So I want the speed hut gauges, I want a 15 inch steering wheel that will not only give me more leg room but make it more comfortable to drive, I want a better shifter than the stock one.
But something about the picture below (I know its not a 65) it looks good but its just not for me.....
Am i afraid of change, my car is far from stock... I want modern, but this doesnt feel modern, it feels out of place. I am sorry if i offend anyone, i mean no disrespect.
probably looked great in the 80's- might look better if it were all cleaned and shined up. It looks like an upgraded interior done on a serious budget- ok, but not high end 'show worthy' if that makes sense? Now if the gauge panel were billet or chromed rather than black, the aux gauges were housed in a cleaner/better designed 'pod', and the wheel a thicker billet unit- you'd really have something! My 2 cents, and like you- not trying to offend anyone (unless it were Husky, Hunting, Ant....) LOL :wink:
probably looked great in the 80's- might look better if it were all cleaned and shined up. It looks like an upgraded interior done on a serious budget- ok, but not high end 'show worthy' if that makes sense? Now if the gauge panel were billet or chromed rather than black, the aux gauges were housed in a cleaner/better designed 'pod', and the wheel a thicker billet unit- you'd really have something! My 2 cents, and like you- not trying to offend anyone (unless it were Husky, Hunter, Ant....) LOL :wink:
Have you checked out Lokar floor mount shifters for automatics?
Besides the stock auto shifter I can't really think of any other shifter that's decent looking. Most of them look cheap or way out of place. The lokar shifters do look nice.
My current build will have the Dakota Digital gauges with all that color changing crap, a Vintage Air A/C system, a/m stereo possibly grafted into the dash radio hole... and a cheap butt wood wheel that the owner absolutely loves!! :shrug:
Yeh, I love modern gauges since they can be so small and accurate but they have to look like they could have been put in the car 50 years ago. That can be really hard because even if you get the font and everything else right, you'll probably not have any luck matching your factory lighting. Most gauges now are led or electroluminescent so they won't look anything like the originals at night. The steering wheel... well you have more limited options there due to so many of the aftermarkets having little to no dish. Unless you get a tilt column, the wheel will be hitting your knees. I don't know about the shifter, I've always gravitated towards manuals. Anyways it can all be done but it just isn't easy.
The funny thing is, the pic you (Telecomboss) posted is dated as hell. I mean, it's modified from stock and newer than 1960-something, but it screams 70's street machine.
- Not-awesome Grant-looking steering wheel
- Dated aftermarket shifter
- Exposed add-on extra gauges under the radio
- Perfectly fine, but almost too-modern gauge faces (this one is more subjective, but they look more at home in a Fox body to me)
All of this is fixable by making different decisions.
LeCarra steering wheel (with the center cap of your choice)
I have the black leather Lecarra, and it's great. Got a black anodized horn button from GT Performance Products which is a lot nicer than the plastic one, if that matters to you.
All I have on my dash is the forever sharp wood wheel, some switches and auto meters in the stock cluster, but painted black. My console is modernized tho.. so that's good. I didn't wanna go too crazy on the dash itself since it is a vintage car. The console isn't permanent.
I do plan on getting a lokar shifter for my c4 and luckily the c4 has the 70 valve body so no green dot!
Do you have a 65 coupe because you like the basic looks?
Are you tall so moifying the seat track giving 2"+ additional rear travel would be worthwhile?
I too have problem getting knee past steering wheel .
Keep in mind a 15" wheel gives 1/2" more clearance. IMO barely noticeable. 14" would be noticeable (1" more clearance).
In the 50s Fords (28-39)were very popular with old car people because of simple common design and parts availability. Soon those old Fords were being built with custom interiors, air conditioning, custom gages, steering and custom seats. The flat head V8 was often bored and stroked, dual carbs, some were supercharged. Along came the Chebby small block in 55 and soon the modified Ford commonly had Chebby smallblock under hood.
For many the Model A and Early V8s became the basic body and frame for their custom or hot rod.
The early Mustang for many has become the modern day Model A/Early V8 basis for building a custom or hot rod.
A lot of people like the Speed Hut gauges, but I personally prefer the Classic Instruments gauges. They have options and different styles that can become confusing and may make you change your mind. They also will make custom gauge faces. If you tell them what you want they can make it for you. Classic Instruments Home
Yes, my gauges have custom faces. I combined the look of the NVU 1969 gauges with stock fonts and some other design elements to arrive at that look, which I was hoping would be able to fly under the radar as a relatively stock-looking setup.
