One of the things I really miss from my 65 is the round gauges. The one thing I really dislike on my 72 is the "sweep" speedo. The whole dash is "cheese dick".

Has anyone changed their bump side gauges to round gauges? That whole modular thing-a-majig throws me. I know next to nothing regarding electrical

 

I'm seeing more of owners putting in 1967-up F-600 gauges in their 1967-72s. The gauges are round, so is the speedo, lots of NOS out there and it seems to be an easy fit. If I hadn't had an NOS speedometer and gauges, I might have thought about doing that to my '69 F250 since I drove those old F600s in my early trucking days.

 

I should have said 1967-up F600 instrument panel and gauges (one won't fit without the other)

 

There's been a few. F600 gauges are popular as they are a pretty easy conversion, but there has been an increase lately in custom instrument clusters and various gauge layouts.

 

Here's an example of a Dentside F500-up instrument cluster.

 

Nice! It is a tempting mod.

 

Interesting to know that the dent F-500+ IC fits a bump dash. That would expand my search for one for cheap.

 

These are some 'big truck' instrument clusters I pulled out of Bumpside and Dentside F600-F800 trucks.

The white -faced ones came out of Bumpside era big trucks. The black-faced ones came out of Dentside big trucks.











An example of a big truck cluster with aftermarket gauges. (Coupe5oh's photos).





Instruments lit up at night.





For a '67-'69 F100-F350, the Bumpside and Dentside F500-up cluster hard wiring harness connections will plug directly into the main wiring harness connections of the recipient truck. If you have a '70-'72, the plug and a short length of the main wiring harness will have to be cut from the donor truck to wire the big truck cluster into the '70-'72 model F100-F350 trucks ('70-'72 F100-F350s had a printed circuit board*).

* However, there is an exception. Somewhere along the line --POSSIBLY '78 or '79, at least SOME of the Dentside big trucks also got a printed circuit board with this style of instrument cluster --as seen here.

 

Be still my beating heart. I will search tirelessly for the unicorn you speak of

I am definitely going to scour this state. I have half the battle won already if I am understanding what the experts here have said. I have gauges, no idiot lights.

I love these set ups. I don't care if it is steel or polished alum. Of course I prefer the latter but I could make either one look sweet. There should be a drool icon.

 

I've never seen one of these big truck clusters in aluminum. All the ones I've seen were steel. There may have been different cluster finish options (depending on the trim level of the truck) but, in all the Bumpside F500-up trucks I've seen, the instrument clusters were painted white. In all the F500-up Dentside trucks I've seen, these instrument clusters had chrome with the faces painted black.

I know where about four more of these clusters are. Unfortunately, most of these clusters I know of have holes drilled in them where some idiot mounted a CB mic bracket, a horn button or something dumb like that (senseless).

 

Would it be possible to aquire one of these clusters? Can they be salvaged?

 

I would just have to go look at them again to see which one is in the best condition and find out how much they want for it.

Best I can remember, some of the holes were drilled into the circular portions of the clusters (where no factory gauge was installed but a gauge could be installed into). If you were going to install aftermarket gauges into the cluster, then maybe holes drilled in those areas wouldn't be such a big deal, if you were going to cut that portion out for a gauge anyway.

Seems like I remember some that had holes drilled in them outside of the circular impressions. In this case, it may be difficult to patch the holes and it not be noticeable.

Unfortunately, this is really the only major salvage yard in my town and it's not unusual for them to want more for the stuff they sell than if it was a matter that they had some local competetion. Sometimes good deals can be had. Sometimes they are on the high side of things. You just never know with them.

The other bad part is they aren't open on Saturdays so, it makes it difficult for me to get there, after I get off from work and a 20-mile drive home, and have much time left to get there and to do much of anything before they close at 5:00 p.m.

 

There was a post that someone made a while back that had everyone posting their gauge clusters. https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-clusters.html

 

I'm about 6 mos. from needing the cluster. I really would love one of the 78-79 models w/ the modular circuit board since it is basically the same in the back as mine. If not then the 71-72. Either one I would like at least six inches of the harness from the cluster back. A foot would be great.

Also, I have gauges. No idiot lights.

Let me know what they want.

Thank you Ultraranger, Todd.

 

I will TRY to swing by there either before the end of this week or possibly sometime next week to scout out the situation. I can even take pictures and let you see their condition, before you decide yay or nay on any of them.

They pop up from time to time on ebay and usually average around $150.00 (give or take) on there. I have seen them on there for up to $250.00. I could definitely beat $250.00 and even most likely be able to beat $150.00. Shipping would run around $18-$20.00.

Finding one in premium condition from a wrecking yard is next to impossible.