I've never been crazy about the interior in my truck. It's a red truck with tan interior. Blah. I wanted in black/charcoal like my red 03 Lightning and my red 02 Dak R/T had. Red with black interior just looks much better IMHO.

So I started with the dash. I like the 05-07 dash, but a total conversion was more than I wanted to commit to.

Junk yard searching began.

I got an Excursion trim panel for around the instruments and stereo. I like the way the top flares out on them better than the recessed way my stock 99-04 dash is.

I always hated the way my brake controller was screwed up under the dash like a cheap add-on... cuz it is! So I found an 06 KR F250 lower dash with the small glove box, upfitter switches and a factory brake controller.

I haven't installed the brake controller yet. Just installed the switches to fill the hole and a little storage pocket where the controller will eventually go. Still have to figure out how to wire everything up though. That will be a thread all it's own. LOL!

I also got a leather wrapped steering wheel out of an Excursion to replace my hard rubber steering wheel with the cheap auto-zone cover.

The dash pieces I got were tan and brown, so I used Color Coat Chip Card to change the color to satin black. Cleaned with acetone and MEK. Used adhesion promoter and the SEM paint. Came out pretty good. Took three cans of $15 spray paint and one can of adhesion promoter to do what you see in the pics.

I got the dash and pillars done. I'll do the rest of the plastics as time allows. Then later I'll replace the carpet and headliner with new stuff.

Going to try to find some black seat belts instead of dying them if possible. May also try to find some 08+ door panels if the budget allows.

Finally, the seats will either get recovered in cloth, or the factory cloth will get dyed black since I'm not real crazy about leather. But if I find a deal on some leather seats out of a wrecked truck I may go that route too. Not sure yet.

It'll take some time, but it'll get done eventually. I'm kinda committed now. Can't stop with just a black dash. LOL! Although the black and tan doesn't look too bad... it's still not the right look with a red truck.

Anyway here's some pics.

Before:





During:





After:



















And my dvd/navigation stereo anti-theft cover. No one wants to steal a stock radio right?

 

looks sweet man. Nice job documenting it all

 

love the cover, pure genus

the retrofit looks great