We're infected with a disease that, fortunately, many of you are suffering from as well. It's called: customitis. There is no known cure and the only way to treat this formidable adversary is by looking through magazines, catalogs, and going online and buying everything you think will make your truck look better than before. Other treatments include personalizing your truck to the best of your ability, and then making sure your truck does in fact turn heads. One recent attempt of ours to cure this disease saw a new stainless steel US Speedo gauge cluster being installed on our Project Sinatra F-150.
Stock is never a good option for a truck, and this black cluster was a little too boring f
It was a quick and painless treatment that saw our all-black, boring, stock Ford gauge cluster being replaced by a new stainless steel unit from US Speedo. Featuring blue numbers with blue and silver needles, the new overlay more closely matches the PPG Midnight Sapphire Blue body color and certain interior pieces. Check out just how easy the installation was, as we made one phone call to Stylin' Concepts and had our new overlay in three days. Stylin' carries the full line of US Speedo overlays and several other manufacturers, as well. So if you, or your dash, are in need of customizing, go to stylinconcepts.com to get your fix.
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Just more than an hour after starting the install, we had great-looking gauges with added
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Starting with the packages from Stylin' Concepts, we have to admit we ordered both the nat
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After removing the three 9/32-inch screws from the upper plastic trim piece,the headlight,
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In order to get to the two wiring harnesses, the upper plastic piece had to be removed. It
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Using a longer extension and the same 9/32-inch socket, the cluster retaining screws were
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Before we disconnected the wiring harnesses, we used a dry-erase marker to mark on the pla
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Then, we easily removed the harnesses.
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On the floor of the garage, the retaining screws holding the clear plastic cover were remo
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US Speedo supplied this needle removal tool and the factory orange needles were removed.
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We pulled the factory black overlay off of the cluster. There was no turning back.
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Next up, we pulled the adhesive film off of the US Speedo stainless steel overlay and appl
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After plugging the cluster back into the harnesses to give it power, the needles were plac
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Just like that, the gauges were in place and looking great. Minus one needle stop, as you
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At night, the gauges glow a nice teal blue color.
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From the Driver SeatInstalling the overlay was a breeze. We only ran into two-easily preventable-snags. First off, the needle stops, known as the little black push-in pieces that prevent the needles from going past zero, did not really fit the new overlay very well. Because of this, they do not point perpendicular with the overlay and are crooked. Also, one of the four needle stops fell out during installation, and it of course, fell down inside of the steering column somewhere. Now, when the lights are on, we have a bright white light shining from the overlay with nothing attractive to fill the hole. The second snag came when the actual needle mounting stem supplied in the kit broke when we tried to pull it off with the supplied removal tool. The tachometer needle wasn't at a true zero and after pulling it straight off, and despite using the tool, it simply snapped off at the base. This set us back half an hour, as we made a trip to the parts store for super glue and attempted to glue it back together perfectly perpendicular. We did it, and it does work alright now, but it was a real inconvenience. Overall, we like the new looks; even though the numbers are more of a teal than a true blue when lit up.
Your Questions Answered:Time Spent Working: 1 hour and 15 minutesDegree of Difficulty: Beginner
Tools Needed: 9/32 socket or nut driver, Phillips screwdriverParts Used: US Speedo stainless overlay and needles SSF01B $259.95