Be sure to unhook the battery first.
My experience on my '65 c10 with factory gauges:
Getting the cluster loose is fairly easy, there are a few phillips screws around the side, but the ignition switch, cigarette lighter and headlight switch need to be removed as they go through the metal dash and the cluster both.
The ignition switch comes out by taking the round bezel off, which do some thinking about tackling that before you use pliers on it.
The cig lighter, you unplug it in the back, then it unscrews into two pieces, then one part comes out the front.
The headlight switch is a little funky. First up, feel around the headlight switch and you will find a button on the side of the switch box, under the dash. You can look up the part on the various vendor sites to get a visual. You pull the knob all the way out, keep your hand on the knob, depress the button on the side of the box and hold it, and the knob will release and the rod will come out(you can kinda feel it get loose). Then you take the bezel loose and the headlight switch will drop down. Once the cluster is back in, to reinstall, put headlight switch in place, run the bezel down, get the knob/rod into position. Depress and hold that button down and wiggle the rod/knob back into place and release the button. If it's done right you will feel it working the switch from on to park to off.
Also the bezel for the manual choke screws in/out if you have a manual choke still, I don't know if you will have enough wiggle room or not... and the wiper switch knob has a tiny little flat blade screw on it to take it loose(you just turn it a bit and it comes off, you don't have to take it out of the knob) and if I recall it also has a little bezel thing that needs to be unscrewed.
Mark the wires for where they go in the back of the instrument cluster, most of them are wires for the little bulbs for the dash lights, illumination at night, high beam indicator, blinkers, etc.
Most of the plugged looking wires are pretty obvious, the gauges and things, but mark them too just in case, also take some photos if you can, that will help!
The only tricky one is the oil pressure line to the back, if yours is still hooked up, just be firm but gentle... and remember to hook it back up before you crank the truck. I learned that one the hard way. hah.
Once everything is unplugged and loose, it is a bit of a dance getting it out, as it will whack into the steering column. I pondered once about loosening the steering column bolts to drop it a bit, but I haven't tried that yet. Maybe it is just one of those 'hold your tongue just right' things and do a dance to get it out, but for me getting it in and out of the dash opening was always the aggravating part.
If you have nice paint on your steering column put some tape on it or a shop rag, thin towel... thing cardboard, something to protect it as the cluster will sit right on top of it during part of the in/out operation.
To reinstall, I usually do the oil pressure gauge first. Then I start sort of from the center like, plugging things back up.
If you have a few bulbs wrong, just wait until it gets dusk sometime or dark, then fiddle around with them until you get them in the right place.
Good luck,
-Woog
