Right hand drive conversions, avoid?
Discussion
Hi All
Just after opinions. I'm currently on the hunt for another Ram. One has popped up this week and it is pretty much the perfect example, good colour, sensible miles, interior and exterior original and in good condition, loads of history and some very tasty mechanical upgrades.
The only thing I'm questioning is its right hand drive. From the pics it looks ok, but obviously cant tell fully until I see it in person.
Just wondering if there is any particular reason to avoid a converted truck? Advert says it was imported to the UK new and converted before sale in 2004, not sure who by.
Seller says he has had it 18months and its had no problems and with 50k miles on it I guess any significant problems would have made themselves known by now?
Are thee any knows converters I should avoid? I'll ask if he can say who converted it.
Thanks for any help.
Just after opinions. I'm currently on the hunt for another Ram. One has popped up this week and it is pretty much the perfect example, good colour, sensible miles, interior and exterior original and in good condition, loads of history and some very tasty mechanical upgrades.
The only thing I'm questioning is its right hand drive. From the pics it looks ok, but obviously cant tell fully until I see it in person.
Just wondering if there is any particular reason to avoid a converted truck? Advert says it was imported to the UK new and converted before sale in 2004, not sure who by.
Seller says he has had it 18months and its had no problems and with 50k miles on it I guess any significant problems would have made themselves known by now?
Are thee any knows converters I should avoid? I'll ask if he can say who converted it.
Thanks for any help.
It may well be ok but I know a couple of guys who bought LHD Mustangs that had been converted to RHD, they had no idea who did the work or what the parts used were from,cars were fine for a year or 2 but when they start failing MOT's on stuff like steering rack/ball joints etc good luck trying to find replacements/parts to fix
An obvious bonus having RHD over here but if I was going to do it I think I would have to buy new myself and have the work done like a raptor from Sutton so if anything did go wrong you have a direct source to go to. Does the Current owner have no idea/paperwork about the conversion?
Every American pickup dash I've seen looks like it's symmetrical and has been designed to either be right or left hand drive, which is odd as most of them are only ever LHD.
Fwiw I'd jump at the chance of a big yank pickup with the wheel on the right side, but maybe it's easier as I'd be willing to take on whatever repairs cropped up myself.
Fwiw I'd jump at the chance of a big yank pickup with the wheel on the right side, but maybe it's easier as I'd be willing to take on whatever repairs cropped up myself.
Darkslider said:
Every American pickup dash I've seen looks like it's symmetrical and has been designed to either be right or left hand drive, which is odd as most of them are only ever LHD.
Fwiw I'd jump at the chance of a big yank pickup with the wheel on the right side, but maybe it's easier as I'd be willing to take on whatever repairs cropped up myself.
I'm not sure what trucks you're talking about as I can't think of a single one that has a symmetrical dash.Fwiw I'd jump at the chance of a big yank pickup with the wheel on the right side, but maybe it's easier as I'd be willing to take on whatever repairs cropped up myself.
To the OP, if you really want rhd then it's fine, but limited resale & parts depending on how the conversion was done might be hard/expensive to obtain.
shovelheadrob said:
I'm not sure what trucks you're talking about as I can't think of a single one that has a symmetrical dash.
Only all the big players, Ford F150: 
Dodge Ram
Chevrolet Silverado
I'm sure there's more if I could be bothered to search through Google any longer. They all look like the dash shape was designed to be easy to change to RHD if they decided to further down the line, but none of them ever made it to a RHD market. I wonder if manufacturers wanted to be prepared to break into european/Australian markets, but by the time the rest of the truck was developed it wasn't deemed worthwhile.
Only seems to be a recent trend, a lot of older stuff has a blatantly LHD asymmetrical dash.
Top pic is from the advert bottom pic is a standard LHD one.
From what I can easily see, the red starter button has moved from the centre pillar to down by the gear stick, and the bit of dash with I guess the airbag is a bit different. Silver trim panel there had the writing at the wrong end too so is probably the original piece relocated.
From what I can easily see, the red starter button has moved from the centre pillar to down by the gear stick, and the bit of dash with I guess the airbag is a bit different. Silver trim panel there had the writing at the wrong end too so is probably the original piece relocated.
