interior questions

[68fordf100]

Hey adam hey got a 68 f100 stepside an where is everyone gething there dashs from mine is all cracked up fro the sun an stuff. An all that metal interior can I just sand it prime it an paint it? I also want to retrofit some ford f150 bucket seats in their would tht be hard? An these model an age trucks have this metal beating the hell out of metal sound when shutting th door how to change that? I want that newer thud sound. An last I want a stereo in my truck an I don't know how to run any wires an all that technical stuff how to do that. O an how to make my air to work? Thanks guys please help I love love my truck beth.

[fordman]

dash pads are available from the vendors. which vendor is up to you though. checking out who is best is something to check out. i heard the jcwhitney has the best deal for quality and price. but that should be checked on before buying it. you can go pad less if you want. you can sand and paint the dash. if you do you need to remove the grille inserts in the old dash pad and bolt them over the defrost ducts to cover the hole left in the metal dash. the grilles already have predrilled holes in them.
newer bucket seats can be done. with the proper brackets to bolt to the floor. you can buy bucket brackets for our trucks when you can find them. but the prices are sometimes a little high. you may be able to use other brackets to hold the newer seats in. possibly home made brackets.

door sound deadening can be done by putting stuff on the outer skin of the inside of the door behind the glass. there are several choices and which choice is up to you. i do not know which works best.

wiring in a stereo is power ground and speakers. the power for the original radios comes from a hot lead behind the instrument cluster. it is a 3 socketed plug. that plug is always hot when the ignition is on. it is a straight battery lead. you will use a inline fuse to it. you will also probably have some sort of always hot to the radio for the clock or other such devices in the radio you use. that will go straight to a always hot lead possibly from an extra fuse box lead on the side of the fuse box. not all trucks had this. so other straight battery leads can be used. the ground is where ever you want to ground it to the cab. speaker hook up is usually a hot and ground going to each speaker but not always. sometimes it is just one hot from the radio and the speaker grounds to the cab.
the air working is a good thing. it depends on whats wrong with it. mostly are all the parts there. compressor lines dryer condenser and inside unit. is the system full of gas? are the power wires dangling or ben cut? is it a factory air. or is it bolted the under the dash? usually the air conditioning in these system are either missing pieces or out of gas because of a bad seal some place. you just have to narrow down what is wrong. the first test is make sure all the parts are there. to see if it has power to the fan motor. turn on the switch. if it does that is good. the second test is to push a fingernail in the shredder valve to make sure it has gas/freon in the system. if it sprays back gas/freon then it has gas/freon in the system. if all of that is present and working then it gets more detail as to the testing.

splitting up each of these subjects is best to do so they can each be analyzed to better help you. so replying to old threads about each problem is the best thing to do unless you cant find your subject then you start a new thread.

[68fordf100]

Wow thank u so much see this is y ford is the way to go I will be buggin u often

[68fordf100]

My a/c is mounted under the dash. I also realized all the wires an stuff that's behind the a/c controls are cut an the little levers an broken. Can I just get a bench seat from a later model truck an it slide rite in?

[fordman]

the ebnch seats up to 79 bolt right in with no problems. anything else has to have the seat tracks swapped so it will botl back to your floor. the newer florrs are slightly different so the track for the newer seats will match the newer floors.

[quantumleap]

if your not good at wiring i would suggest you take it to a stereo shop for the radio install..its not that difficult but if you do something wrong...faulty wiring can become a huge headache

[68fordf100]

I have seen trucks without that black dash coverig an they look pretty cool. How do u get them off?are there nuts holding them in underneath ?

[fordman]

yes there are 14 nuts holding the dash pad on. i just removed one today. you have to take out the radio glove box and instrument cluster to easily get to the dash pad nuts.

[68fordf100]

It looked cool rite? Also my truck has only heat and that don't work should I just get rid of it off the motor an from inside the cab? I mean is it used a lot to miss or what? And if I wanted to get a/c how would I go about doin that? An finally I want to paint my interior do I have to sand everything or just prime an go paint?

[Kansas 72 Ford]

I just finished installing a stereo in the dash. There is a post on here showing how to replace the stock radio with a newer radio. The 99-9222 stereo kit for a volvo flipped upside down works perfect($20 at Autozone special order). The post on here has alot of pictures of what is required to install it to the factory location. If you decide to go padless on the dash doing the stereo and removing the dashpad at the same time is the way to go. You have to remove the glovebox insert, ashtray, and gauge beasel. I also removed my beat up dashpad while I installed the stereo. The only negative to removing the dashpad is that there are about 6 holes that are large that either have to be welded shut or bondod over. For now I left mine as is until I do a complete cab make over. I'm going to weld mine shut but there are a alot of wires that either need to be removed or protected while welding. Also the holes in the dash tend to bump up so they will have to be beat down flush with the dash before welding or bondoing over. As far as wiring for the stereo I used the existing hot wire( just cut the end off and attached stereo hot lead) ,for a ground there is a bolt right behind the old radio that runs through the firewall just loosen and attach your wire to it with a flat round wire lead. For a constant hot (for clock and led display) I attached mine to the addon fusebox that was standard in my truck. They make a wire clip that hooks right on to the fusepost. Mine was the second from the top for a constant hot. Like others have said if you have never installed a stereo I would look for someone to help that has or take it to a shop. If you choose to go it alone hook up ground first, one speaker to a speaker lead, the ignition hot and last the constant hot. If at any point you smell that hot wire smell or see smoke immediately unhook the entire system and seek professional help. I would even go so far as recommend to loosen the hot battery cable, if either of the two above happen remove it from battery and then seek professional help. Wiring is a touchie area if you screw it up you could screw up other systems or even set the entire truck on fire. I'm no expert on stereos but if you have problems or questions feel free to pm me.