A man has spent over £25k making the car from the Knight Rider TV show, which is now worth around £40,000.
Rich Barker initially bought the 1984 Pontiac Firebird in 2015 and spent two years and £26,840 transforming it. The 44-year-old, from Frodsham, Cheshire, managed to dodge around £15k in labour costs by doing all the work himself, helped out by his job as a car paint sprayer.
Now Rich enjoys taking the car out in the sunshine as well as car events to raise money for charity. He said: "I think it would be a crime to keep it hidden away in garage or something. It doesn't do the car any good not to be driven either. I always get amazing reactions from people when I'm out for a drive.”
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When Rich bought the car it required a full restoration, as well as the added details to make it look as authentic as possible. "I spent about two years restoring it mechanically and then another year turning it into the Knight Rider car,” he continued. “Externally, the car in the show isn't that different to the 1984 Firebird, it just needed a new nose comb with a little red scanner light in it, and things like that
"Inside is where the real work needed to be done so that you can sit in it and actually feel like you're in the car from the show. As well as changes to the dashboard, Rich revealed he had to find a specific material for the seats in the car.
He said: "The dash has custom electronics, and an overlay that's covered in buttons that don't do anything. I added TV screens, and it plays all of the sounds that you hear it make in the TV programme.
"One of the most difficult things to find was the seat material, it's called Camel Tan Parella Cloth. He added: "They used it in cars for about two years and then realised it was a really bad choice, so the car has like the last 10 yards of the original material that they made.
"It took me two years to find it, so I keep the seats covered most of the time to avoid it getting bleached by the sun and cracking. You wouldn't even make a dress out of it, let alone cover car seats."
Rich often takes the car to car shows in order to help raise money for charity. He said: "I only go to around one paid event a year, just to cover the cost of having the car. Otherwise, I go to ones that are raising money for people who need it.
“I know a couple of other people who have other replicas of cars from films and shows, so we try and co-ordinate so we're all bringing something different."
