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.

Bags

Finished my air bag installation.  If you've been following my blog you might remember I had previously installed rear bags from a civilian model Crown Vic. They don't raise/lower very fast but they fit easily in place of the rear springs and are designed to work with the Vic with no hassles.  That has worked great to adjust rear height to compensate for whatever I carry in the bed, but I wanted to have some adjustment in the front too.... so I started collecting parts.
I picked up an air tank (and an air horn!) off craigslist, bought a Little Larry's manual switch block, and a Viair 444C compressor.  Then I was able to get a set of used UAS Aero Sport bags for the front.  These have a hole in the middle to allow them to replace the coil springs on the front struts.  Troy fabricated some bag mounts for me in our shop at work after hours and I finally got airlines run and everything installed.  I think it looks great aired out, it's not "laying frame" by any means but it's definitely low.  Still needs some modifications to the bag mounts for more upward travel, but it can go high enough that the tires don't rub at all.  My YouTube page has a video showing the travel, and here are some pictures of the front strut assembly and photos of the truck all the way down.

Reno or Bust!

Since it's become my daily driver I've been dying to take the truck on a longer road trip to see how it holds up.  Troy had been talking about going to Bonneville for speed week and that's something I've always wanted to see so we made plans to go to Utah.  Unfortunately speed week was cancelled this year, but with days off already planned I started looking for something else going on around the same time that would make a fun trip.  Hot August Nights in Reno happens to be in full swing on the weekend we had planned, and it's something neither of us had been to so why not.  The wives had other things going on (and the lack of A/C in our trucks probably didn't help) so we decided to make a guys trip out of it and off we went.

We took off in the afternoon on a Thursday and went as far as Bend the first day.  Truck ran great, but a saggy spot in the bench seat was a real back killer.

We camped near Bend and between the saggy seat and sleeping on the ground my back was a wreck the next day.  Troy took over driving to give my back a much needed break and it loosened up some, but that seat had to go.  More on that later...
Anyway, we made it to Reno with no problems at all.  I only calculated fuel mileage on the first two tanks.  Tank #1, with a little in-town driving before getting on the road, was a decent 20 MPG. On the second tank, strictly freeway driving, we hit 25 MPG.  Not too bad for 65-70 MPH in a truck that's only slightly more aerodynamic than my house.

We hadn't really put a lot of thought into what to do once we got down there, we knew there were car shows at pretty much every casino but that was about it.  After checking into our hotel we decided to head to the nearest big casino and see what was up.  We had only been there for a few minutes when I spotted what looked like Crown Vic steel wheels on a Ford truck.  Sure enough it was another Cruck (our nickname for Crown Victoria trucks)...

We talked to the owner Kyle, who had driven it down from Seattle with a friend.  It was a 64- a little newer than mine but a couple years older than Troy's.  A lot more polished than ours, he kept the Vic floor and mated that to the truck cab.  He also raised his entire bed floor up to accommodate the rear end which was the only thing I wasn't too keen on.  It was great exchanging ideas, checking out his truck, and showing off mine.  We also learned that to participate/enter in all the shows, and even to cruise at night, you have to pay a $200 entrance fee in advance.  I hadn't done that, and my truck wouldn't really fit in with the sea of shiny tri-5 Chevy's, Camaros, Mustangs, etc.  No big deal, still lots to see down there.
Since we didn't have the pass to enter the cruise we decided to go have a look at the other cruisers.  Lots of revving engines, drunk crowds, pretty crazy.  So after that we went and checked out parking lot drag racing... very short track but hey, it's in a parking lot!

It was late and there wasn't much more to see so we called it a day.  

The next day we decided to hit the swap meet.  It was pretty decent, I found a big hood ornament cheap which is something I'd been looking for.  But the thing I couldn't get off my mind was these sets of bucket seats for sale... They were rear stow-n-go seats from Caravans, available in a variety of colors/fabrics.  With my aching back reminding me of my bench seat I knew I had to get a set- no idea how we could install them, but we had to find a way.  While I tried to rationalize $350 for mocha leather heated versions we went and watched some parking lot autocross that was going on.  I loved this Caddy! It could barely make the tight turns, but it was awesome.

