Luke76

As you can see from my thread and the one Gary linked to, it's not hard to work on the door necessarily assuming you get the whole assembly out of the truck. I removed my entire dash but that may not be necessary, you might be able to pull it from the top just by removing the dash pad. But I'm kind of thinking you'll have to remove the dash. Really it's not that bad when you get into it, a dozen screws maybe. Just remember where everything goes. The heater vent assembly is also bolted through the firewall to the big plastic box in the engine bay that holds the fan and the AC evaporator. What I found most difficult was getting it unbolted from that, there is one screw on the passenger side on the very bottom that was a real pain to reach and I had to string together several 1/4 extensions on my ratchet and only got it off after many scraped knuckles. Getting it all back together was a similar challenge. Once you take all this stuff out you might find other things you need to work on, like new seals. So depending on what kind of perfectionist you are, it can turn into a bigger project. But the good news is, once you have everything out on a workbench it is very easy to fix or address any issues.

There was less interest than I was expecting (only 7 unique bidders) but at the same time it sold for more than I could have hoped so I'm happy about that. Buyer isn't someone I know. Will be another week or so until the sale is actually finalized but I expect it to go through ok.

The eBay auction is live: CLICK HERE Reserve is set at $10k

Yes, you can use larger custom characters. I haven't gone digging but I suspect that is already part of Adafruit's graphics libraries. However even so the display is still awfully small, you need to see one in real life, it's literally one inch across. A font of legible size, still even smaller than your standard 7-segment display, would probably only allow 4-5 characters across. Unlike most other displays these little OLEDs do not have an input for backlight so there is no duty cycle to modify. Looking at Adafruit's library I see a "dim" command that you can send digitally but it is true/false, not variable. Not sure exactly what effect that would have. You could however use the old fashioned way of dimming displays, which is to put a piece of colored lexan in front of it (permanent dimming).

Gary, since you are planning to interface quite a few peripherals with your project the Uno may be a better choice in terms of shield availability. If you only plan to drive a 7-segment display or your run of the mill LCD/VFD, then you won't need any especial processing power - that is really only nice to have with the graphical displays. I also considered a screen in the clock area but searched in vain for a suitable one. I bought this one to test since it is more or less the same color, but it is actually almost too small to be practical, and also can't be dimmed which could be troublesome at night (it is really quite bright). Good luck with your project, I'm sure you'll come up with something unique and interesting.

It would be difficult to summarize this project succinctly. The original plan was to use the Mega alone for everything, it is installed in the center console. It has more i/o pins than a standard Arduino and this one interfaces with quite a few peripherals. The display is an ILI9340, this is a 2.2" TFT color display that operates over SPI. I quickly discovered that SPI is a very short-distance communication protocol (like under 12 inches) and there was no way the data could travel reliably all the way from the center console to the dash. For this reason I added the Teensy 3.2 in the dash, and actually it worked out better anyway because the Teensy runs at a much faster processor speed which is good for screen refresh rates, and has some useful abilities in terms of fonts and so forth that would have overtaxed the 2560 processor. The Mega now communicates with the Teensy over RS232 serial (which has no problem with longer distances). A good deal of firmware complexity was added to this project by the necessity of a communication protocol between these two processors, and even some hardware complexity as well (I am using RS232 serial, not logic-level). If one were to design a more generic system a Teensy alone in the dash would be the better approach. On its own it could easily handle a few sensors like temperature and GPS (which can provide speed, heading, altitude, date and time). The setup I am using is rather specific to this truck and the peripherals unique to it - so much of what I did especially in firmware wouldn't be very applicable to others looking to create something similar.

Gary thanks for creating the gallery page, I sent you an email with a few more details. It will be nice to know this truck is commemorated somewhere for posterity's sake. I hope it will inspire other Bullnose owners as I was in turn inspired by you and others. I do believe these trucks are only going to become more popular with each passing year as they acquire classic status. The bodylines and "bullnose" appearance are some of the most attractive of any American pickup truck in my view and I think many others are going to increasingly share this opinion. David, the little computer project is something I completed over the past year and I haven't been keeping my build thread up to date, so I'm afraid there is really no information about it posted anywhere. It uses an Arduino (actually two for complicated reasons, a Mega2560 and a Teensy 3.2). It displays multiple temperatures, altitude, speed and heading, battery voltage, and some other things specific to this vehicle. It is informational only and is not required for the function of the truck.

Hello Gentlemen, Gary kindly encouraged me to post my truck on his forum. This is Big Blackie, a 1983 F250 extended cab long bed 4x4 with automatic (3-speed) transmission and 460 V8 engine. Presently located in Wichita, Kansas. The engine was "built" and rebuilt for towing and torque, I used specifications from a well-known 460 specialist, Scott Johnson at RHP. Although the truck has a bit over 160k miles on the odometer, the 460 only has about 3,000 miles. The body was repainted in 2012 in black. The painter guy was a real nightmare to deal with as seems to usually be the case with these things, but in the end I can't complain about the results. The black interior was re-done by myself with the help of various upholstery shops. I think it is very striking and certainly unique. I purchased this truck in 2012 and have spent the majority of my free time and spare pennies the last six years working on her. My original desire was to have something more capable for going on campouts in the Oregon wilderness than our lame 2WD Ranger at the time. Over the years no camping occurred but the project kind of took on a life of its own and working on the truck became a purpose unto itself. Now I'm afraid she has gotten much too shiny to want to take her offroad, or do much of anything else with really except look at her in admiration. I live in an apartment and I spend a good deal of money just paying for a storage place to keep this truck. The project served an important role and will be one of the defining experiences of my 30s (now sadly over). However it is time to move on to other pursuits and it doesn't make sense to carry this vehicle with me through the next decades. Therefore, she is for sale. I don't have a set asking price. I will entertain any offers, and in a week or so if I hear nothing she'll go up on eBay where the market shall decide! For those with an enormous amount of free time you can also peruse my build thread over on FTE, which was active for several years but which I haven't done a very good job of updating recently: Big Blackie - The Build Any questions feel free to ask! Luke