I was recently searching out a diesel tach for my friend (Romel77), so I have been looking at a lot of instrument cluster pictures and realized just how badly my instrument gauges are faded. Living in the ultraviolet belt of the Southwest has taken its toll on my truck's interior. My fuel, oil, temp, and batt gauge needles are essentially white, and my tach redline zones have only a faint tint of color remaining.





It also seems that the km/h subscript on the speedometer may have had some color to it originally.



I want to restore my instrument cluster, and was hoping you all might have some reference photos I can use for color matching. I know most parts houses sell a fluorescent orange for the gauge needles. It might not be exactly OEM but certainly better than what I have. My best clue so far about the tach redline zones is from this YouTube video: which looks kind of like "goldenrod" yellow and "cherry" red, but even his gauge needles are somewhat faded... here is a screenshot from the video.



Anybody else happen to have any other reference photos from an old brochure, or happen to have a museum piece diesel tach in their truck?

 

Try the pics in an album of mine here on a Bronco that has been stored in doors all its life. And, this is one of the pics:

 

Awesome! That answers my question about the km/h subscript! That is a gorgeous interior. These things were sharp when they were new...

 

Yes, that is a gorgeous interior and a beautiful truck. Last I knew it hadn't met the $30K reserve on eBay. Deserves to be in a museum. I got permission from the owner to capture the pictures for us.

 

Not diesel but I did paint mine though using red needle paint. I have how ever been thinking of buying some of the white to take mine apart again and go over all the other parts of the gauges so they will glow like the needles do.


Mine how ever had no coloring on the KPH scale it is white like the rest of the numbers. Wonder if there could be a difference by year on something like that or not.

 

That is a nice looking cluster Rusty. Thanks for the pics. The needles look more red than OEM but I like the look. Thanks for the tip about fluorescent white. I will want to do that while I am working on it. Interesting that yours had no km/h subscript color. What year is your truck? Mine is 1986 but that is not the original speedometer. Mine locked up and the one in my picture is a JY replacement. I will probably match the yellow on the subscript with the yellow on my tach. I'm not after a historically perfect restoration, just something that looks believable. I think I forfeited the the badge of "restoration" when I chopped 16" out of the frame to make a crew cab short bed and retrofitted it with 80/81 front end trim... but I still want it to look like something that could be original if Ford had offered such a configuration.

 

Mine is a '82, this is not the original cluster to the truck as mine did not have a factory tach but the original cluster looks identical to this by having the Km/Hr scale in white as well. Now it is possible the color faded but I don't believe it could fade to white while the needles remained a orange color.


As far as appearing red, the photos for some reason make the needles appear more red than they actually are more of a red with a hint of orange. The orange paint is actually more yellowish looking than the red.


From the research I did to restore my gauges I found out that the Red is correct for Ford vehicles and that for Chryslers and jeeps the Orange is correct. Chevrolet would be a blend of Orange and Red as its not as vivid of a red as Fords is but its not as orange as the Chryslers are.

 

Info and photos of needle paint here .........

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post14720163

Jim

 

Ford F834,


Here is another view...http://www.ebay.com/itm/1986-Ford-truck-gauge-cluster-Diesel-Manual-RPM-Tach-very-rare-setup-/221749095198?hash=item33a146ab1e&vxp=mtr

 

It is interesting that we have conflicting pictures - some with the KM markings in yellow and some with them in white. And, I agree that it isn't likely that the needles haven't faded but the KM markings have gone to a uniform white.

Maybe another source would be original sales lit. I'll look to see what I have. Perhaps it varied by year?

 

I think it did vary by year.

I know on my 1985 F150 Lariat model, the "km/h" scale is like the Bronco Gary Lewis referenced: orange, like the needles. I have a very good 1986 cluster in my possession that also has an orange scale. Note that the 1985 and 1986 models had quite a few cosmetic changes from the earlier models.

I have another very good cluster from a 1984 F150, and the "km/h" is a uniform light gray, almost white. Just like the cluster referenced in the post above from JimsRebel. And I have yet another cluster from a 1981 truck that has a perfectly white scale with one other difference from the later models in the temperature scale: the first tick mark where it reads "NORMAL" is much further to the right than on the later models. In other words, there is a bigger gap between the "C" and the beginning of the scale, compared to the "L" at the end of the scale. You can see it in the picture above from Rusty S.

I REALLY need to get a life.

But I do wonder why Ford didn't mark the redline on the tachometers for the gas engines? Ford didn't mark the redline on ANY of the 1980 - 1996 gas engine models, except for the Lightning.

 

Rick - Good observations. Thanks.

As for the tach, I've always assumed the lack of a red-line was so they could use the tach on different engines since each had a different rev band. However, that doesn't explain the diesel tach as there was only one diesel for several years.

 

Ever attempt to rev a stock 4.9L/300 six cylinder anywhere near a destructive zone?


Seriously, a stock non-F.I. version is literally out of breath by 3500 RPMs.

 

this is good to hear, I was contemplating removing my lens and trying to repaint mine as I have been considering painting the hash marks and numerals with new flourscent white paint so they will glow like the needles do. Atleast I see that others have seen these with white or greyish white scale for the Km/Hr as mine appears. Now given it would be nice if we could break it down further to know what year used white and which year the gray scale. I know mine is probably a very light greyish white color but I always figured it was white but with the skinnier numerals and hashmarks it appeared off colored compared to the bolder markings. If this is correct for an '82 I wonder where I could get flourscent paint to repaint that. Probably isn't much of a big deal when you think about it as most people don't wouldn't even notice something like that.




If you want to get the paint I used, I got mine from Hi Po Parts, they sell on ebay but s/h and over all cost is cheaper through their site. THey also sell more than just red, orange, and white. They sell custom colors as well for people wanting to change the look of their gauges. They sell it in Red, Orange, White, Yellow, Green, Pink, and Blue. So for the diesel tach you can get the yellow and red for the markings

 

For the sake of gauge reference, here's what's in front of the wheel on Festus. Absolute bare bones, factory stock, 1981 F100. All white except for the three needles.