Continuing on with some prep work for installing the front nose Fog Lights and relocation of the Turn Signals. My goal for today was just to simply re attach the front Impact Absorption Bar onto the car now that it has been cleaned up and repainted. First step was to place it on it's back so I could put the shims back on and then carefully lift it back into position and insert the bolts into the mounts and then hand tighten the nuts back up until I had it pretty much centred on the car.
With that done I re installed the front nose support structure. I'm pretty sure that nut closest to the front top of the support structure is either going to need to be removed or relocated as it sits right in the middle of where the Knight Rider front nose scanner shelf sits, so I notice it tends to bow the scanner shelf up in the middle creating a slight but noticeable hump or bend. I'll do that later on but for now all I needed to do is get the Impact Absorption Bar, Front Nose Support structure and the front nose back on so I can mark where I will need to install my Fog Light mounting brackets.
While re installing the front nose I can see that my passenger side is still not fitting as nice as I would like, I'm wondering if it is the fender that is more the issue?? Perhaps it need to be adjusted forwards a little to match up more, funny because I didn't notice any miss alignment with the stock front nose. In any event the nose looks a lot better black, even flat primer black it's starting to REALLY come together. I still have a little sanding and priming to do in a few areas on the front nose but it's getting a lot closer. ;)
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. ;)
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.
