| 2001 Ford F150 logo
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 for us.
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.
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 screwdriver
Parts Used: US Speedo stainless overlay and needles SSF01B $259.95