RB Will said:
Top pic is from the advert bottom pic is a standard LHD one.
From what I can easily see, the red starter button has moved from the centre pillar to down by the gear stick, and the bit of dash with I guess the airbag is a bit different. Silver trim panel there had the writing at the wrong end too so is probably the original piece relocated.
Just found it, if you've got the money get it bought for that engine alone! I wish I could justify it myself From what I can easily see, the red starter button has moved from the centre pillar to down by the gear stick, and the bit of dash with I guess the airbag is a bit different. Silver trim panel there had the writing at the wrong end too so is probably the original piece relocated.
RB Will said:
Hi All
Just after opinions. I'm currently on the hunt for another Ram. One has popped up this week and it is pretty much the perfect example, good colour, sensible miles, interior and exterior original and in good condition, loads of history and some very tasty mechanical upgrades.
The only thing I'm questioning is its right hand drive. From the pics it looks ok, but obviously cant tell fully until I see it in person.
Just wondering if there is any particular reason to avoid a converted truck? Advert says it was imported to the UK new and converted before sale in 2004, not sure who by.
Seller says he has had it 18months and its had no problems and with 50k miles on it I guess any significant problems would have made themselves known by now?
Are thee any knows converters I should avoid? I'll ask if he can say who converted it.
Thanks for any help.
That's the biggest no no on a yank,been driving them for over 40 years and still am but a yank should be l.h.d and v8 to get the whole American occasion, especially if it's a classic,would feel embarrassed if i drove a r.h.d one to a show. Did buy a 1960 Ford Galaxie convertible that was factory built as r.h.d in Canada for the UK,Australian market thinking would be easy to sell as being a big wide car someone's old dear will give her husband planning permission to buy it as she didn't like the idea of being out in the middle of the road without a steering wheel in her hand,how wrong can you be, it took over a year or more to sell with every body saying if it was l.h.d they would have bought it, funny part is the guy who did buy it said he didn't realise it was r.h.d and wouldn't have come to look at it if he'd know ,but his Marrilyn Monroe look a like wife loved it so he bought it anyway as the car was for her. Also you may have trouble with parts unless you know exactly what parts you got .i did even on a car of that age,i had to order the parts from Australia instead of America which took forever. Just after opinions. I'm currently on the hunt for another Ram. One has popped up this week and it is pretty much the perfect example, good colour, sensible miles, interior and exterior original and in good condition, loads of history and some very tasty mechanical upgrades.
The only thing I'm questioning is its right hand drive. From the pics it looks ok, but obviously cant tell fully until I see it in person.
Just wondering if there is any particular reason to avoid a converted truck? Advert says it was imported to the UK new and converted before sale in 2004, not sure who by.
Seller says he has had it 18months and its had no problems and with 50k miles on it I guess any significant problems would have made themselves known by now?
Are thee any knows converters I should avoid? I'll ask if he can say who converted it.
Thanks for any help.
Edited by rat rod on Sunday 19th July 15:11
I looked at a RH drive gen4 camaro last year - car was in scotland, seller was the type of guy who's your worst nightmare, lied about every thing about & on the car, said it was a one off for an Aussie millionaire, it had a leaking PS pump, 20 year old tyres, with cracks in, leaking T tops etc etc, how it passed the MOT its anyones guess, Only 30K on the clock mind and it was RED
Idrove all the way from wales to view it on his BS and lies oh well its still for sale on ebay for anyone interested last time i looked [a few months ago]
He wanted twice what I eventually paid for a really nice LH drive car.
Buyers beware
Idrove all the way from wales to view it on his BS and lies oh well its still for sale on ebay for anyone interested last time i looked [a few months ago]He wanted twice what I eventually paid for a really nice LH drive car.
Buyers beware
S47 said:
I looked at a RH drive gen4 camaro last year - car was in scotland, seller was the type of guy who's your worst nightmare, lied about every thing about & on the car, said it was a one off for an Aussie millionaire, it had a leaking PS pump, 20 year old tyres, with cracks in, leaking T tops etc etc, how it passed the MOT its anyones guess, Only 30K on the clock mind and it was RED Idrove all the way from wales to view it on his BS and lies oh well its still for sale on ebay for anyone interested last time i looked [a few months ago]
He wanted twice what I eventually paid for a really nice LH drive car.
