Wettos 00 ranger build - Page 5

Tyler46 · #61 05-16-2015, 03:17 PM

You could try the tire size chart. There's tons of pics of different lifts and tire sizes for that lift.

Chart of maximum tire size

mms1361 · #62 05-18-2015, 04:16 PM

Oh i forgot to reply lol.
I looked in there the only one i saw was the yellow EDGE on 31s with a before and after on the spindle lift. The edge looks completely different than my flareside, and its bright yellow so i cant really get a good prespective on what that lift would be like on my truck. Other than that i also tried checking out the flareside only picture thread but they have no specs in there.

I have a little more progress on my build...My ranger didnt come with a tach from the factory. Ive always wanted one. Never really put too much thought about swapping out the cluster. I couldve just swapped it out for another like mine with a tach. But i did some more reading and picked up this little gem. Im going to start tearing it apart, cleaning it up and calibrating the needles and matching my odometer. Should be a fun little swap. Im debating on wether to paint the titanium overlay or not. Ill see once im done what i decide to do. Im digging the font and layout of the new gauges and at long last i have a tach.

msparks · #63 05-18-2015, 05:14 PM

I have a little more progress on my build...My ranger didnt come with a tach from the factory. Ive always wanted one. Never really put too much thought about swapping out the cluster. I couldve just swapped it out for another like mine with a tach. But i did some more reading and picked up this little gem. Im going to start tearing it apart, cleaning it up and calibrating the needles and matching my odometer. Should be a fun little swap. Im debating on wether to paint the titanium overlay or not. Ill see once im done what i decide to do. Im digging the font and layout of the new gauges and at long last i have a tach.

[/QUOTE]

White face gauges are sweet!

mms1361 · #64 05-22-2015, 01:47 PM

I swapped out my stock speaker for these high performance JBL speakers. They were a direct fit. The stock harness plugged right in. No clearance issues with the new set.

I was just kidding about the JBL thing.. I picked the pair up for $12 bucks off an 07 mazda. I was missing my right speaker and i just replaced the left one as well to have a matching set.

Tyler46 · #65 05-22-2015, 01:54 PM

Something I keep putting off, upgraded speakers. In addition to the display on my factory head unit going out... Fml

Love the white gauges by the way, is that from a sport trac?

mms1361 · #66 05-22-2015, 03:02 PM

Yes off an 01-03 sport trac/ explorer sport
I guess ill just spill the beans here..
I mocked it up into the dash to test out the cluster. Everyone says its a direct swap with no modifications. What i noticed is that my expo speedo was off by about 5mph over actual. I tested it with a gps meter. and i felt i was moving faster than actual as well. It might be due to the 31s but i doubt it because my stock cluster reads correctly with 31s. That however is an easy correction.

Heres a day/night shot with stock lighting:

I didnt want to keep driving without tracking the mileage of my truck so i reinstalled the old cluster back in. I just have to remember add the 8 miles of my test trip.

I was looking for a way to bench test the cluster. I found a way that got me close enough.
I took a look inside my box of misc wires and goodies.(I know everyone has one of these)

I lucked out and found just what i needed, a 120>12v adapter. I snipped the end off and tested it with a multimeter to make sure i was getting 12v.

I had to buy some alligator clips since i had none. Harbor Freight saved the day once again. $3.00 for like 5 pairs of alligator clips.

Here was the test rig

Since i was going repaint the bezel and i needed access to the inside of the bezel i had to remove the lens. In the 50 threads that i read concering cluster swaps none of them said how to do this. Some mentioned trying to throw it into the oven like people do to seperate headlight lenses. But none of them actually tried it. I did not want to do that anyway because i EAT OUT OF THAT OVEN. I did not want any traces of chemicals in there. Anywho, I started off with a thin double edged razor blade. The glue was too hard and the blade was just flexing. I proceeded to use 6lb test fishing line but that was also breaking. I was impatient and started using a screwdriver. It was more or less splitting(cracking) the lens from the adhesive rather than seperating the bond between the glue and the lens. I managed to take the lens off but i cracked part of it. Very minimal damage im hoping it wont show or spread.

The one thing i dont seem to like to like about all these cluster swap modifications is that they all seem very monochromatic. So the reason i pulled those speakers off of a mazda was because i was looking for one mazda in particular. The first Gen mazda 3's. I fell in love with their gauges ever since i first saw one. I knew i had to find those purple accent leds. I tried looking at purple leds and uv leds. The purples looked too gayish purple and the uv leds lacked color.

I lucked out and managed to find one and pulled the led harness from the cluster. They produce a very soft light thats not directional but the color is very vibrant.

I mocked it up again and this is what it looks like with the stock green background. I wanted to replicate the red gauges on the mazda 3. But im thinking if i do that then id have to do the rest of the dash lights/controls in red too. This is what the mockup looks like. The picture has been edited to reflect more of a real world view. The auto settings on the camera brightened things unrealistically. In reality the lights actually spread softer and dont look as directional. They were just mocked loosely with tape. I still need to cut out the bezel to inlay them. Im thinking about adding a fourth mazda 3 LED since the mazdas have 3 main pods but the ranger has one large cluster with 4 main gauge sections. In the pic theyre all facing forward. I could try angling the two outside inward to spread some light to the middle.

