The American Dream - My Knight Rider KITT Project :-)

[Knight_Rider]

Well he has finally arrived, KITT was dropped off this morning to me, given him a clean and taken some photos for the start of what is going to be a long term project to make the car externally and internally an exact replica of KITT!

On inspecting the car, there is some rust issues that will need attending to, no rot though which is a benefit. Seals are mainly perished and will need replacing, exhaust hangs totally wrong, front headlight comes up but not down, indicator on the right doesnt work, interior dash lights dont work lol, the interior is deffo showing its 28 years tbh, needs to all come out and start again!

Anyway here are some piccys! As you can see its already got the correct nosecone and red scanner light (which is a big bonus!) and the bodyworks generally pretty good!

First jobs are to fix the bits that aint working, indicators etc, then work on the bodywork to get that up to scratch, then the KITT stuff can start, interior needs totally changing as its not the correct KITT colours, seats or of course the dash........ this is the expensive bit, already found a company in the UK that do them - Knights of England. This is the dash I am looking at getting, its fully functional too!

Externally its pretty much already KITT, rear lights need blackouts, front nose needs foglights, and wheels need the black caps on them.

Engine wise we plan on cleaning it up and then suping it up, but thats a way off yet.

I will keep this thread updated anyway as its gonna be one hell of a project

Hope you all enjoy!

 

[Goodj]

Fully functional dash-pack?
Even the radar and Turbo Boost buttons?



This is going to be the single most brilliant thing on the entire forum that I've ever seen. Looking forward to the pictures of you leaping over roadblocks.

On a sidelol, are you going to get a perm or a wig?

 

[Russ_16v]

Can you PM me details (Price, miles etc) if you don't mind mate? will be watching wit interest

 

[edde]

Well done for buying one.

Please don't break the illusion and tell us anything except

-Its the fastest car out there
-Everyone loves it and thinks your a hero
-It realy does talk to you

 

[Knight_Rider]

Ha ha everything bar turbo boost Should hope it all works for over £2k!! He he!

Im so excited to get started on this now! Wish weather wasnt so crappy! Even changed my user name to mark the occasion

And I think a perm would be the way forward and a nice leather jacket, tight jeans and a big belt buckle ha ha! Gonna get some more detailed photos when its not totally pissing it down with rain!

 

[Knight_Rider]

Can you PM me details (Price, miles etc) if you don't mind mate? will be watching wit interest

Ill stick it up here lol I paid £2100 for it 97k on the clock 5.0litre V8, with Elderbrook Carb, Mickey Thompson Rocker Covers, exhausts new but doesnt look amazing tbh, just had a tune up too with new leads, plugs etc.

 

[Knight_Rider]

Well done for buying one.

Please don't break the illusion and tell us anything except

-Its the fastest car out there
-Everyone loves it and thinks your a hero
-It realy does talk to you

In response to this:-

It is actually pretty nippy! Managed to wheelspin setting off and its an auto!
My mates here and cant stop staring at it! Even the missis loves it!
And ive already looked into some voice recognition software that I can install that will make him auto start his engine, play music, open the windows etc etc (but thats a way off yet) lol

 

[Goodj]

Ha ha everything bar turbo boost Should hope it all works for over £2k!! He he!

eBay electric supercharger wired into that button?

 

[TimR26]

This is going to be epic

If you need any parts I'd recommend using USA Automotive they do pretty much everything next day delivery

 

[Knight_Rider]

Nice one! Will give them a looksy!

 

[Knight_Rider]

Just taken a few poor quality night shots to make sure the lights all work as they should

 

[.Adam.]

f**king heeellllllllll so much win.

That replica dash is the stuff dreams are made of.

 

[Dave Hester]

Need to perm your hair next

 

[Jekyll]

This is the coolest project on here

Need to get the street gang from series 4 to modify it so all the panels flare our and make it go silly speeds.

Love that pic of the Michael by the car!

 

[Timi]

This is quality, will be keeping an eye on the thread

 

[Knight_Rider]

f**king heeellllllllll so much win.

That replica dash is the stuff dreams are made of.

Just found a guy on the knight rider uk forum selling all the electronic modules dirt cheap second hand so might get them! just need the actual dash then lol

 

[Mr Burns]

That's ace.

