Sick Of those green glowing boring black faced gauges on your truck? Then Here you go! This is a how-to for adding an aftermarket gauge overlay to your truck.

This was done on a 1999 F-150 XLT With Foglights and an Automatic Transmission.

The Aftermarket Overlay Kit that I used was the APC Speed-Glo Luminescent Gauge Kit for 99-03 Ford F-150.



Before you start, I recommend that you note down where all of your gauge needles are at when the truck is running. If you don't, then you will have serious troubles calibrating everything when you put your needles back on.

First, Pop off the plastic panel that surrounds your steering wheel. There should be four clips.

Then you need to take out your headlight switch. Turn the **** over to the right and pull out as if turning on the fog lights. On the **** there is a little slot where you can stick a small flat-head screwdriver to pop off the ****. Do this, and then put the **** back on pointed the other way, then turn it to the off position and pull out. The headlight switch should then come out of the dash. Then disconnect the three cables from the back of the headlight switch. There are little red tabs that you need to slide over or pull out on the two larger connections then they should come out of the back of the switch. On the smaller plug there is a little clip that you have to carefully pry up and then that one should come out. Now you can remove the 7mm bolt from behind the headlight switch.

Next, remove the remaining 7mm bolts from the dash panel that surrounds the cluster.

Then remove the 4 bolts that hold the cluster onto the dash.

Next, Remove the cluster from the dash. If you have a tilt steering wheel you will need to tilt it all the way down and if you have an automatic transmission you will need to shift it in to 1st (all the way down). Remove the two connections from the back of the cluster and slowly work it out of the dash (be careful not to put any scratches on the dash panels or steering column when pulling it out). Be sure to remove the transmission shift indicator.

Now bring the cluster over to your work bench or kitchen table or wherever you will be installing the new gauge overlay.



Now remove the torx screws from the front of the cluster to remove the clear cluster lens You may want to clean the cluster lens as it is probably dusty.



Then remove the black gauge bezel.





The Next Step is to remove the Needles from the Factory Cluster. This can be done by using either a golf divot repair tool or a fork. Gently pry the needles off.
Needle Removal Tool



Removal Of Needles



Now Lay the New Overlay on top of the Old One and be sure that it lines up on all of the holes and that it is perfectly flat.



Then go back to the truck and plug in the two connections to the back of the cluster. Start the Truck and carefully put the needles back on according to the readings that you took earlier. My truck idles at about 700-800 rpm so that is where I placed the tach needle. It was cold outside so I put the Engine Temp Needle On cold. I put the Battery Needle Above half closer to the H because that is where It was when I started. I put the Oil Temp Where It was Earlier and I had just under a quarter tank of gas in so that is where the Gas Needle Went. I actually found that if you very gently place them back on they will automatically go to where they should be.

Needles Back On.





Now for the hard part. The Speedometer Needle. You would think that If You just put it on zero when the truck is in park that it should be calibrated. But this was not the case for me. It took quite some time for me to get my speedometer recalibrated. I highly recommend that you have a GPS in your truck while doing this part. I recalibrated the speedometer according to the GPS. This involved a very long process of driving around, pulling over, trying the needle in a different spot and checking if it is accurate. This part is purely trial and error.

Once You Have all of the Needles In their Proper Places And are functioning properly, then you can start putting the cluster back together. Run The Wire Coming from the New Overlay Underneath the Black Bezel.



Wire Running Out Of Cluster.



Now Put the Transmission Shift Indicator back in its place so you can get it to go overtop of the gauge overlay.

Then Put the Cluster Lens back on to the Cluster With the Torx Screws.



Done, But Not In Truck.



Now you have to decide where you want to locate the control switch for the new gauges. I decided to put it in the little cubby underneath the steering wheel because I never really use that cubby anyways.
(Here are the steps for installing the switch in the cubby. If you do not have the cubby or do not want to put the switch in the cubby do not follow these steps.)
You need to remove the two bolts on that dash panel, one on each side.
Then you need to remove the star head screw on the roof of the cubby.
Next, pull the dash panel out and the cubby and run the switch into the cubby.
Now put the screw back in and the two bolts from the dash panel back in and then drill two screws into the roof of the cubby through the mounting holes in the switch to keep the switch in place.

Switch In Cubby.



Now you need to wire up the the gauges so that they will glow. You will need a circuit test light for this. You are going to tap into the headlight wires that go into the back of the headlight switch. You need to use the test light to find a wire that is "live" when the key is on and is "dead" when the key is off. Once you find one, tap the gauges red wire into it. Then tap the gauges ground wire into a headlight ground wire.

Once you have done this, test to see that the gauges glow. Once you have them glowing then you are done!

Now put all of the dash components and headlight switch back together.



Now you should have some very custom looking, white-faced, blue-glowing gauges!

Overall, with the time and work and money invested in this project, it is definitely worth it!

 

do you really have to calibrate all the gauges?

 

unfortunately yes. But most of them do go to there correct places if you put the needles on very lightly at first.

 

Here Is the link for the one that i bought.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...m=400092429179
I am also going to change all of the interior lights to blue led's. It sounds like a fun and challenging project.

 

Where did you get an overlay in KPH?

 

Ebay. The Link is above.