When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Moving on, finally passed engineering goverment body requirements and road registered, there is so much I could of said and shown, this is just a overview of what is required here in Australia, there is not many C5's in the country or C6's haven't seen a C7 here, and yes the C8 is coming in RHD, but even if someone gave me a C8 I would sell it and get a C7, the C8 does absolutely nothing for me, people say it will grow on you, nup it won't, but each to their own, the C6 also does nothing for me, a friend in the USA has a C7 Z06 and that I love but at about A$200K here its out of my reach.
Took 1 year to get it here and 2 1/2 years for conversion and approval before rego. I built some ramps so I could work on my cars at home as it was 25 miles to our shop. We even have to move the shifter over for RHD or its too far from the center of the console Ended up making a MGW fit but 1st and reverse is a pain still, so its changing again, I brought the latest MGW with new lower box hope that works better. Holden HSV ****
Thank you for sharing the process. It really makes me thankful that we have everything so easily available here in the states.
While I haven’t modified mine in the same way as you, there aren’t too many bolts that haven’t been turned on it. Thankfully though, I was able to drive and enjoy it while modifying it.
Your C5 looks great! Be safe, enjoy, and keep it between the ditches!
So I guess the ride along hasn't been that long I left a lot out, everthing had to be changed, new brake pads, tyres,cats fluids etc etc, but there isn't much to show there, all seat and door switches have to be swapped over, there is very little thats not, because the fuse box are now on the opposite side you can't just flip the harness, it has to be extended, 76 wires and a lot of other wires need extending.
Anyway its on the the road since 2017 Oct, Its not out all that often, we did many shows and picked up rewards at most of them, but trophies are just trophies, I stopped showing it just want to drive it when I could.
2018 I changed out all the interior lights to LED and made the door reflectors light up, all before it was a thing in the USA, I haven't stopped working on it since.
I brought a set of Z06 Heads imported them and spent over A$2k having them tricked up, added yellow terror lite weight roller rockers, cam, high flow oil pump, under drive pully kit, Z06 intake modifyed and a whole heap of other stuff, tuned and dyno now puts out 317kw or a bit over 430hp at the wheels, the tuner told me at the time the corrected figures would be 462 RWHP, it drives really smooth. Attached are some pics as it was for years, its currently having its last make over, 3 years work so far so I haven't been able to drive it. Conversion complete waiting for approval Black and Silver trim, custom gauge faces RH drivers door trim original shifter and wheel etc All RHD I did sneak in a few things the engineers didn't notice
Now things have changed most were done around from 2018. Heads fitted Highly modified Z06 heads, yellow terra lit weight roller rockers etc Had the Rocker cover custom painted and forced air Forced air Sold ramps and got a 4 post Front off Tiger Shark front, 1st 1 I brought in glass was crap then found this 1 in urethane, still needed work but it was pretty good Fitted and painted perfect, I made daytime driving lamps in LED in brake ducts. 1 of many shows
So its been on the road for years now, did a photo shoot for Vette Mag, no idea whether it made it into the mag, a couple of pics that were taken. Pic for Vette mag
Last edited by sbadd99; Sep 4, 2021 at 08:58 PM.
Reason: added info
You have to protect Ford Australia, GM Holden and Toyota Australia.
You know, after all these years you would think that all countries could agree on everyone driving in the right lane or left lane. Does not make sense that different countries require different sides. Confusing and dangerous.
You know, after all these years you would think that all countries could agree on everyone driving in the right lane or left lane. Does not make sense that different countries require different sides. Confusing and dangerous.
just depends on how mad that the residents were when they kicked the Brits out
shoot - in the Bahamas, they run left-hand drive cars on the left side of the road. same visibility problems as the folks who have RHD cars here.
Okay, tho I shortened the RHD build quite a bit the next section will also be short, if anyone noticed I found a 300mph speedo years ago and even its gone through some changes with white faces then custom faces, its now back to the original black.
