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Intro: First Gen Bronco IIs and Rangers (up until 1988) have an older style metal dash. This dash may be removed and replaced with the dash from a Gen 2 Ranger, Bronco II, or Early Explorer. Care must be taken to select the right parts as there will be many variables depending on the vehicle, such as weather it is an auto, manual, 4x4, has power options, rear wiper etc, as the new donor dash may not be equipped to handle these options.
The parts required from the donor are: -the dash (with all wiring and heater ducts) -dash trim pieces -instrument cluster -complete steering column -steering column support (the part that also holds the brake/clutch pedals) -dash support brackets -necessary hardware
Additionally you will require an array of tools including solder, shrink tube, electrical tape etc.
Bolting the new dash in is fairly straight forward with minimum modifications. Removing the old dash takes and hour or two fabricating supports and such for the new dash takes several hours, and installing the finished new dash takes a few hours. That is the easy part. The time consuming part is the electrical. Much of the electrical is different, and a your old wiring harness will need to be removed and spliced into the new dash. I cannot give exact directions to this as it will depend on what year/model of vehicle you start with, and what year/model of donor vehicle you have; therefore, you will need very good electrical diagrams for both vehicles. The electrical is a necessary step in this procedure, otherwise your vehicle will not so much as run. The electrical is a large job and requires an extensive knowledge of electronics. For example, the electrical in this took me approximately 40 hours to do. Now I did 6 months of digital electronics in school and I also had experience installing car stereos and alarms, so I definitely have some knowledge there, and I certainly found this challenging. I MUST WARN YOU, the electronics involved here are not for the novice or weak at heart, so if you so much as doubt your electrical ability, you probably shouldn't bother with this since any error here could easily result in an electrical fire.
Ok, so you think you are a good enough electrician that you deserve to keep reading...
STEP 1
If you are sure you have all the parts, tools, wiring diagrams etc at your disposal, then lets begin. First off the old dash has to come out. See the diagram in your repair manual, it is fairly straightforward. If you have the ability to do the dash swap, then I need not give directions for this. Ok, so the dash is unbolted. Now it needs to come out of the truck, but wait! There are lots of electrical wires attached! So you must disconnect them. Take note of where they will need to plug into. The main harness goes through the firewall, and if you have cruise control, there is a secondary harness below it. Working from under the hood, disconnect all the electrical connectors under the hood that are attached to the main harness. This may take you a while as there are lots of connections, and you should note where they belong. Now push the big harness through the firewall into the cab. In this photo, you can see the empty holes in the firewall where the wires ran.
Now it should be out, and you are ready to look at the electrical.
STEP 2
STEP 3
Ok, so either your wiring is done, or you are frustrated and
need something else to do for a while and that is ok. So now you
have looked at the 2 dashes and realize how different they are.
You need to make some modifications to get the new one to fit
properly.
an air die grinder and opened the hole by about 1/8" all around. Then I needed to remove the sheet metal piece that attached the old steering column bracket to the firewall. I inverted my jigsaw and cut it off that way, a sawzall would work ok too, just be careful. Now take note of the new bracket and how it mounts. It is similar, but certainly has some key essential differences. Bolt it up now, and make sure to use two of the metal brackets that mount it to the firewall and kick panel areas for added support. Also, if you have cruise control, make sure to hook up and adjust the vacuum shut off switch located on the bracket above the brake pedal.
Next thing to make is some mounting brackets for the screws that
attach the top of the dash around the windshield. The old stock
brackets are in the wrong location for the dash, so measure
properly as to where the new ones shall go. Using the jigsaw
again (or desired tool) remove the old brackets. To make the new
brackets, I utilized some more aluminum that I bent to a 90
degree angle. I attached these to the lip by the windshield
STEP 4
Ok, so you have test fitted the dash, it fits nice, and all
those insane hours of electrical have paid off, so you are
finally ready to install it and be done with it. If you were
fortunate to have removed the donor dash from the donor vehicle
BEFORE PIC:
Written and Published by Ben Hart. |
Compare
your new dash to the old dash. You should note that there are
numerous differences. The main one in this step is the
main wiring harness that goes through the firewall. You must
retain all the wiring connectors and the grommet from the old
dash, so I suggest you use whatever desired tool to remove this
main harness from the old dash. You should be left with
something resembling the photo above on the right. Comparing
your electrical diagrams, and taking note of what I have added
below in regards to wiring connections, begin splicing the old
harness into the dash. Be patient, remember that this step took
me well over 40 hours. 
First
off, lets consider the new steering column. The new steering
column simply won't fit. Fir
stly,
lets remove the old brake pedal (and clutch pedal) assembly. It
is that aluminum bracket that bolts in there. Your clutch pedal
lever and brake pedal lever will need to pop off. Ok, that was
fairly easy. Secondly you should enlarge the opening in the
firewall
that it
slides through. I used 
The
next modifications have to do with the heater ducts. The new
dash will almost fit right on the trucks main heater duct. But
to make it fit perfectly you will have to block off a small part
on the new dash (see picture below to the left), and add extra
thick foam on the 2
openings
on the new dash (picture below left, and above right). Also, a
bracket will have to be fitted to the truck, as seen in the
photo above left. For the bracket I used some aluminum and
fastened it to the plastic with rivets and adhesive. For the
foam, I simply tore the foam off the old dash, and added it to
the new dash using silicone. Make sure to measure well as you
will need the heater ducts to seal very tightly to proper
utilize the heater later. 
using a special aircraft adhesive. Then measuring precisely I
predrilled and tapped the holes where needed. To ensure that
these were correct I did a "dry fit" of the dash. It is a bit of
a pain in the but to put the dash in, test it, remove it, adjust
things reinstall it, test it again, etc...but I also found that
I could test the electrical at these points too and ensure I was
making progress. 
,
then you know
how
to put it back together. If not, then some of the repair manuals
(for the donor vehicle) will probably have a good diagram. First
off, place the dash in place (roughly), and insert the main
wiring harness through the firewall into the engine bay. Now
connect all of the wire connecters inside the truck, connect the
heater control cables to the HVAC assembly. Now, place the dash
firmly in place, and insert the
mounting
bolts/screws. There are the 4 that you took
care of earlier by the windshield, one bolt by the drivers side
kick panel (that will go right in place!), and one bolt by the
passenger side kick panel. This one does nor have a hole on the
truck, so drill a hole and use a self tapping bolt to secure the
dash. Now place in the accessories (radio,
instrument cluster, steering column, trim pieces etc). Note that
I had to disconnect the speedometer cable from the transfer case
to get enough slack to hook it up to the instrument cluster.
Also, I had
to
trim the plastic kick panels slightly to fit back into place
nicely. Also note that the new steering column will mount
slightly different than the old one to the steering shaft. And,
I noticed that although the old and new steering columns are the
same length, that due to the different mounting of the new
column, the new steering column sits about 3" further into
the engine compartment. This was not a problem for me because I
have a body lift, and used to need the steering shaft extension,
but the new column is EXACTLY the right length for me to not
need the extension: therefore, if you DO NOT have a body lift,
you may run into issues when mounting the new steering column. 
bronco