I am sprucing up my 83 F150. It has the beige interior, and I was wondering if anyone had any photos of interiors they have done or seen that they could send me. I really want it to look nice.

 

One of the nicest upgrades would be the woodgrained factory dash and radio panels. They also had woodgrained panels on the doors and a woodgrained steering wheel pad. This wood be especially nice with your beige interior. Another nice touch would be the chrome door panel rings. All these pieces were also available on the 80-86 full size Broncos. I installed all these pieces on my 83 Flareside and I really like the way they look.
If you can get a factory pickup sales brouchure, it will show you a lot of interior trim and accessory items. I found the pieces in the local junkyard, it took awhile to find them all, but it was worth it.
If you have any questions, drop me an email @ jcricket83(No Email Addresses In Posts!).

Ken

 

I restored one of these interiors in a Bronco (same color)..... I was amazed at how badly the original had faded. No longer beige, it was becoming a sick, pale shade of pink in some places and olive in others. I ordered the replacement (aftermarket) door panels from J.C. Whitney..... they work, and are an improvement, but aren't as nice as stock. Both the standard and deluxe panels they advertise use the plug-type "push-in" fasteners, which pass through holes in the panel (the heads of these fasteners are painted to match the panels - sort of cheesy). If you're really picky, get the Ford panels, otherwise these will save you some money. After I received mine, I realized that their "tan" was so far off of my interior's faded hue that it was going to look funny, so I went to the local auto body supplier and bought several cans of interior paint in saddle tan. Spend the extra $$$ for a quality system (which includes cleaner, a spray prep, and the top coat). This will work wonders.... it settles into the factory grain easily, and will let you paint anything you should find in a salvage yard to match (don't use Krylon vinyl & interior dye - poor product). I agree on the woodgrain panels, if you can find an XLT these would be best. Also, consider changing out the coat hanger thin factory steering wheel with one from Grant. One more small detail..... go to your local hobby shop and buy a small bottle of Testor's flourescent orange and refinish your guage needles (use clear acrylic polish to spruce up the instrument panel lens, while you're at it.) I thought I had some shots of my interior..... I'll try to find them and see if I can scan them in for you.

 

Let's see if this works......



Attachments:

 

Okay..... the pix did turn out sort of large (I'll need to work on sizing them better). I can e-mail you some sharper images, if you'd like. I found some of the interior paint in the garage. I used SEM Products #15033 Saddle Tan on the dash and dash pad, as well as on the pillar and kick panel trim. If you can get a good enough look at the center console, notice that it's still that weird pink shade. As I didn't want to dye the seats, I decided to leave it in a color (its faded shade) to better match them. The door panels matched up fairly well in the color in which they were ordered (tan). For what it's worth, I also installed new Ford sun visors, which very closely matched the SEM Saddle Tan color of the dash. The truck originally came with a rubber floor mat, which I replaced with an Auto Custom Carpets custom molded carpet set. It fit like a glove, with the biggest challenge being accurately cutting out the gear shift holes (they weren't premarked). I've also found that the Universal tan colored automotive carpet sold by Wal-Mart (it comes in rolls in the automotive section) very closely matches the ACC tan color. I used this to custom-make some replacement panels in the rear cargo area. The truck (being an '85) also had the aluminum door sill plates, which were pretty nasty. Rather than fool with trying to polish them, I removed the black plastic ones from an '89 in the local salvage yard. I only needed to drill an extra hole or two, as there was a slight difference in this area.