Even with custom faces, the Speedhuts were still cheaper than the Autometers. And their customer service is awesome! Gauges have a lifetime warranty too.
Some of my favorite gauges for sure. You did a great job. Did you provide design files or did you just tell them what you were looking for and they did it on their end?
Oil pressure warning lights don't usually come on until the oil pressure is down to approximately 5 or less PSI, and an over temp light won't come on until is around 240 to 250º which can quickly ruin an engine. I prefer a set of gauges that can tell me if I have a pending problem instead of just dumping on me all at once.
I like an interior that has well thought out motif. You can spot a catalog guy with no plan in a heartbeat, they buy based on how it looks in the catalog photo, steering wheel purchases are the worst offenders IMHO. This may be why the OP started this post, the gauges look fine but not-so-much against the background of the interior. So many Mustangs have a centerpiece wheel or gauges that are impressive but dominate and seem out of place in the background of the interior.
I like to think through what is the experience someone will have when they sit in my car (frankly same with exteriors), do I want their eye to immediately focus on a centerpiece steering wheel or stereo or shifter or or wheels, or do I want them to see something cool everywhere they look that caries a balanced motif through-out the car? I go to car shows and get "car gleam" after 20 minutes, as modified as all the cars and dashboards are they start looking the same after a while with digital gauges or vintique gauges...
I've seen modern interiors that were awesome, but awesome everywhere, not just in the gauge cluster - I have seen glossy what could be gaudy steering wheels in a glossy wood accented interior that looks balanced and great.
Personally, I like the 66 interior sans center console. Clean, efficient and hella cheap! You can see I "liked" a nicely modded interior also earlier in this thread. Ok, I'm getting off my soapbox.
Hit the nail on the head. Thats exactly the struggle. I love my seats, I love the Classic console addition. I see cars with the Lecarra steering wheel and speedhut gauges and I love the looks of them. Then i go sit in my car and imagine it and it makes it hard to pull the trigger. The whole look i am going for is a vintage car with a modern feel. I have the CD player but its in the glovebox kind of thing. One thing i have learned is not to rush, it will come to me when the timing is right.
I like to plan out what I want in an interior and in a vehicle based off of my own opinion and what I want to experience. I tend to value my own opinion more than others opinions.
Interior is a hard one as it is very much based off the taste of the owner. I spent a fair amount of time going back and forth, saving hundreds of photos and looking at them nightly.
In my opinion, I think consoles are a bad offender in making an interior look dated or out of place. I think it's pretty hard to get an aftermarket console looking like it was meant to be in a 65/66. So much so that I cut away the idea of the console. Headunits again are a hit and miss thing. I also think of the shelve gauges like autometer ones can look a bit out of place if you are trying to keep the vintage vibe.
But all I can really say is go to google images and save every photo of a customised interior you can find( and not just mustangs, other vintage cars), and then just look at them for a few minutes every night. You'll soon realise what you like and don't like.
This is my interior. I used speedhut gauges also which I highly rate. While the seats are great from a comfort perspective, you either like them or you don't. It has a bluetooth reciever under the dash, which feeds to the equalizer under the ac vents. I wanted to hide this but I use it too much, and it saved me cutting a new stereo into the dash. I'm happy with how it turned out while still keeping some of the original feel.
Thanks mate. The seats are from a 2012 falcon here in australia. They are out of the two door ute/pickup version so they retract forward, good for the coupe.
That is a sweet interior.. I need to get a new bezel and glove box door after seeing his...
as for the equalizer, I have one also, in the front part of the console. I use it to control bass frequency and volume only. It cost me $25 which was about the same as a bass volume control knob, but this one lets me adjust frequency response also. The iPad slides into the base I made just ahead of the cup holder. Some have told me that I should've bought a black leather wheel but I like the cherry wood "standout" wheel I have. Mustangs HAVE to have wood wheels :wink:
Thanks. It was a fun project for sure. I spent a lot of time working on designs for a fully custom one and ended up coming back to the stock piece. Funny enough, one of the main reasons is becaise I can't sew and didn't feel like paying an upholsterey shop to finish it out, leading me back to the stock console. I'm very happy with the result.
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