Humanity’s greatest achievements to date have been the 1980’s TV show “Knight Rider” and the candy-and-costumes celebration we call Halloween. This year, with a few bucks and a little amateur electrical engineering, Wires can help you combine the two into the most pimp of costumes: The Knight Industries Two Thousand, a.k.a KITT the talking car.
The prerequisites for this Halloween course in awesome are as follows: 1 translucent seven-day pill box (red is best), 1 string of red Christmas lights, 2 nine-volt batteries, scissors and some electrician’s tape.
First, bore a hole in each compartment of the pill box with the scissors. Cut a string of seven bulbs from your lights and strip the plastic casing from both ends of the wire. A pair of scissors should strip the wire fine, as long as you’re careful. Insert a bulb into each of your newly-bored holes. Cut two longer lengths of wire from your remaining strand and likewise strip both ends of each. Attach one wire to each end of your lights by twisting the exposed strands of copper together. Once twisted into a solid connection, cover that baby with electrical tape, because if you’ve ever put your tongue on a nine-volt (Greg Burroughs triple-dog-dared me to do it in second grade), you know being mildly electrocuted is no fun.
Now, tape your two nine volt batteries together. Cut a small length of wire, strip the ends, and connect the positive (small) terminal of one battery to the negative (big) terminal of the other. This turns your two 9-volt units into one super 18-volt powerhouse. Tape the bare ends of your pillbox strand to the double battery and – IT’S ALIVE! Wear all black, attach this bad boy to your belt (or shirt or hat if you wish) and you’ll be hasslin’ the Hoff like it was going out of style.
The total cost of being KITT is $6 by my count; a dollar each for the lights and the pill box and a few bucks for your nine volts and electricians tape. If you want to cut cost, you can probably get away with plain ol’ clear scotch tape. Upgrade with an on/off switch, and you’ll be able to flicker when talking just like KITT. If you’re electrically minded, chaser lights, though trickier to wire, can replicate the back and forth motion of KITT’s laser sensor. The optimal upgrade, though, is to have one of your buddies wear a white-boy ‘fro wig, a cheap leather jacket and some dollar store aviators. Have him show a little chest hair and you’ve got David Hasselhoff’s Michael Knight to your KITT. You’ll be partying like it’s 1989.
