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.