I Need Info On Right Hand Drive Conversion
- Thread starter Ima2nr
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-Take the dash and everything on it and under it out of both cars (the doner and the donee), including wiring, the pedal assembly's, master cylinders, fuel lines. You dont have to take the motor out (of either car) but it would make it a lot easier if you do.
-You have to be sooo carfull with this step. Take a dremel or an angle grinder with a good grinding wheel, and strip off all of the caulking off both firewalls so you have a nice, clean surface to drill/weld/paint/work with. I make about a 3-4 inch path to work with. I grind the caulking, plus about an inch on each side of it.
Heres the tricky part...
Take a drill (the bit should be about the size of your pinky finger), and drill out all of the spot welds along the base of the firewall... starting from the uppermost part of either side of the firewall (by the hood hinge) then work your way down, over, and up to the other side. There are about 25-30 or so from one side to the other. Once the spot weld are drilled out, then firewall should be kind of loose if not totally free to lift out. There may be a couple of hang ups, so drill them or cut them out if you have to. BE CAREFULLLL!!!! You dont want to bent/crease/fuck up the firewall in any way.
Once the firewall is completely out of the car, clean up the holes you drilled of any excess metal as best as possible so, again, you have a clean surface to work with... do the same on the cars chassis where the firewall once was.
-You still have to be so carefull here. Take some metal (alluminum) of about the same thickness as the firewall, and cut small 2"x2" sections out. Clamp the 2x2 sections onto the firewall over the old spot welds, and weld them on. Dont over heat and warp the firewall. Once all the 2x2's are welded on, then re-finish the spot weld areas with some metal working tools (metal hammer, bell, etc.) so you look like you have a complete firewall again without holes. Do the same on the cars chassis where the firewall was. You want to make it look like there never was a firewall there before and you are putting one in for the first time.
-Place the refinished (rhd) firewall into the refinished (lhd) car chasis. It should slide into place so to speak fairly easy. Once you have it aligned to where you want it... clamp it into place on each side of the top of the firewall (by the hood hinges).
-Make a couple of spot welds to secure it where you want it. BAM! Start making spot welds at every spot the factory spot welds were before (I think its about every 5-6 inches). Once the rhd firewall is in place, re caulk it like factory caulking and get it ready for paint.
Everything else is cake, just tedious.
Put the car back together using all of your rhd parts (dash and everything that goes with it, all of the rhd stuff that goes on the firewall like the master cylinder, fuel lines, and if hydro, the hydrolic lines).
***Heres are a couple of tidbits I ran into along the way and some things that helped me…
-I took the gas tank out & made sure that ALL of the fuel was out of the system. This may sound like an extra un neccessary step, but I wanna make sure im not going to have a fuel fire in the car when im working on it.
-I do take the motors out just because I like the work room if needed (not to mention im a big guy).
-I always got fucked up on the cars wiring.Since i was dealing with having a rhd engine bay & under dash wire harness, but a lhd interior wire harness. I would turn on the left blinker & the right blinker would come on in the back and on the side marker, but the left blinker would turn on up front.Stuff like that. If you have a rear wire harness, your stoked. Otherwise, its just trial & error.
-Make sure you have the rhd trunk relase and hood release cable and other misc stuff like that. Otherwise its a big pain in the ass.
-When your welding and taking out or putting in the rhd firewall, dont bend / crease / warp it. It will never come out right again.
-Lastly, but not least... check with your local laws about making sure you do this the legal way in regards to proper placement of VIN's and DMV registration.
Have fun!
Now that you have done it, have fun going to drivethru ATMs, food joints, Banktellers, parking garages, etc...
-You have to be sooo carfull with this step. Take a dremel or an angle grinder with a good grinding wheel, and strip off all of the caulking off both firewalls so you have a nice, clean surface to drill/weld/paint/work with. I make about a 3-4 inch path to work with. I grind the caulking, plus about an inch on each side of it.
Heres the tricky part...
Take a drill (the bit should be about the size of your pinky finger), and drill out all of the spot welds along the base of the firewall... starting from the uppermost part of either side of the firewall (by the hood hinge) then work your way down, over, and up to the other side. There are about 25-30 or so from one side to the other. Once the spot weld are drilled out, then firewall should be kind of loose if not totally free to lift out. There may be a couple of hang ups, so drill them or cut them out if you have to. BE CAREFULLLL!!!! You dont want to bent/crease/fuck up the firewall in any way.
Once the firewall is completely out of the car, clean up the holes you drilled of any excess metal as best as possible so, again, you have a clean surface to work with... do the same on the cars chassis where the firewall once was.
-You still have to be so carefull here. Take some metal (alluminum) of about the same thickness as the firewall, and cut small 2"x2" sections out. Clamp the 2x2 sections onto the firewall over the old spot welds, and weld them on. Dont over heat and warp the firewall. Once all the 2x2's are welded on, then re-finish the spot weld areas with some metal working tools (metal hammer, bell, etc.) so you look like you have a complete firewall again without holes. Do the same on the cars chassis where the firewall was. You want to make it look like there never was a firewall there before and you are putting one in for the first time.
-Place the refinished (rhd) firewall into the refinished (lhd) car chasis. It should slide into place so to speak fairly easy. Once you have it aligned to where you want it... clamp it into place on each side of the top of the firewall (by the hood hinges).
-Make a couple of spot welds to secure it where you want it. BAM! Start making spot welds at every spot the factory spot welds were before (I think its about every 5-6 inches). Once the rhd firewall is in place, re caulk it like factory caulking and get it ready for paint.
Everything else is cake, just tedious.
Put the car back together using all of your rhd parts (dash and everything that goes with it, all of the rhd stuff that goes on the firewall like the master cylinder, fuel lines, and if hydro, the hydrolic lines).
***Heres are a couple of tidbits I ran into along the way and some things that helped me…
-I took the gas tank out & made sure that ALL of the fuel was out of the system. This may sound like an extra un neccessary step, but I wanna make sure im not going to have a fuel fire in the car when im working on it.
-I do take the motors out just because I like the work room if needed (not to mention im a big guy).
-I always got fucked up on the cars wiring.Since i was dealing with having a rhd engine bay & under dash wire harness, but a lhd interior wire harness. I would turn on the left blinker & the right blinker would come on in the back and on the side marker, but the left blinker would turn on up front.Stuff like that. If you have a rear wire harness, your stoked. Otherwise, its just trial & error.
-Make sure you have the rhd trunk relase and hood release cable and other misc stuff like that. Otherwise its a big pain in the ass.
-When your welding and taking out or putting in the rhd firewall, dont bend / crease / warp it. It will never come out right again.
-Lastly, but not least... check with your local laws about making sure you do this the legal way in regards to proper placement of VIN's and DMV registration.
Have fun!
Now that you have done it, have fun going to drivethru ATMs, food joints, Banktellers, parking garages, etc...
I am all about JDM and shit but, RHD is a little too much for me. I wouldn't do it, I would invest the cash into actually moving a little faster. But to answer your Q ^^^ B16 said most of it, if this is your daily your going to have fun going through all those spots he mentioned.
Milan
Milan
