Dash and console applique

[P. A. Schilke]

You all keep this up FORD is going to build a LINCOLN RANGER & charge double. They are all nice.

Hi Larry,

Been there at Ford when we introduced the the world to the Blackwood Lincoln F150.... a premium Truck and it had premium appearance, but more importantly and unfortunately its poor sales was much of what the Blackwood Lincoln had over the Ford F150 was under the skin. Particularly the attention to sound deadening, ride and other NVH tuning options. Things the customer did not see, but if you owned one...it was wisper quiet. So what? If the customer does not see it...it is unappreciated. I spent much of my career in the realm of doing the unappreciated but making the vehicle more robust, quieter etc. Why? Because I internalized the improvements as I knew I did a good job that few would appreciate outside Ford..... Okay, now I reap the satisfaction when folks with older Rangers report their pleasure and lack of problems with their older Ranger Trucks! Means the work I did was worth it to have satisfied customers.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

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[Sandman Ranger]

Hi Larry,

Been there at Ford when we introduced the the world to the Blackwood Lincoln F150.... a premium Truck and it had premium appearance, but more importantly and unfortunately its poor sales was much of what the Blackwood Lincoln had over the Ford F150 was under the skin. Particularly the attention to sound deadening, ride and other NVH tuning options. Things the customer did not see, but if you owned one...it was wisper quiet. So what? If the customer does not see it...it is unappreciated. I spent much of my career in the realm of doing the unappreciated but making the vehicle more robust, quieter etc. Why? Because I internalized the improvements as I knew I did a good job that few would appreciate outside Ford..... Okay, now I reap the satisfaction when folks with older Rangers report their pleasure and lack of problems with their older Ranger Trucks! Means the work I did was worth it to have satisfied customers.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

They also charged a pretty penny for all that stuffing.

 

[Sandman Ranger]

Looks good. I saw that they make a piece that goes on top of the shifter too.

Thanks.
Fit is good on this piece and screen surround.
Yes the CD slot is a little odd but not terrible.
Was not sure how I liked the air bag covering. On the VW GTI forum everyone wanted the air bag warning covered as it was high on dash and centered. I am ok, but hope I am not missing any warning lights. Never understood why I needed to know that the airbag was off with no passenger. My 97 F150 had a key to turn off. Never used.
Fit is good. Similar to the others posted here. Someone said dash wood is real carbon. I find that hard to believe. Some models maybe but a Ranger? I do not plan to do shift area as gloss finish looks like it would get scratched easy. Maybe after many years if shift area gets damaged but I am normally good on interior. I did ceramic coat mine before install easier to clean and reduce scratching. 3 coats.

 

[TennRanger]

Thanks.
Fit is good on this piece and screen surround.
Yes the CD slot is a little odd but not terrible.
Was not sure how I liked the air bag covering. On the VW GTI forum everyone wanted the air bag warning covered as it was high on dash and centered. I am ok, but hope I am not missing any warning lights. Never understood why I needed to know that the airbag was off with no passenger. My 97 F150 had a key to turn off. Never used.
Fit is good. Similar to the others posted here. Someone said dash wood is real carbon. I find that hard to believe. Some models maybe but a Ranger? I do not plan to do shift area as gloss finish looks like it would get scratched easy. Maybe after many years if shift area gets damaged but I am normally good on interior. I did ceramic coat mine before install easier to clean and reduce scratching. 3 coats.

I would've never thought of ceramic coating it. I'm going to look into doing that before I get my dash cover. It maybe after the new year. Thanks for the idea.

 

[Sandman Ranger]

I would've never thought of ceramic coating it. I'm going to look into doing that before I get my dash cover. It maybe after the new year. Thanks for the idea.

Feels good to touch.
Any plastic especially glossy will scratch so maybe this helps a while. Should last being inside and not washed much like outside paint.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

They also charged a pretty penny for all that stuffing.

Hi Pete,

Yep....knowing where to put this "stuffing" by testing and analysis is part of the price you pay for a premium vehicle.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[Sandman Ranger]

Hi Pete,

Yep....knowing where to put this "stuffing" by testing and analysis is part of the price you pay for a premium vehicle.

Best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

But, at the time people did not buy expensive trucks. Not like today. A truck before it’s time.

 

[apotocki]

Just got my email from B&I that my real carbon fiber kit has shipped!.....only took a bit over a week. Pretty excited to be getting it hopefully by the weekend.
For those that have done the install - how was it? Any tips/tricks? One issue for me may be that I am in Michigan and its pretty cold here - even in the garage - so that might be an issue?

 

[Cape Cruiser]

Just got my email from B&I that my real carbon fiber kit has shipped!.....only took a bit over a week. Pretty excited to be getting it hopefully by the weekend.
For those that have done the install - how was it? Any tips/tricks? One issue for me may be that I am in Michigan and its pretty cold here - even in the garage - so that might be an issue?

Alan, cold might be an issue. Clean area with alcohol wipes real good and make sure you put the adhesive promotor everywhere especially around the edges. Do an easy piece first ,then move up to harder piece and lightly stick it until you are happy with the alignment . Then firmly push it to complete adhere it. Good luck and enjoy the kit. Bret

 

[Rviator]

At one time the Lariat trim came with the woodgrain appliqué. Here is my 2006 F-350 Lariat. The appliqué is also on the door handles and center console. FYI the optional integrated brake controller is in the lower right. It was an additional option to the optional tow package. Trust me on that I have a pic of the window sticker.