For now i picked up an extra set of overlays which i sanded off the green tint so i can test the looks when i choose red leds for the cluster. I left all of the indicators lights alone because TO ME they were all colored individually and looked plenty bright like LEDs without looking incandescent. If i dont like the red on these now clear overlays then i can always go back to the stock green overlay.

mms1361 · #67 05-22-2015, 09:29 PM

So i took the speakers out for a test run and they suck ass. They sound wayyy too crisp. Had to turn the treble down to -3 to hear things properly. Cant turn up bass past 1 or else the door panels rattle... Atleast they work now, maybe ill get used to them. Most likely will upgrade in the future but not a huge priority at the moment. I want to keep the original deck. I dont want to temp some thieving bastard. Im getting by with a casette to aux adapter but it would be nice to have a bluetooth/pandora ready stereo.

mms1361 · #68 05-23-2015, 10:32 PM

So i went to michaels to look for a colored filter for the gauge faces. They had nothing in stock minus a transluscent spray paint. On the way home i though about using these translucent notebook divider things. I proceeded to cut it out in the shape of the overlay. They actually turned out ok. The picture looks nothing like it does in real life. Granted i am colorblind but the color in real life i s alot deeper compared to the picture. I did have to double layer the divider to achieve the desired red color. I might try a different brand divider to see if they offer more of a ruby red. Since the odometer and shift indicator is lit off the same light source i think im going to order red leds. That way i dont have red gauge faces and a white odometer/shift indicator. As pictured i just layed the overlay on top of the stock incandescent lights. Im hoping the lumens im going to lose by having a red led as opposed to a white one is going to be offset by the difference between the lumens of the incandescent lights and upgrading to leds.

msparks · #69 05-24-2015, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mms1361

So i went to michaels to look for a colored filter for the gauge faces. They had nothing in stock minus a transluscent spray paint. On the way home i though about using these translucent notebook divider things. I proceeded to cut it out in the shape of the overlay. They actually turned out ok. The picture looks nothing like it does in real life. Granted i am colorblind but the color in real life i s alot deeper compared to the picture. I did have to double layer the divider to achieve the desired red color. I might try a different brand divider to see if they offer more of a ruby red. Since the odometer and shift indicator is lit off the same light source i think im going to order red leds. That way i dont have red gauge faces and a white odometer/shift indicator. As pictured i just layed the overlay on top of the stock incandescent lights. Im hoping the lumens im going to lose by having a red led as opposed to a white one is going to be offset by the difference between the lumens of the incandescent lights and upgrading to leds.

That is awesome!

mms1361 · #70 05-24-2015, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by msparks

That is awesome!

Thanks! I really do need 1 more mazda led though. To avoid shadowing in the tach/speed cluster i really need one led for each gauge. I ordered my SMD LEDS for the backlight both in red and white to see what comes out better. While i play the waiting game with ebay im going to keep searching for another mazda 3. The Leds are only available in the first gens. Surprisingly they had 5 mazda 3s at the junkyard where i got these. 3 of them were 2nd gen, 1 had the cluster missing and the last one is where i sourced mine. Ill keep trying other junkyards. I almost felt like taking the seats too since they were in superb condition but they problably wouldnt look right or fit in the ranger.

mms1361 · #71 05-25-2015, 02:13 PM

Well this sucks....
i pulled another led harness off another mazda 3. I tested it as soon as i got home but didnt pay too much attention to it. I cut off one led and soldered it in to make a chain of 4. Upon retesting i noticed the fresh led i soldered was significantally brighter. The boards appear the same and have the same markings.

All the Leds from the new harness are about twice as bright. Not only that but the color is closer to a blue spectrum than purple. Ill need to head back tomorrow as there was one last mazda cluster i shouldve but didnt remove.

mms1361 · #72 05-25-2015, 03:52 PM

Went back and got the extra harness. It is also the brighter kind. looks like im going to have to use a brighter bluer harnesse. If that doesnt look right then im going to have to install custom leds inside of the mazda harness shrouds.

mms1361 · #73 05-25-2015, 10:46 PM

Okie dokie well i spent the better half of the afternoon hauling wheelbarrows full of cactus. As soon as i finished with that it was back to the cluster project. The hard part was making a good fitting template for the led shrouds. Once i had that on paper i marked out the bezel with a sharpie. I used a hefty drill brit to remove a good portion of material and use it as a pilot hole. I used a dremel to cut in closer to the edge of my mark. Because of the high rpm of the dremel it was melting the plastic bezel rather than cutting it away so i had to be careful. I roughed out corners of the triangular cutouts with a rat tail file. I got 95% of the way there with a combination of a flat and rat tail file. I honed everything in as best as i could by repeatedly test fitting the led shroud. I mocked everything up with tape again and reassembled the cluster and took a video. I think the blue is a little too deep for my taste and i may have to keep searching for the half powered violet lights i originally had. I have yet to remove the needles as well and im sure it will really provide a finished look.

I still need to color match the bezel and im waiting to install the 5smd leds in the cluster. I personally think the red is bright enough with the incandescents. The video captures the color a little better than the camera but it is still not an accurate representation.

mms1361 · #74 05-27-2015, 09:03 PM

So i got a bunch of SMD LEDs today. I finished up the cluster and painted the bezel black. After trying out all the different LEDs i ultimately decided to use the stock green overlay with white LEDs. If i used a red background i wouldve had to match my other interior lights which i didnt want to do in red. My original plan was to use the violet led harness but i couldnt find and extra violet harness to make one 4 led harness. So i used what i had to work with and made a deep blue harness. I like the way everything turned out in terms of light distribution and workmanship but idk if i can handle the blue. It is way too flourescent and deep for my taste. Its not subtle enough for me.

In my LED package i also ordered two 60 SMD LED 3157 bulbs for my reverse lights. I swapped those out as well as the 194s for the license plate lights. Im not really happy with the way it turned it out. The light has a bluish whiteish hue to it. I may revert to stock or order warm whites instead. I dont think the light output is any better