Dont know why but...I guess it was all the under dash stuff I had to do putting in the AC and converting my gauges that made me wonder what it took to convert one of our cars to right hand drive.

Were there ever any production right hand drive c3's? The firewall gets pretty busy with Brake booster, wiper door actuator, pedals, column... then moving the heater box over to the left side....just thought this was interesting.

http://www.4steerconversions.com/pho...ry_1.shtml.htm

 

G'day,

Living in the land where up until about 20 years ago, ALL cars had to be RHD in order to be registered, I can probably give you a good overview of the topic. I bought my first C3 about 25 years ago and started to pull it apart in order to convert it. But another child came along, unemployment for a few years after the 1990 recession and a mortgage, etc. put a stop to my plans.

As a member of the Chevrolet Car Club of Victoria Inc., with around 900 members, we have a fair smattering of Corvettes in our Club. Many of them are RHD and were converted back in the day when you had to. Our rules have changed recently and we had a 25 year "cut-off" for LHD cars, they had to be over 25 years old to be able to register them and drive them on our roads.

However, the latest rules have a December 31 1988 cut-off. All cars manufactured after this date MUST be RHD in order to be registered in Australia, well, at least in Victoria where I live. I have heard that there is a 15 year cut-off date in the state of Western Australia, but will leave someone from there to shed more light.

Chevrolet made ONE RHD Corvette, more as a styling exercise, but it was sold a few years ago when GM sold off a lot of their stable of special cars.

As an aside, I have manufactured an integral power steering box to fit Australian built RHD 1955-57 Chevrolets that bolts into the factory RHD mounting holes and uses the factory RHD Pitman arm. This box is a mirror image of the box that Borgeson Universal (Torrington CT) uses for the LHD Tri-5 Chevs and C2/C3 Corvettes and will fit a C2/C3 Corvette if one was to convert to RHD.

Of course, new holes would have to be drilled in the chassis rail, and crush tubes fitted, but this would have to be done for the fitment of any steering box. My box even has the Chev Pitman arm spline and the sector shaft is exactly the same length as the factory LHD manual box. A Borgeson rag joint would connect the box to the factory steering shaft, if used, so if anyone wants to convert a C2/C3 to RHD, I have one of the major components to facilitate such a change.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

 

Seems to me that GM should have designed the Corvettes to be compatible with either LHD or RHD. It's a specialty car and it's natural that people in RH drive countries would like to have one.

For people who've never driven in a RHD country....My opinion is that on a multi-lane road....two or more lanes (carriageways) going in the same direction, it doesn't matter much which side the steering wheel is on. But on a two lane road, one lane in each direction, driving a LHD car in a RHD country (Australia) just makes it so very dangerous to pass (overtake). You need to have a passenger and rely on the passenger to tell you when to pass....scary. Lived in Australia for 9 years.

 

Very interesting aussiejohn.....

I can see all the mechanical stuff and how that works out... What I can't see is how do you convert the dashes ???? I guess they are all custom 1 off's from an upholstery shop?

Any pics of those RHD driver cars??? Would love to see some details.

 

Go to www.chevcarclubvic.org.au and seek the Vic Vettes section, where you will see a number of cars. Also the Camaro/Trans Am/Firebird section. That should give you a RHD "fix" for a while.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

 

You can source a RHD dash .. I'm at the tail end of a conversion, its major surgery if you want to do it properly

 

Thanks for the link Aussiejohn! Great pics in there!

mysixtynine... this is the only pic I have of a RHD Vette.... but I think it`s a good one!

 

That would have required engineering and part tooling costs which the bean counters determined were too much. To my knowledge, GM has never spent the money for a RH drive factory Corvette.

 

Yes, I've read the GM bean counters have tried to kill off the Corvette in the past. I think the story is that early development work on the C4 had to be done behind their back to prevent them from stopping C4 development. It's easy to imagine that at some point in the past someone trying to spend a few dollars for a RHD compatible Corvette would have been stopped.

.....But GM has produced a RHD and LHD compatible car..and is producing it now. In the US it's sold as the LT V8 powered SS Chevrolet (LHD) and in Australia it's sold as the GM Holden (RHD). I saw a SS Chevrolet a few days ago where someone had removed the SS Chevrolet badges emblems and replaced them with Holden badges and emblems. Looked neat. The Holden logo looks something like a Lion with it's paw sitting on top of the world.

Another car which i believe was easily converted was the 1963 to 1966 Ford Mustang. The Mustang was based on a Ford Falcon and RHD Ford Falcons were manufactured in Australia, so the RHD steering hardware was readily available and would fit. Also, the Mustang dash's were easy to switch from left to right, etc.

 

68/70,

Yes, Ford Australia has been building, not assembling from parts, the Ford Falcon since about 1960, and THEY'RE STILL DOING IT!!! Ford Australia claims that the Falcon is the longest continuously manufactured badge or model name in the world. I guess they haven't heard of the Corvette. ;-). Unfortunately, that is all coming to an end in 2017 when all three of Australia's car manufacturing plants will close.

The Australian government has refused to "prop up" the home-grown industry, unlike ALL other countries where car manufacturing takes place. So, Ford, GM Holden and Toyota will be no more and we will rely solely on imports. As GM has made no announcements of a RHD V8 powered vehicle to take the place of the Holden Commodore (aka Chevrolet SS), then we will be left with a choice of a RHD Ford Mustang which is coming later this year, or a Chrysler 300 four door, which has been selling here for yonks.

A sad day is ahead when we will be no longer able to buy a (new) GM V8 in Australia.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

 

some photos

 

 

 

 

Txs for all the responses guys...

How do they handle the clutch fork and bellhousings and Z bars? I guess GM made bells with openings on the pass side for all your other cars?

What about the centerlink for the steering where it connects to the pitman arm , do you just reverse it?

My brother has 2014 SS loves it. Sad to hear that Australia is going to kill off it car manufacture. I got a real kick out of shows like mad max that showed your cars and the customs of the 70's in some of the scenes.

Oldgto ... Tell me where I can find one of ur passenger side accessories!!!!!

 

still a work in progress

 

ignore the date in the photo .. dam battery keeps going flat .. all photos are from last year and this year

 

depending on what approach you use on the conversion, you can re-use your existing bell housing .. as mine was a manual we just converted to a hydraulic clutch (custom brackets to hold the slave cylinder) and re-used the bell housing and clutch fork.

 

AB_in_AUS...

Nice work, what a massive under taking !!!

I was thinking about all the extending you have to do to bring the wiring over from the other side to the gauges and steering column and support.

The pedals, pedal box,
Master cylinder and brake lines and then work out the steering bits.

You gota post some of the under dash stuff and the steering. Do u guys wind up using a rack and pinion? I know I read someone converted a jeep box would like to see how that center link was worked out.

Thanks again guys..... Not that I will do this but I think some credit it due to you guys for a mod ( at least until recently) you had to make just to drive these cars in Australia.

 

Here is a photo of the donor steering box sitting in the modified chassis rail. The donor steering box is hydraulic so we didn't need to original hydraulic ram. Pitman arm and drag link were also donor parts.