1982 Trans AM Door Panel Emblems
Throughout most of Knight Rider’s first season, and even into the second season, sharp-eyed viewers could spot a funky little emblem on KITT’s door panels. The studio did not add these emblems; in fact, they were standard issue on the early-to-mid year 1982 production Trans AM with power windows. Instead of needing door panels without a hole for power windows and door panels with a hole for manual (crank) windows, Pontiac just put holes in ALL the door panels and put these emblems in on power window equipped cars. We don’t know precisely when the factory ceased using these emblems, but it was about midway through the production year.
The original four Trans AMs secured to film the Pilot and first season all had these emblems. Over the filming of the first and second season, the cars slowly lost these emblems, replaced with new door panels or another non-descript plug to fill the hole.
These door panel emblems rarely come to market, and when they do, they cost around $150 for a set. Much like we did with our Parella cloth, we wanted to take a super rare, hard to find item and replicate it for the masses. And that’s precisely what we did with these emblems!
Using a set of original GM emblems, we carefully replicated the domed bird decal on the front and the plastic bezel surround. Behind the scenes, though, we upgraded the original three-prong clip that GM used, and replaced it with a screw bolt/shaft combo that will hold the emblems to the door panel a bit more securely.
These new emblems are in stock and available to purchase in the KSR online store by clicking here!
