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Interior Billet

Giving your interior some brightwork

In another story, we tackled the easy stuff first: dress-up items for the engine bay. Now we're ready to move on to something a bit more challenging—the interior.

DIY or Pro?

The most popular billet items for inside a vehicle are the shift lever and climate controls. However, as Colby McGehee of the Billet Superstore points out, "If you're not experienced working on your truck, I don't recommend doing the shifter yourself, because it can get complicated." That's because replacing the shifter requires rewiring the overdrive button that's located on the tip. First, you have to disassemble the stock unit, and then feed the wires back through the billet piece, taking care to make correct connections. Cost of the billet shifter: $130.

Another mod you might want to leave to the pros is putting in the Harley-Davidson gauge faces. It's a fairly time-consuming process because you have to pull apart the steering-column shroud and left-side dash housing. In addition, the plexiglas cover has to be removed. After that, the tach needle position has to be marked while the engine is running in order to calibrate it. After replacing the gauge faces, the engine must be restarted so the needle can be placed in the proper position. If you don't follow this procedure, they won't register the engine revs correctly. For those who'd rather pay for this type of install, the labor is about $55 and the Harley-Davidson gauge faces cost $120.

Trim pieces on the door panels are dirt-simple by comparison, though not without a few problems. Make sure you have the right size of fasteners and screws, which sounds easy enough, but you can't necessarily use the stock ones on the billet pieces.

The reverse is true on the climate control panel. After you pull off the stock knobs, carefully remove their inner sleeves with needle-nose pliers so they can be reused on the billet knobs. Just press them into the knobs, and they're ready to snap back on the stems for the controls. As with the tach needle, you'll need to take note of the knobs' positions before replacing them. After that, just apply the faceplate in the same manner that you applied cover plates in the engine bay. Price of the climate controls and faceplate: $95.

Even with the extra time and expense involved for the interior mods, the result is worth the effort to give your vehicle a premium-grade treatment.

Resource

Billet Superstore, 2380 E. Orangethorpe Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92806, 877-7Billet, www.billetsuperstore.com