Buyers beware
^ What he said. A RHD converted American car is NOT a saleable item to a American car enthusiast who wants a proper American car. Yeah, OK you'll get some people mistakenly buy in to one of these as they'll think its easier to drive (before they realise that they'll need to re-sell it to someone with the same mindset as them) Idrove all the way from wales to view it on his BS and lies oh well its still for sale on ebay for anyone interested last time i looked [a few months ago]He wanted twice what I eventually paid for a really nice LH drive car.
Buyers beware
Wouldn't want to try and source any of the conversion parts a few years later - ever seen am early 60's RHD Galaxie? - cast exhaust manifold used on right cylinder bank is actually a left hand side one turned upside down with a 'U' shaped pipe re-connecting to RHD exhaust pipe.
On the subject of RHD Yankee motors - have UK spec' RHD Mustangs 'killed' the UK market for personal import late model LHD Mustangs?
Putting the other side of this, all the hate for RHD Yanks is why I can afford 2.
In many cases (both of mine) they were factory RHD and parts are no harder to find than for the LHD ones.
The appeal of a yank motor isn't diminished by RHD for me as I like the cars, I am not trying to buy into some weird idea of pretending to be an American.
One thing I have noticed on the Tri Chevy forums (one of mine is a 56 Chevy) is that RHD is getting popular in the US - people are even converting to it just to be different.
In many cases (both of mine) they were factory RHD and parts are no harder to find than for the LHD ones.
The appeal of a yank motor isn't diminished by RHD for me as I like the cars, I am not trying to buy into some weird idea of pretending to be an American.
One thing I have noticed on the Tri Chevy forums (one of mine is a 56 Chevy) is that RHD is getting popular in the US - people are even converting to it just to be different.
Your point is quite logical - excluding perhaps specifically assembled OEM RHD market cars - (like South Africa who marketed 2 door coupes and verts) most of the RHD Yanks (not currently sold cars) seemed to be 'cooking' and 'lo-po' 4 door and base spec' sedans. You won't see too many RHD XL spec' 2 door Galaxies or SS Impalas.
True although my other Yank is an AMC rebel SST - not a fire breather with "only" a 289 V8 but power windows, power brakes and electric hood/top - more mainstream stuff like you mention didn't always come in the higher lines RHD and certainly not the well-known muscle cars.
For me RHD has been a cheap and practical way to own a couple of Yank motors - I'm not bothered about chasing rare muscle cars in any case (and I don't have the cash), but I do like Yank cars.
Fortunately for me the folsk in the US are much more open-minded about RHD and there's a stack of assistance available from Australia now.
For me RHD has been a cheap and practical way to own a couple of Yank motors - I'm not bothered about chasing rare muscle cars in any case (and I don't have the cash), but I do like Yank cars.
Fortunately for me the folsk in the US are much more open-minded about RHD and there's a stack of assistance available from Australia now.
V8forweekends said:
Putting the other side of this, all the hate for RHD Yanks is why I can afford 2.
In many cases (both of mine) they were factory RHD and parts are no harder to find than for the LHD ones.
The appeal of a yank motor isn't diminished by RHD for me as I like the cars, I am not trying to buy into some weird idea of pretending to be an American.
One thing I have noticed on the Tri Chevy forums (one of mine is a 56 Chevy) is that RHD is getting popular in the US - people are even converting to it just to be different.
Same here, I absolutely love a good muscle car or pickup but I can't stand driving a left hooker on our roads so I've never owned one yet. If I ever came to seriously look for one I'd pay a premium for a factory or quality RHD converted car, I wouldn't entertain left hand drive in this country and I've tried a few (brother owned a '97 4.6 V8 Mustang which I got to use, among others)In many cases (both of mine) they were factory RHD and parts are no harder to find than for the LHD ones.
The appeal of a yank motor isn't diminished by RHD for me as I like the cars, I am not trying to buy into some weird idea of pretending to be an American.
One thing I have noticed on the Tri Chevy forums (one of mine is a 56 Chevy) is that RHD is getting popular in the US - people are even converting to it just to be different.
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