I just wanted to ask you guys with the basic steel gauge cluster surrounds what color you have. Is it silver or white painted ? I'm trying to find out all Fords had one color and Mercs another or if different plants installed different clusters.

mike

 

Here's mine:

 

It's supposed to be silver "actually more aluminum colored" and flat black. I repainted mine with flat black, and aluminum color paint. Looks like original. Mine had the original colors when I repainted it, and what I used matched real well. This applies to ford. Being a redneck in TX, I've never actually seen a mercury truck. MK

 

Pat, your picture is one of the reasons I'm asking this question. Is your cluster original or did you paint it? I was fairly sure all the base Fords had silver and the Mercs had white.

mike

 

It's original. My truck was made in San Jose, which is where I hear the Merc trucks were also made.

I haven't seen another truck with a white besel in my junkyard travels.

 

mine is a 70 it is chrome and black

 

Not to pick on you opiewan, but the question was regaurding 67, 68, 69 trucks, as the standard instrument besel was different than the 70-72, which all use the plastic besel.

 

Up here in SD I have seen many, many Fords with a white bezel. I have only seen one silver bezel, and this was in a Ford also. I would have to guess that maybe it depends on the plant or interior colors??

 

hmm i understand, is it big time differnce ? i saw one today that was white, i think it was a 67, someone liberated the door handles and left the windows up so i couldnt get in to see for sure. had the big round center speedo and 1 gauge on either side smaller

 

I have one like Pats in my 72. I snatched it from a Ford. Never even seen merc in person.

 

Hummmm. Starting to sound like a year thing maybe. Maybe most of the 67's with standard cabs were white. I have a 67 brochure with pix of all three cab grades. It sort of looks like the 67 with the standard cab might have been white in the pix. Kind of hard to tell, but it looks lighter than the others, and reflects less of the cabs selected color in the pix. But the custom cab and ranger look to be silver. Maybe they switched to all silver in 68. If I remember right, they changed the names of the cab designations in 68-70 or so. I was thinking maybe 68. My 68 is a plain jane cab, and it's cluster is silver. Mine was also a KC truck. Anyway, if this is true, white clusters should be in 67 trucks only. And only the standard cab. I note pat67shorty's seems to be a standard cab, and not a custom cab. Is that correct? I notice that the text in the brochure says with a custom cab, they add "bright-metal parts", including the cluster. But it also adds the stainless headlight trim, and grille. I see pat67shorty's has the white "standard cab" front end. It does have a horn ring though. ?? Kind of strange, as that ring was for custom cabs in 67. Maybe a mix of options ordered?? MK

 

I notice looking at opiewan's dash without the pad, it doesn't seem to look half bad in the pix. I would have thought there would have been a bunch of holes, etc. Kind of vaguely looks like the dash in a 60' falcon I once had, except mine was black. My 68 pad "blue" is still in fairly good shape, but I don't know how long that will last. It has a few minor small cracks in the surface, but none have really opened up yet to look ugly. I try to keep the sun off it with window shades, etc when parked. The pads would last nearly forever if the UV rays didn't nail them year after year. Most trucks with good pads lived in a garage. Mine did for the most part. Until I got it anyway.
MK

 

I have a 67 Ranger that has a silver and black bezel. It was manufactured at the KC, MO plant.

 

my dash does have the standard holes where all the bolts were, it is just the bright sunlight and the camara angle that concealed them from view. i repainted the dash and took the vents out of the pad i took off and painted them to match. I plan on covering up the holes when i am ready to finally finish my paint job.

 

My last 67 had an original white bezel.
jor