Sterling dash project

Well seeing as how I'm married to my old Sterling, I figured I'd finally replace that worn out, plastic, crumbling dash. This was hands down the best thing I could have done. The new one is all fiberglass and will probably out last the truck... Unless I never come to my senses, lol

Took me a week to complete, which really put together was 3 days of work. Taking the old one our was easy, as most of the mounts were broken and the dash itself bad numerous cracks. It was to the point of hitting a bump and watching the dash bounce...

Aside from reusing the instrument cluster, all the other gauges and switches came out of a peterbilt. The old rocker switches just weren't doing it for me. Eventually I'll swap the instrument cluster with the new one I made, but for now I wanted to make sure theverything original gauges still worked. Moving wires around that have been in the same place for years had me leary on installing new gauges. Since everything still works, I'll eventually add in the new panel.

Now time for pictures!

 

Just a point of reference ,as many of my friends didn't understand why I'd do such a thing.

 

Cleaned up the mess of wires and air lInes the factory left behind. A one size fits all isn't in my game plan and harnesses that I did not need went away.

Along with the stereo harness. That big bulky thing made fitting the new dash easier. Since I'll be moving the stereo up to the overhead console and running new speakers and wires, why not eliminate the old stuff.

 

Now the finished product! Along with the rosewood, I got the dash to match the exterior paint. Had it smoothed to eliminate that textured look and went with an eggshell finish. After sitting in my friends extended hood, dealing with a super flashy reflection was not in my game plan.

The only party foul... I forgot to send my ignition panel to the paint booth. No big deal as I'll try to get one in rosewood.

The paint was PPG if I remember right. A friend did it for me. I trusted him over me since he deals with top dollar show cars.

 

All in I had 1600 for the dash, another 300 between switches and gauges, a week of down time (which I didn't mind the least), and a lot of fun doing this.

Never even took the seats out or the dog house. Dash went in and out through the passenger side and I lucked out with having to do little fabrication to make the new dash fit.

If only it was done like this from the factory...

I know when I was on my glider kick, I wanted to go this route, but glad I never pulled the trigger on that.

 

Thank you! Very much appreciated!

 

LOL that was my father, took it our for a quick team run. I dealt with Detroit and Chicago today and yesterday... too cold lol.
This truck looks completely different from when my father had it. Definitely not your typical sterling on the inside.