Sure Did Miss The Forums

[68 Ford Stepside]

Mr Stepside , I missed the site being down too.
Thanks to Keith for getting ever thing "straightened" out.
He always does


Mr Stepside, did that F600 have air brake?

Yes Sir: It did indeed have an air brake.

[Calfdemon]

So what does everybody put in their switch holes on the left end of the panel? Flashers? Cargo light? Nitrous boost ?

When I had it installed in my 72, I had my fuel gauge tank selector switch installed in the top and my emergency flashers installed in the bottom. Middle was uncut so I left it alone. In the spot where my emergency flashers were originally, I put a 2nd cigarette lighter so I had more power plug options for GPS or whatever...

In my Crew, I am putting my emergency flasher back on the dash near the steering column because some PO had cut a hole there so I need a filler. I was going to put cab marker lights on my crew and obtained one of the stock cab light flasher switches and now have that switch on the lower portion of my dash panel. I decided I am no longer going to run the cab lights, but I am still going to use the switch as a filler for the hole. It wont be hooked up to anything, but still will look good. My fuel gauge tank selector will still be in the top hole and will be functional as I am running 2 tanks in the crew.

[sargentrs]

Thanks for the layout Rich!

[michael69]

Here are a couple pics of my F600 bezel after stripping old paint cleaning and repainting it.It came with a vacuum gauge,but no tach and no hole for tach. I thought it looked unbalanced with nothing on the right side so I cut it out for a tach. I bought the autometer 1798 old tyme tach and it matches all the other gauges great. It also has the lighted wiper switch bracket that mounts in the slot beside the switch on the far left side. Now all I have to do is put it back together and install in truck. Will post pics in truck after Thanksgiving.

[basketcase0302]

sargentrs on Mon Nov 19, 2012 7:45 am
So what does everybody put in their switch holes on the left end of the panel? Flashers? Cargo light? Nitrous boost ?

Randy, I've got a lighted red toggle for my heated mirrors / lighted orange for cab marker and bed running lights / and a blue lighted toggle for the oscillating fan I mounted.

[sargentrs]

Thanks for the tip, Jeff! I don't have any of those but good to know what you used. Yours looks great with those colored switches.

Bezel looks great, Michael. What did you paint it with?

[69Ford]

Heres my cluster. I replaced all of the gauges with new NOS ones. I've become addicted to ford clusters have sererel different versions. Got lucky this one I came across did not have the Tachometer and Vacuum Gauge cutouts. Finding that there are differances between the bump years "Mostly in the wiring harness and backing plate. Bezel's themselves are pretty much interchangeable" so if you see clusters advertised fits 67-72 do your homework. I used the bottom hole for my fuel tank gauge switch, put a rubber plug in the spare hole.

[michael69]

I used rustoleum primer and the rustoleum gloss black paint. The one with the professional spray nozzle. To me it really sprays a lot better than the regular nozzle.

[hazelnut]

Just incase anyone is wondering why the F600 clusters had a vacume gauge i thought i would through it out there. F600s had a vacume reservoir for the power brakes and the gauge would let you know how much you had on reserve. If you had 21 lbs of vacume then you had good brakes, If you had 15 lbs of vacuum the brakes would make you a little nervous because you would have to stand on the peddle, Say like short trips on a job site. 2-3 mile trips were brakes were fine but was always a good idea to let off the gas early to build the vacuum up. I don't think any F600s ever had air brakes in the bump era. Air brakes were put on F800s and they would have a 120+ air gauge and used the same cluster.

Michael, Thats one good looking cluster. Don't see many of the chrome ones in that good of shape to reuse anymore.

[sargentrs]

I used rustoleum primer and the rustoleum gloss black paint. The one with the professional spray nozzle. To me it really sprays a lot better than the regular nozzle.

Thanks for the tip, Michael!

[sargentrs]

Heres my cluster. I replaced all of the gauges with new NOS ones. I've become addicted to ford clusters have sererel different versions. Got lucky this one I came across did not have the Tachometer and Vacuum Gauge cutouts. Finding that there are differances between the bump years "Mostly in the wiring harness and backing plate. Bezel's themselves are pretty much interchangeable" so if you see clusters advertised fits 67-72 do your homework. I used the bottom hole for my fuel tank gauge switch, put a rubber plug in the spare hole.

That's a sweet looking gauge panel!

[69Ford]

Looking at your black that is awesome how do you do such a good masking job. Evertime I do masking tape I mess it up. Thinking of going color of truck which is Harbour Blue.

[68 Ford Stepside]

I had planned on going to the junk yard today to get the F600 dash insert, but felt like i had been in the ring with a prize fighter for 30 rounds. Will be eating turkey with the family tomorrow. Hopefully I'll make to the junk yard by the weekend. Also have a line on another F600 at a different yard i may check out the same day. Really appreciate all of you posting your restored dash inserts. It gives me more incentive to get out there & get a couple to work on. Thanks Again!

[michael69]

Looking at your black that is awesome how do you do such a good masking job. Evertime I do masking tape I mess it up. Thinking of going color of truck which is Harbour Blue.

That was the hardest part of the job. Lots of patience and lots of time. I first tried to put vaseline around the holes where I didn't want paint to stick,but that didn't work to well. So I had to strip it again and just took my time and mask off everything with the blue painters tape and trimmed it with an exacto hobby knife and razor blades.Then wiped it down good with acetone before spraying.