Whether you want to turn your third gen Firebird into a full KITT replica or just take some body panels off to repair or replace them, it’s always good to know how to proceed and go about that.
Well, since I am pretty particular about the appearance of my KITT and the level of quality that had to go into ‘him’ in the process of restoration, I took off the hood (bonnet in Queen’s english), the fenders, the front and rear bumper, as well as the mirror. None of these parts are particularely difficult to remove, at least not if you do it in the order I did and already removed the inside plastics. I’m saying that because the removal of the rear bumper just takes a bit of time. Why? Well I’m not gonna tell you just like that, I want you to watch the video, of course. 🙂
Here we go! After I went through how to remove the seats, seatbelts and interior plastics in Part 1 back in June, it’s now time to show you how to gut the rest of the interior, namely the steering wheel, the dashpad, the gauge cluster, the center console, as well as the carpets.
That’s about as far as most people will have to go if your car is not damaged in a certain way that you might have to go any further. Anyway, if you clear all of that stuff out of your way you can take care of the inner foundations of your third gen F-Body. For my Firebird that meant: sound deadening, new speakers, new carpets, new seat belts, painting the plastics tan and having the seats, door panels and headliner reupholstered and in some cases strenghtened. But that will come in a few later episodes. Enjoy this part for now! 🙂
This is a video I’ve been wanting to do since I first drove KITT home. I’m compressing the entire (almost) restoration and conversion of my Pontiac Firebird Trans Am KITT in one video. I say almost because this isn’t the of it. I’m still working on mechanic and appearance improvements. This way, it will give you an idea of the extent of work and the amount of video footage that’s gone into restoring this car and transforming it into my own KITT.
After this video, I plan on continuing publishing the countless videos on the restoration process, as well as including visits to car shows, driving sequences and just fun stuff. Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
When I started my Firebird KITT project back in the second half of 2017, the first big part was to remove the seats and all of the interior panels to be reupholstered and have my front seat back rests modifyied to look like the original PMD version they had in the early Trans Am and logically, in KITT.
The car remained without seats and panels until I got it back from the body and paint shop. Then I went even further to remove the seat belts, the center console, dash and carpets.
Here’s the first part of how to go about that!
Originally I had in mind to dive into all the restoration videos around Christmas. Even though I have made significant progress in KITT since, I was too busy to edit a significant amount of videos. Meanwhile, I opened an Instagram account and started showing the current progress on KITT, which created a bit of a gap between the original presentation of the Firebird and the current status of the car.
Long story short, here is the March 2019 update of KITT. Enjoy the video!
What some could consider as being part of the basic maintenance, I decided to make it a separate video. Whereas changing the fuel filter is fairly easy on these thirdgens, getting to the fuel pump is a bit more tricky. Not super hard but it requires you to lift the car and drop the tank, as there is no fuel trap door to access to it from the inside of the car…at least not from the factory. Enjoy the video!
As KITT is already back from the body and paint shop and the enterior is almost finished as well, it’s time to remind myself that I haven’t showed much about the entire restoration process so far and that I should start at the beginning. Hence, here is a video about the basic maintenance I did on my 1990 Pontiac Firebird with the 305 V8 engine, the L03 TBI version. This would apply for most thirdgen Pontiac Firebird or Chevrolet Camaro, as they were basically the same cars with the exception of the front and the rear design. Enjoy the video!
KITT created – step by step
KITT is in the making, the phoenix will rise from the ashes and glow of passion. But first things first. In order to make such a project happen, you need to make several packages and line them up on a timeline, basically create a plan. That’s right, and here it is: the build plan for my KITT, from start to finish. Keep you scanners peeled and watch carefully! 🙂
The spark that started a passion for cars
Before going into the deep ends of the engine bay of my Pontiac Firebird KITT project, let me take a few minutes and explain to you why I’m doing this project in the first place and what it actually means to me. Sit back and enjoy the video! 🙂
