Spent about an hour today being VERY careful and painting the Saleen letters on my Sport Trac Gauge cluster. Used an extremely small brush, and some Testor's paint.

Not bad, eh?



Here are some gauges from a Mustang, for reference...

 

Wow, you did that freehand? Looks like it belongs there.

 

That looks really good! Perfect place to put it.

 

stencil?

 

Whatever you did, it's a talent I don't have (and coordination I lack, for sure -- you should see my handwriting, for instance :p) and my hat's off to you! Looks good! :)

 

That looks really good. I used a decal for mine:

 

Damn, thats badass John.. Looks good..

 

those look awesome!!!

 

Rwenzing: Where did you find a decal that small? eBay?

 

I made it with my inkjet printer. You can buy a hobby decal maker kit from Testors/Sure Thing. It includes software with stock images and printable decal sheets. These are not durable enough to use on the exterior of the truck but should survive well on a protected interior surface like the cluster. If you want to import your own images, you need a software upgrade:

http://www.decalgear.com/DG/Product....odCode=62101-1

 

Thanks guys!

Christian, it wasn't very hard, but time consuming. I drew the letters onto a piece of tape, used an exacto knife and carved them out, then used MULTIPLE layers of Testors paint to give it a solid look, and it turned out very clean IMO. I let it sit for 15 minutes before I peeled the tape back.

Thanks again for the compliments. Hopefully I'll have the cluster installed soon....(story of my life)

 

LOOKS GREAT!!
Very professional John - looks like it came factory.

 

Awesome job!

 

awesome lookin man!! love that look! i mite have to put some MadaSpeed in my cluster!

one thing....what are u gonna do about the odometer? i saw the sport trac had 1 mile on it and i doubt u're truck has that....how are u gonna fix it?

 

I'm not.

I don't plan on selling my truck. Therefore, I'm going to go by the dealership and obtain one of those labels that shows mileage BEFORE the odo was swapped, and place it inside the door. I've got 61K on my truck right now. So, I'd put 61K on the label and just swap the new cluster in.

It is possible to swap out the odo between clusters, but it involves pulling the needles, and I don't want to mess with the factory calibration.

Thanks for all the compliments guys!

 

i need to get a new cluster anyway because my temp gauge decided to die on me due to me being an idiot at one point in time when i had to change a burned out bulb....i didnt know about this sticker thing....i dont plan on selling my truck anytime soon either, even if i wanted something else i'd keep it as a beater...

how much is this sticker thing gonna run you? any info u got i need!

 

Both gauges are very cool. Nicely done John, nicely done Bob!

 

quick word of wise....


Ford wont do that....At least not in ohio, they first said they cant do it unless they install the cluster themselves (which i had already done) then they said they order clusters from ford with the mileage already at the right place, therefore they wont install yours...

how the guy did suggest going to the highway patriol or something and have them do it, instead i just swap my odometer over, which then changed the odometer color went form white to black

 

i think that you could supply power to it somehow and get it to turn over. its worth looking into

 

You can swap odometers, they come out and go in, and you dont have to take the needles off..

The plates pop off, and the needles go with it, i will look tommorow and check..

 

wow that is awesome, nice job!

 

I just realized how identical the Ranger cluster is to the Saleen. All of the gauges are in the same place. Just the mph and rpm are swapped and slightly closer in the saleen cluster.

 

Yep. It really was a lightbulb moment, lol. THEN, I remembered the layout of the XP8 gauges....

I-damn-dentical. :D