knight rider online

Sorry I haven't been posting lately guys, been busy with own site and looking for a car.

Question: What year did those curved tailights come in for the Trans Am? Is it possible/impossible to install blackout plates? Thanks.

-KnightRider2000

The curved tail lights came out for the Firebird in 1985. It's not possible to attach blackout plates on them. You would have to replace them first with 1982-1983 (or possibly 1984) type tail lights then the blackouts would fit.

HondaSiR wrote:The curved tail lights came out for the Firebird in 1985. It's not possible to attach blackout plates on them. You would have to replace them first with 1982-1983 (or possibly 1984) type tail lights then the blackouts would fit.

ACTUALLY. just so you arent misled bythe above incorrect statement, you can purchase black outs for the curved lights. just go to any custom car shop and they can order themfor you. or you can probably find them on ebay. i think they cost around $100. they look pretty sweet.

ad227529 wrote:ACTUALLY. just so you arent misled bythe above incorrect statement, you can purchase black outs for the curved lights. just go to any custom car shop and they can order themfor you. or you can probably find them on ebay. i think they cost around $100. they look pretty sweet.

I don't think I'm misleading anyone. If you tried to attach a blackout plate to an existing curved tail light, it would jut out abnormally. And the curved tail lights are already blacked out, if you put a tinted acrylic plate over it, the lights won't shine as bright when the lights/brake lights are on.

Besides, the original Trans Ams that were used in the series have always been 1982-1984 models. They never used curved tail lights back then.

It can be done, had to do them on mine (a 1992 the latest model that can be used on these cars so if anyone has any questions on retro-fitting the old stuff just PM me). In fact I would recomend this route over the late model covers. When you think of all the hundreds and thousands of dolars your gonna spend on this project what's an extra $25-$50 for accurate tailights. All 82-84 Firebird and T/A tailights will work. Here's the trick get the T/A ones. Firebird ones have a reddish tint to them while the T/A have a smoked tint. I have both. When I got my first set of flat lights, which came from an 84 Firebird, I didn't know the difference. My neighbor runs a wrecking yard so he sent me a flat bed a couple of weeks ago with an 83 T/A on it. That's where I got my second set from. You will have to take the 82-84 blinker assembly off and splice it on the stock late model blinker line (3 wires I believe, nothing too hairy). The small running lights (3 or 4 per side) will have no place to plug in on the older tailights so just yank the small bulbs and stick the assemblies behind the bumper of something. Voila, instant retrofit. Can be done in an afternoon.

I have also tried the GTS late model style covers and were not that impressed. They are 3-pieces and tend to fall apart over time. For a show car I imagine they would be fine but not for a car that is driven on a semi-regular basis. Why there aren't any 1 piece curved blackouts available for the late models I will never know. If you go this route stock up on sand paper because you will spend a weekend sanding down the edges for a decent fit.

I think a KITT car is a 3 stage deal. 1. Mecahnical, 2. getting your donor as close to the show donor as possible. Basically taking what ever year and model you have and making it an 82 T/A, and 3. all the replica goodies. You don't neccesarily have to follow this. I've seen a lot of good replicas that left the different year trim stuff on and added the KITT stuff (we all know how awesome KITT-X is, right?). I know KnightRider2000 wants a pretty close replica so I hope this helps you out