One Year Update- Gauges, Wheels

Last Sunday was the one year anniversary of getting the F100 Interceptor on the road!  Can't believe I've been driving it that long already.  With spring just over a month away I've started on the projects for this year.   I have a list of things I'd like to accomplish before May: Body in decent shape (maybe even some paint), bed floor installed, front suspension improvements (camber reduction at full drop), and some changes to the seating. That will be covered in future updates but for now lets go over the things I have already started work on.  You can also check out my Instagram for more frequent pictures.

Gauges
Since the swap I've been using the stock Crown Vic gauges, trimmed down and stuffed in the dash behind a cut up stock bezel.  Functional, but not much to look at.  Here's the Vic gauges:

I really wanted something that didn't stand out as obviously out of a newer car, and had even taken apart a spare Vic cluster to try to mount the gauges individually behind smaller cutouts.  It would have been a ton of work and still not really been what I was looking for, so I started looking at aftermarket gauges.  I couldn't find anything on the net from someone using aftermarket gauges in a Crown Vic, so I had to just figure it out on my own.
I found a pin out wiring diagram for the gauge cluster connectors here, checked the wiring diagrams in my electrical manual, and saw that the gauges seem to work pretty much like any aftermarket gauges.  They get key on power and ground, and a signal from a sending unit.  Having no experience with this sort of thing I figured I better test it out and found a cheap used Dolphin Gauges programmable electronic speedometer on eBay.  I hooked some jumper wires into the Vic gauge harness and went for a drive and the needle moved.  I followed the calibration instructions and it was accurate.  Success!  But now I needed, at a minimum, a gas gauge and water temp gauge.  Some research revealed that late model Fords use a sending unit with an ohm range of 16-158 ohms.  Dolphin doesn't make such a thing so I found some Classic Instruments gauges that were close to my Dolphin Gauges speedometer, and added a couple dual needle air pressure gauges for the bags.  But then the Dolphin speedo looked mismatched so I ended up finding a Classic Instruments vintage series speedo on closeout that matched the other gauges. Turns out the new speedo is a little pickier about speed signal so it required a $100 adapter.... let's just say this didn't end up being the cheap way to go.  But I am happy with how it looks:

Still wiring up the warning lights (check engine, brake warning, OD off, high beam, etc) but I should have those in this weekend.

If I was to start over right now I'd probably go with Auto Meter gauges, they seem decent and are relatively inexpensive.  Here's some examples of basic black and white gauge setups, with current prices at Summit Racing.  I'm sure they could be found at Amazon, Jegs, egauges.com, etc.

Basic aftermarket gauge package for 03-05 crown vic
	White Auto Meter Phantom Series			Black Auto Meter Tradional Series
Speedometer	ATM-5888	$233.95		ATM-2489	$213.97
Water Temp	ATM-5737	$62.95		ATM-2532	$57.97
Fuel Level	ATM-5718	$53.95		ATM-2518	$48.97
		$350.85			$320.91

These are electronic programmable speedos that should work with the signal in an 03-05 Crown Vic, and the gas gauges are compatible with the Vic sending unit.  The temp gauges should work, but if they don't worst case is you have to add their temp sending unit and wire it in.

If you want to incorporate air gauges I'd recommend the Viair 90083 for a white gauge setup, it's only $36.  RideTech makes a nice looking black gauge but it's $80, there's probably a cheaper option out there.

Wheels
Another thing I've been wanting to update is my wheels, and I needed new tires so figured I better have them mounted onto something I liked. There is not a lot of room with how wide the Crown Vic is compared to the truck.. Pretty much anything besides the stock 16x7s with 54mm positive offset would hit the fenders.  So I tried to find something that looked good but was still fairly close to the stock wheel offset.  I focused on late model Mustang wheels, as they have similar offsets.  After much research I settled on some 17x8 Bullitt wheels, with 45mm offset. These can be found very cheap, a lot of people take them off late model Mustangs when they upgrade to larger wheels.  I found them for $63/each, including shipping.  They were nearly brand new with less than 5 miles on them.

I went with a slightly narrower tire than stock Vic, and a little shorter- 215/50-17.  This would help my clearance issues a little.  Still, I needed another 3/4" clearance out back so I cut the fender up to flare it a little.  I still have a little more work to do but I was able to make them fit.  I think it's a huge change, very happy with the look:

I'm planning to make some new videos covering the progress on my truck as well as Troy's '66 very soon, they will be on my YouTube channel in the near future and I will put them up here as well.