 

[.GAZ.]

Awesome!!

 

[gtrnav]

Brilliantly silly! Just love it. Even dafter than my project, and that's saying something! Good luck with the build. :clap:

 

[.Adam.]

Just found a guy on the knight rider uk forum selling all the electronic modules dirt cheap second hand so might get them! just need the actual dash then lol

Do it. Now.

 

[ivegota16v]

best thing i have seen in a long time

and the hoff pose picture , almost wet myself

 

[Knight_Rider]

best thing i have seen in a long time

and the hoff pose picture , almost wet myself

Shall curl my hair and put on some 80's threads tomm and get a better one ha ha!!!!

 

[welshname]

Subscribed. This WILL be epic.

 

[Knight_Rider]

just been out for a spin and the car is HUGE to drive!!!!!! Like driving the Titanic! Engine died on the drive and ignitions dead now which is odd..... prob just a fuse or a loose wire somewhere lol will have a better look tommorow!

 

[Bluebeard]

As said before, you are a very brave man that must have very deep pockets!

Well done though, going to be a great project!

 

[Naith]

absolute LAD.

 

[Daz.]

I can't think of another car that is so instantly recognisable from the front - love it!

Are all the parts readily available to make it a rep i.e the wheel covers?

 

[jesus]

Mental!

 

[Chrisbaker1000]

Awesome project!... cant wait to see updates on this!...

 

[fez]

excellent amazing buy!!

 

[imprezaworks]

Brilliant. Subscribed.

 

[Knight_Rider]

Done a load of work today stripping out the interior to get a better look at what rust and issues we are dealing with, shall upload pics and full report asap!

 

[Ian_182]

Superb effort i think.

So much win...

 

[Knight_Rider]

Right then.... been a VERY cold long day of stripping out KITTs interior, much bigger job than we initially thought sadly, and has uncovered some good things and some bad things, but anyway here is the picture story.....

First job was to get the seats out.... took a couple of cheeky shots of the engine bay too lol. Check out the HIDEOUS bodge of wires leading to the battery. No idea what the frick most of those wires up, but to quote Scotty..."dont give me too many knocks, shes wired up like a christmas tree..."

Anyway seats came out very easily, not the nicest and far from the cleanest seats I have ever seen, and there not the correct KITT PMD seats either way, so not sure whether to keep em or clean/re-trim them... plenty of time for that though.....

T-Tops then came off (so cool) and we removed the rooflining.... not in the best of conditions and re-enforced with gaffer tape!!! Gonna either get re-trimmed or replaced either way!

After that came off, revealed a few nasty spots of rust round the roof, nothing terrible but needs to be sorted.....

Centre console took a hell of a lot to take out as was a very tight fit and ended up cracking the bugger oh well........

Next out came the rear seats.... this revealed a VERY large patch of damp and a small puddle under the back bench..... hmmmm where is it coming from is the question at this point....

All the trim out and rear seats safely inside, now came the hardest part of all, removing the DISGUSTING brown mess that at one point in history resembled a carpet!

This was a lot harder than we expected, and ended up hacking at it with a stanley knife
The finished strippedness....

Next came removing the bitchumen to see the extent of the damage to the underneath... some MAJOR points of rust to the drivers side, not sure how to address them to be honest yet! On the whole though not too bad for a 28 year old car!!!

As you can see some of these patches are quite bad, most of it however is surface rust so will just need stripping, sanding and spraying.... note the fact that the body is WHITE..... clearly this was the cars original colour! lol

Next thing on the agenda is to strip out the "trunk" lol see what lies in store there....

 

[Fred@BTM]

had quite a few repairs already by the look of it, no big deal when its painted!

 

[VeinAST]

Good luck. Huge project!

 

[Knight_Rider]

Yeah Fred that's what I thought really. Only a couple of really bad bits tbh! Rest is just sanding and painting

 

[Fred@BTM]

a lot of yank cars from that era were all white internally from memory

 

[Knight_Rider]

Ahhhh that's good to know the history doesn't show any colour changes so that's a plus!

 

[Jeff456]

Sounds like this will be epic... subscribed!