure I I want to try and mould some brackets in the back of the front nose to place a grill in there or just leave that open... not really sure what look I'm going for with the front end just yet... plenty of time to make decisions on that I guess, gotta take a look at what other people have done and see what I like best for the front end.

I should really fit it to the car first before doing any kind of work on the front nose. My thought being that the yellow colour will make it much easier to see where my Sharpie pen will mark the areas for where I need to make my mounting holes. put it on and see how it fits and then refinish it one I have it prepped more. ;)

Front Nose Ordered

I ordered the front nose from Knight Rider Shop.Com probably one of the most prominent features of the Knight Industries 2000 is K.I.T.T.'s front bumper with Cylon-like scanner. I ordered the Out of the mold version as I want to do as much of this project myself as I feel I am capable of. Jacob Knight's web site came highly recommended and certainly seems to have authentic parts for all different version of the Knight Rider car from all seasons of the show's duration. His parts come with instructions for installation which is an added bonus for a newbie to auto body work such as myself. I'm looking forward to this project very much. It's going to be a lot of hard but rewarding work.

K.I.T.T. base car has arrived!!

My 1982 Trans Am has FINALLY come home and he is a real beauty!! This car was never driven in winter, was never left outside, the previous owners REALLY looked after this baby!! He's in beautiful condition for a 1982 model. No rust on it at all, and even though it was never left outside it's been undercoated at least 3 or 4 times!! Not sure what the engine type is but when they drove it into my garage I could sure hear it purring like a kitten so the engine has also been well looked after. New battery was installed, fully saftied (which it passed with flying colours) I could not have asked or even hoped for a better car for a Knight Rider transformation project.

This is the first time I've ever owned a car and I know next to nothing about auto mechanics or body work so this is going to very much be a learning experience for me and many new skills will need to be learned as well as a lot of research into all of the various "How To's" Fortunately I'm an artist both traditional and digital with a keen eye for detail and good hands, I've worked on props and miniatures, sculpting, and painting so I have good skills in those areas, I'm pretty mechanically inclined so this is going to be very much like a much bigger art project for me. This car IS a work of art. I'm so stoked to finally be able to work on creating my very own K.I.T.T.

Today he's going to get a good cleaning as you can see he's a little dusty but beautiful non the less :) Parts wise so far I've ordered the Bowling Ball Hubcaps, I got a pretty good deal on a set of 5 that look to be in pretty good condition.

On this blog I will keep up to date on my K.I.T.T. conversion's progress and provide links to where I have purchased custom parts for my Knight Rider. I hope you will wish me luck as for me this is a life long dream that is FINALLY coming true :)