Interior

11/15/2021

There isn't a lot to say about the interior. The truck was full of extra parts bought in 2008 in preparation for restoration. Inside was musty and damp, having been closed up for so long. It was hard to breath in there, so the decision to gut it completely was an easy one. Looking past the first assault on my senses, I could see that Horse had been very comfortably optioned on the inside. The burled wood look on the door cards and dash trim gave it a warm feel, and the brown upholstery with the velour inserts in the bucket seats gave it a very masculine feel. I was glad to see the roll-up windows, because I like simple. Ford calls it Saddle Vinyl as a part of the Ranger XLT trim. I call it brown, but whatever it's called I like it against the Bright Yellow paint. Very much a color combination of it's time. That said, Horse was ordered without air conditioning. An odd choice by today's standards, but consistent with the views of the day when such things were often considered an unnecessary luxury. 

My plan here is to replace the carpet and interior cards, headliner, and dash pad. I will attempt to reuse the door panels because they are unique and I haven't found an exact replacement. I may not go with the current inserts, because I do like the plaid look for this vintage. A little less lounge and a little more fun. I'll see.

In the meantime, I discovered the factory build sheet under the carpet on the passenger side which was amazing! I laminated the remnants and will keep it for the next owner. The floors underneath are so good with only a bit of surface rust in some places, easily treated to last another 40 years. I'm really excited about the final result.

The gauge package included an 85mph speedometer along with fuel and temp gauges. For oil and alternator information, idiot lights were used. These are not preferred methods of monitoring oil pressure and battery strength because they only alert you when levels are already low. Sometimes the light is activated too late or not at all if the sensor fails.

This brings me to another decision. I have a replacement full gauge pack out of another Ford truck, but the odometer will not be correct. I could install aftermarket gauges, but that's not really my style. I like the clean look of a stock dash. However, even the stock gauges may not be as accurate as I like, though they are probably good enough. I'm not sure yet which direction to go, but I will for sure find a way to monitor the health of Horse's new engine that doesn't include the word "idiot" in it.

In order to drop the tailgate, the rear window glass has to come down. Ford gave customers two ways of doing this. The first way is via a switch integrated into the HVAC controls on the right side. I hooked a battery up and gave it a try, but was getting no power up to the switch. The second way is to insert a key into the rear tailgate lock and turn it all the way to the right or left, depending on whether the window is going up or down. No luck there, either. There is a third way. If you crawl over the rear seat into the cargo area with a car battery and remove the rear panel on the inside of the tailgate, you can access the wiring harness leading to the electric window motor. If you do it correctly, you can hook 12 volts to that harness and the window will roll down. It took me a while to get there, but ultimately that's what I ended up doing. That allowed me to remove the fiberglass top and later the tailgate itself. I'm going to have to remove the mural from the rear glass, since it's in less than perfect condition. I like it, but it's got to go as well as the window tint on the front door glass and fiberglass top side windows. It is a tedious job, but worth it for the end result.

I felt like Indiana Jones when I unearthed the factory build sheet under the passenger seat. It was like I was the first archeologist to hold the Shroud of Turin. Or something like that.

Speaking of new interiors, the Dakota Digital gauges, Autowire under dash wiring harness, and Vintage Air climate control system is installed. I fitted the leather covered dash pad, and mounted the Ididit tilt steering column to replace the old fixed position unit. For the radio I put in a Retrosound bluetooth capable head unit with a USB input where the cigar lighter used to be. In the glove box I hid a USB and USB-C fast charging port for cell phones. My plan is for this truck to be comfortable in as much the modern sense as possible, while maintaining it's old truck charm. And, yes, it will have usable cupholders for the front and rear passengers. I'm not a monster.

The carpet is a plush with mass backing to cut down on the noise and heat. I had the seatbelts rebuilt with new brown webbing, since the old webbing was well used and probable not as safe as it could be. The center console is waiting on the armrest to be recovered in leather and the headliner will be finished in leather as well. Other than that, the interior is pretty well complete!