I couldn't bring myself to spring for the most expensive seats, so I settled for black velour seats for $120.  The deal was done.  We had no welder and nothing to cut metal with, but I did have an impact driver.  We stowed the seats in the motel and headed to Lowe's for supplies.
Next up was motel parking lot engineering at it's finest.  Of course that was the only time on the trip it decided to rain, but we got it done...

Not perfect but good enough to get us home!   Reminded me of something you'd see on #roadkill.  With that handled we checked out some more show cars then went looking for this night's cruise to watch.  Troy was driving and we somehow ended up at the entrance to the cruise... we had no entry pass but played dumb, ignored the guy directing traffic yelling at us and snuck into the cruise.

I stuck a white piece of cardboard in the window that somehow passed inspection by one of the event staff (it really looked nothing like the fancy holographic pass) and we made one loop before we decided to quit pressing our luck.   We checked out one more parking lot show then called it a night.

We got up Sunday, had some breakfast, and decided to head out.  A quick stop a random garage sale, a tank of gas, and we were on our way.  We had planned to camp on the way back but we were making good time, it was a nice day, and the seats were so comfortable that we just kept going.

A stop for gas yielded the only broken part on the trip-  One of my wiper blades just spontaneously disintegrated while cleaning the windshield.  No idea why that happened, but we didn't see anymore rain so it didn't matter.

Overall I couldn't have been happy with the truck's performance.  Checking out another Cruck, swapping seats in a parking lot, and sneaking into the cruise were all way better than the rows of show cars and made for some great memories.

Project Background

First off, let me say this project is WAY beyond my abilities.  Luckily I have two things going for me- my good friend Troy is helping out (really doing most of the work) and my stepson James is working on the project as well.  Troy has restored or built a variety of cars over the years, knows pretty much everything automotive/mechanical, and can build nearly anything you can imagine.  James adds the seemingly limitless energy of youth as well as his own developing set of fabrication skills.  I'm leading the electrical portion and whatever else my basic mechanical skills can handle.

Last summer I decided I wanted a classic truck project.  Something I could take to cruise-ins with my wife, Crystal, and my younger son, Justin.  Not a show car, just something cool to cruise in that could do double duty hauling stuff for home improvement projects and whatnot.

Late July I decided on a '60 F100 and James, Justin and I spent all day hauling it home. My plans were to get it running/driving decent, lower it a bunch, and just drive it.  I was able to get the old 223 six running great (with Troy's help & advice of course) and drove it around for a while.  I loved the three on the tree, but the front end needed a lot of work to drive safely and I started researching alternatives... The Crown Vic front end swap seemed pretty appealing- a very cheap way to get lower, power steering, big disk brakes, and a comfortable ride.  I looked around for a front end for a while with no luck, but then started looking at whole cars.  After some research and talking with Troy he said he would help me swap in the whole drivetrain.  That sounded like a pretty sweet project, so I found a good deal on an '03 Vic and brought it home in late October.  

I drove the Vic around a bit and was surprised at the ride and handling.  For a big boat car they ride and corner pretty darn good.  I got to thinking I'd really like that four link rear with the watt's linkage.  Then I got to thinking some more (always dangerous) and realized I'd be taking the front suspension, rear suspension with some of the frame, engine, trans... Why not just take the WHOLE chassis & drive train?  More research was done, Troy figured out how to get past most of the obstacles, and the decision was made.  Swap the 1960 F100 onto the Vic chassis, keeping all Vic electronics including climate control if possible.

For a little over a month not much happened.  I stripped some parts off the Vic here and there, stripped the carpet/rear seats/trunk down, Troy came over and started some early dis-assembly on components under the hood, but we were kind of on hold waiting for an opportunity to work on it at Troy's work (James works there as well).  There is a lot of room there, and a lot of equipment you wouldn't find in a home shop.

In the first few days of December an opportunity arose, and Troy had a week of shop time arranged at his work starting 12/6.  The project is on, like right now!

A couple pictures before it goes under the knife...