Project 'Smokey' - '72 Ranger XLT

[cdnwillyg]

Steve thanks for the info on the Raptor liner, I will seek that out for my truck and have it color matched.
I feel your pain in that having the truck weatherproof and having to sit outside over the winter.
Are you going to have it drive-able so you can bring it in to work on it?
What is your plan on completing your build?
Great looking truck

[Bullitt74]

Are you going to have it drive-able so you can bring it in to work on it?
What is your plan on completing your build?
Great looking truck

It runs and drives currently under its own power...just need a crate to sit on until I get some seats in there. I could drive it home from Lacombe if I really wanted to, but have arranged for flatbed delivery. So it'll be run it in and out of the garage. If we have a mild winter, my daily driver can sit outside until spring...

The rest of the build is piecing together the stuff that's missing...bumpers, exterior trim, gaskets, weatherstripping, rubber plugs and bumpers, and full interior for color change. Custom autosound head unit and will have to hide some speakers somewhere.

[cdnwillyg]

So Steve did the truck find it's way home yet??

[Bullitt74]

It was my intent to bring her home, but my mother in law ended up being a candidate for kidney recipient (she finally matched after 12 years), so my wife had to visit her last week leaving me in charge of the kidlets. Now put off until end of Jan when Ken gets back from vacation...

[crazyhorse]

Mr Bullit, God bless your Mother In Law, I pray she will be well soon.

I hope you get your truck home and enjoy "messing" with it.

[Manny]

Mr Bullit, God bless your Mother In Law, I pray she will be well soon.

I hope you get your truck home and enjoy "messing" with it.

Definitely will be praying for a good recovery, and that you get a chance to get going soon!

[Bullitt74]

Thank you guys for your prayers, kind words and support! Mom-in-law is doing as good as can be expected, and should be discharged home soon!

[Bullitt74]

So I got bored waiting to get my truck home, so I tackled my instrument cluster.



Painted the needles with some good 'ol Testors florescent orange.








Installed some LED lights from HiPo Parts - I hear they are the bomb. Supposed to change the cluster background lights to blue, and brighten it up significantly.


Speedo needle taped down until it was fully dry / cured. Don't forget the 3rd screw when installing the speedo...made that mistake today.


Ready for the bezel.

[Bullitt74]

So Santa did come this year...



The unboxing:

Overall, a pretty nice piece! Only difference is the FORD letters in the middle are painted silver from factory.

First thing to do is replace the rubber bumpers on the backside of the bezel, as DC does not install these:
Here is the old unit. Half of them were missing, so I decided to find an alternate solution to using the old ones.

I dissected 3M Foam 2-sided automotive tape, and cut to length of the bumper:

Installing into slot on the new bezel. It I left the adhesive backing on, but there is a bit of adhesion on the edges which will help hold the lens in place:

New lens - for $25, it's a worthwhile upgrade if you have your old unit apart:


Ta da! Final product ready for installation into Smokey.

[Lone Ranger]

Wow good work Steve that turned out better than new! I can't wait to see those LEDs in there...I might have to switch mine out.

[cdnwillyg]

Yes nice work! I too would like to see those leds lite up!

[crazyhorse]

Mr Bullitt, that sure does look good.
Thank you for posting the good photos.

[67mann]

[DuckRyder]

Very cool...

Y’all are putting me to shame...

[popeyes71]

Great work on dash cluster! I did the same thing to my truck and the new cluster just looks so awesome in the truck. I didn't do the LED light bulbs so I would be interested on how those look, keep us posted!