So now we're on the the makeover section over the last couple of years I have spent 1 day a week roughly changing stuff again, before I retired 7 years ago I was buying stuff and putting it on the shelf, now its being fitted up.
I Brought C6 Z06 Brake calipers and rotors now fitted
C6 Z06 sway bars and shocks fitted some time back, handles amazing.
The hood is having C7 vent fitted, that was a swag of work getting it to sit right.
Forgstar wheels 20" all round
I brought Lewis 5 fenders, the fronts were fine, the backs weren't even the same shape and took a lot of work just to get the shape and fitting up the same both sides, the also weren't wide enough for the new tyres so had to be widened about 2" more, then I didn't like the bulge of the flare just looked like aftermarket stick on, the fenders were cut up a few times to get what I wanted, all in glass and as little bog as possible.
Also because of the fender flare I wanted them to blend into rear bumper a sills, the body work has to flow smoothly thats the goal, you will see in the pics.
New MGW shifter kit with new lower box, halfway through modifying the stick position, so work in progress, can't finish till centre console is fitted to ensure its in the right spot.
The interior is going full leather Black with grey stitching to match the seats, I made a custom dash with a gauge pod with will house switches and Clock and Water temp gauge.
All the body has now been painted and ready for pickup a couple of months ago.
Trim has mostly been done waiting pickup.
Centre console has gone carbon fibre and will have light grey leather on the sides when I can pick it up.
We are now into week 11 of lockdown, can't go more than 3 miles from our house, so I'm screwed to pick anything up and our workshop is 26 miles away, anyway a few pics before paint etc.
Gauge pod 300 mph speedo Tried this steering wheel for a while than changed my mind This is what I now have out of a Holden SS redline, had to cut the spline out of the C5 wheel and weld it into this one Wheels and Brakes Trial fit Not wide enough Cut and widened Re shaped Rears been widened 2" C6 brake duct added This is the width but I don't like the shape, so cut it up again, don't like how it mates to the bumper Now they flow with the body shape, added a dog leg to flow into the bumper. The front had to flow also into the sill
Ok a couple of the trim pics, and thats it till I can pick up the stuff and get it fitted, thanks for looking. New seat covers RH door trim full leather LH door trim centre console in Carbon fibre will also have Grey leather on both sides
so what's the trick on the cluster? i noticed you've got the 300 speedometer but all the rest of the gauges are the US version (metric clusters have °C, kPa, etc).
i'd looked into swapping only my speedo but never got anywhere, and the metric clusters won't default to imperial on startup.
so what's the trick on the cluster? i noticed you've got the 300 speedometer but all the rest of the gauges are the US version (metric clusters have °C, kPa, etc).
i'd looked into swapping only my speedo but never got anywhere, and the metric clusters won't default to imperial on startup.
how'd you do yours?
Your correct the oil pressure and water temp are in F, I'm not so young and really know the difference, during the conversion we change the default to metric, its a requirement and your not supposed to be able to switch back to US readings just that mine does, I redid the mod after first rego, so my speedo shows in KPH, I was looking for a 300mph Z06 cluster but never found one.
You maybe able to have a speedo guy make yours default to in US. hope that makes sense.
Your correct the oil pressure and water temp are in F, I'm not so young and really know the difference, during the conversion we change the default to metric, its a requirement and your not supposed to be able to switch back to US readings just that mine does, I redid the mod after first rego, so my speedo shows in KPH, I was looking for a 300mph Z06 cluster but never found one.
You maybe able to have a speedo guy make yours default to in US. hope that makes sense.
i think i see what you're saying... i've just never seen a 300 speedometer without the °C, kPa, and fill level circles in place of the F/E. i thought that meant you'd swapped in the stepper motor & face for only the speedometer onto a US cluster.
but then again, i'd also seen somewhere that the default unit setting (US vs metric) is hard-coded, so an export cluster always starts in metric... which might mean you simply got the US overlays for the side gauges to go onto an export cluster.
Thanks for taking the time to post and share your build. 
