I have been thinking about making my own custon dash for sometime now. I was thinking just potting a peice of polished aluminum,diamondplay or something along those lines. I was thinking it would be easy enough to do that and just drill some round holes and put in some nice gauges. What I need to know is there any gauges I could buy that would basically wrie right up with the sensors that are in the truck now. I'm looking to put in a speedometer, heat gauge, fuel gauge, oil pressure and battery.

 

Any aftermarket gauge would require it's own sending unit.

You can buy complete dashes with gauges for 70's trucks from online sites

 

How big of a job is it to put in a new sending unit? Is it basically just removing the old one and putting theres in?


And would you happen to have a link to one of these complete dashes?

 

The only gauge I'm aware of that can be bought and wired to the existing sending unit is the fuel gauge. You must buy the gauge for the Ford vehicles so the ohm's are correct. Other than that most all gauges will come with sending units (pressure and temp gauges) that will bolt right in place of the stock sending units. You can also get mechanical gauges which will feed the gauge directly rather than via a sending unit. Speedometers will sometimes require an adapter for the Ford cable end to fit it or, again, you can get an electronic speedometer and a sending unit instead of the old cable style. They cost more than mechanical speedometers but are typically very easy to calibrate. FWIW I prefer Autometer gauges, very high quality and great support from the company.

I have a gallery for my custom built dash, might give you some ideas for yours: https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gal...&albumid=12311

Keep in mind that the dash is tilted down. If you just install a panel over your current gauge cluster it'll point your gauges at your lap and make them hard to read. Look into angling the whole panel up a bit or using angled bezels for the gauges to point them at your head. In my case I angled the whole dash up so that's one more option.

 

OHHH!!! This is exactly what I have been wondering too!! How did you, ivanribic, get the speedo to work so I can do the exact same thing!! And how did you calibrate it for the larger tires???

 

Calibrating tires to speedo.
FTE has a calculators page for users to use for calibrating speedo gears to axle ratio vs tires.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/calculators/index.php

 

I'm using an Autometer electronic speedometer so I pulled a speed sending unit out of a later model Ford van ($2 at the junk yard). The unit plugs into my transfer case where the speedometer cable goes and then has 2 wires coming out. One wire is grounded and the other runs to the speedometer. Once it's connected you put the speedometer into calibrate mode you just drive exactly 2 miles and hit the button again. Then the speedometer is calibrated. You can do this each time you change gears or tire sizes. It's a pretty cool setup.

 

exactly 2 miles at what speed? any more detailed info on the sending unit so i can look for one? how about a short walkthrough?

 

also, this maybe a dumb quetion, but do aftermarket speedos have odometers and trip meters? thanks a lot!!

 

It doesn't really matter what speed you drive the 2 miles at. The speedometer is calculating how many pulses (signals) the sending unit sends it in your 2 mile drive. Then it calibrates itself. Actually there's a very slight increase in tire diamter at higher speeds due to centrifugal force so for the most accurate reading you'd probably do it at 45-50mph but honestly I don't know that you'd ever notice a difference. The important part is that you start and stop the calibration at exactly 2 miles. You could have a pace car follow you and use walkies or cell phones to communicate and track the 2 miles.

Yes, the aftermarket odometer still has a trip odometer. On the electronic models like mine it's digital. Mechanical models will have a trip odometer too.

I can't tell you a whole lot more about the sending unit really. It's been a long time since I played with it. I remember that I pulled if off an 80's van with a C6. The sending unit fit in the transmission (it's about 3" long, black plastic looking thing) and then the speedometer cable came out of that. I think the unit is used for the cruise control, to monitor speed. Maybe someone else here knows what I'm talking about and can give you more details. Anyhow, if you have a self-pull yard in your area just duck under some trucks/vans and follow the speedo cable to the tranny or t-case and you should be able to find one. Hope that helps.