 

[apotocki]

Alan, cold might be an issue. Clean area with alcohol wipes real good and make sure you put the adhesive promotor everywhere especially around the edges. Do an easy piece first ,then move up to harder piece and lightly stick it until you are happy with the alignment . Then firmly push it to complete adhere it. Good luck and enjoy the kit. Bret

Thanks Bret. Yep, I will be doing a thorough cleaning. I did read that the B&I Kit uses an adhesive that has built in promoter and a separate adhesive promoter is not included or necessary.
The cold though has me concerned.....
Are the pieces pretty forgiving as far as having to pick them/remove them for alignment purposes?

 

[Cape Cruiser]

Thanks Bret. Yep, I will be doing a thorough cleaning. I did read that the B&I Kit uses an adhesive that has built in promoter and a separate adhesive promoter is not included or necessary.
The cold though has me concerned.....
Are the pieces pretty forgiving as far as having to pick them/remove them for alignment purposes?

Mine all came with adhesion promotor as a seperate step. Just dont stick them hard to surface unless its lined up real good.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

Hi Phil,

I would be curious to hear your recommendations for soundproofing. As I have found the joy of soundproofing is not to be underestimated. Yes, I have a large downpipe, a Borla catback exhaust, a larger turbo, and my truck can be kind of loud. Some people don't understand why but I did sound proof my truck. Oh man... it is glorious. It is really quiet when driving easy and on the highway, even with Goodyear DuraTrac tires. However, when I choose to hear the growl, I just drop the transmission to Sport and hit the gas.

I measured the sound with my Apple Watch and my best estimate, as I don't assume I am 100% accurate in making equal measurement within equal experiments, is at least 15 dB. That is a lot! Plus, when I close the doors the truck feels way more solid.

When I was done with my truck I continued on my daughter's 2018 Ford Escape Titanium. The interior of her car feels nicer than the last 5 Series BMW I had and in the realm of my 7 Series.

I used a butyl and foil product as well as automotive Thinsulate from 3M. I also added a bit of thing foam to to underside of the roof skin and to the doors to lessen the thermal load for the HVAC systems. I am curious if you have any other suggestions for soundproofing.

Have a great weekend!

Jim

HI JIm,

Wow! You have done a fantastic job of quieting your Cab. 3 dBa is roughly a 100% reduction and at 15 you have done exceptionally well. Applications you have addressed are potential noise paths. Since I do not have access to the NVH mapping of the Ranger, I can only estimate noise sources. The forward dash panel...some call it a firewall but we do not use the F word, so Dash Panel is a source of engine intrusion, particularly the exhaust side and the passenger foot well. A Pillar wind rush can be noticable and some insulation of the A pillar in the area of the windshield can sometimes improve cab noise. My concern on my Ranger is the rear doors which exhibit quite a bit of road noise transmission. Another source is the vibratory response of the pickup box head board of the pickup box. On the old generation of Ranger I had my NVH guy assess this problem and we applied 10"x 14" mastic pads to the head board of the pickup box to address. We had some customer concerns that the mastic did not help, but I had my NVH engineer try a drop in bead liner and thus we issued a engineering solution for this by giving the customer a free bead liner! Nice ace up the sleeve so to speak. Body guys asked me how they could fix the head board and I told them to make it look like a giant waffle. 5G headboard is much better and I am betting my experience with the older Ranger contributed to a much better design. Noise paths can be tricky but you covered many of the potential paths with success. If you do have some areas you might use a simple mechanics stethoscope with the diaphragm and steel probe removed so you have just the tube from the ear piece. It makes a very directional probe and can radar in on a noise path.

Congrats on a fantastic job of noise abatement!

best,
Phil Schilke
Ranger Vehicle Engineering
Ford Motor Co. Retired

 

[apotocki]

An update. I received my real carbon fiber kit. I installed the door window switches and also the center radio/hvac piece. I did not install the lower (shifter area) piece as of yet as I have an issue with the chrome trim bubbling - the part has been on order from the Dealer for 3 weeks now.

I had a problem with the radio/hvac piece. After lightly applying it, my temperature rocker switches would not return to the neutral position when pressed - the appliqué was ‘in the way’. It almost seems like cutout area around the rockers is a bit too small. I attempted to lift the appliqué to try to reposition it a bit thinking that might solve the problem. Well...that sucker was already really stuck (even without pressing down) and when I tried to peel it off - the thin narrow strip that runs right under the temperature rockers tore in half. I panicked and tried to realign it but it’s still a bit off.....but....my rocker issue was resolved - lol.
A 2nd problem also happened - on that same left side there is a slight waviness to the appliqué just to the left of the volume control. The appliqué appears to be stuck down well and is not lifting anywhere - weird. Apparently another member - Cape Cruiser - also had this issue (both the rocker and waviness issue) and was sent another appliqué from Wooddash.

I contacted Mel at Wooddash, sent him a pic and he is having B&I send me a new replacement appliqué. Mel has been great to work with. He also said I was the 3rd person he knows of with this problem.

Overall though - I really like the look! It adds character to the interior and enhances the overall look.

Here is a picture of what it looks like.

 

[NAndrews33]

Anyone install the autostop eliminator after the dash kit? Seems like the gaps are small between the panels you pop to install the eliminator. I'd hate to buy it and ruin the wooddash trim pieces.

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