280zjoel Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Since there are a few people wondering how to do a RHD conversion the right way and not a really good thread on how to do it, I thought I would show you guys how Im doing it. Any comments or advice would greatly be appreciated. First off, as was mentioned before in many threads about RHD conversions, If you want to do a RHD conversion your better off just buying a Fairlady Z. Some of you might be wondering why I am contradicting myself, well its simple, I'm almost done with all the work i want to do on my Datsun(ya right:flamedevi), and buying another car to restore would be pointless for me since i still haven't finished my car, I cant afford to have another project. The RHD conversion is NOT and easy one to do, alot of work is involved. You will need to pull out your engine(unless its already out) and there is quite a bit of work to do. Anyhow onto the swap. The RHD stuff you need will need: Firewall Dash board Heater and fan Assembly Rack and Pinion(Supposedly the LHD one works, not %100 sure about that) Steering shaft Brake Lines Wiper arms(yep their different) Wiper motor Wiper Linkage Pedal Assembly There might be more, anyhow. Here is a pic of firewall of the RHD Clip : The Yellow lines represent where i will be drilling out the factory pinch welds. Also the yellow squared off section has the old vehicles vin number on it, That needs to be cut out for your vin number. The red circle shows were the heater/fan assembly has its vent under the cowl panel, They are different and need to be changed. Here's a shot of the "interior" side of the firewall The best thing to do is to get a whole clip, that way you have everything you need and wont end up getting stuck half way through. On a side note, if you have a custom engine swap make sure to check for clearances, I noticed that the steering shaft will hit the alternator on my Sr20det( I will end up mounting the alternator on the other side of the engine) Ya dont wanna go through with all that work and find out that you cant put your engine back in lol. The steering rack was in need of some grease and new boots so i went ahead and cleaned greased and installed new boots since its out of the clip. All nice and ready to be installed:mrgreen: Here's a pic of My Engine, I had just pulled it out of the Z and I swear its looking at me like it wants to fight lol:icon45: I Will post some more progress tomorrow after I get tired of working on it, I'm at the "While I'm at it" stage and im going to paint the engine bay since the motor is out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zjoel Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Well did some drilling and got most of the welds drilled, here is a spot weld cutter drill bit you might want to use for pinch weld removal, it just makes thing so much more easier.(and yes the bit is that big lol) Well after a few hours of drilling I managed to remove part of the floorboard that was still attached to the clip, as you can see you have to drill out the welds up the firewall and over to separate the firewall from the wheel wells. You might notice that some spots i drilled completely through all pieces of sheet metal, that actually was a mistake. Its ok for the clip since i wont be using the back sheet metal but, not a good idea to do it on the car its going on(welding holes is no fun) As you can see on top, the welds had to be drilled, and the sheet metal separated. pretty much straight forward with the drilling, just find out where you need to separate and drill the welds out. I used a small pry screw driver to make sure that the metal was completely separated. Also notice as you get close to where the A-post is, you will need to grind the welds since they are not pinch welds Do you guys think that i will have to make a brace to hold the A-posts from moving once i remove the firewall? Or is it ok to just cut and install the other firewall? Im kind of worried about the car flexing when i take the firewall out and just though id ask your opinions. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony D Posted October 31, 2009 Share Posted October 31, 2009 I have seen RHD conversions in Australia that are done without the firewall. I believe there is a thread here with one such conversion. What about the pedal box mounting bracket? OH, and I saw a 1974 260 Z converted to RHD at Spa this year where the gent used a racing style pedal box that was floor-mounted, the rest of the coversion regarding the rack and column, etc was done using RHD parts. Actually I believe the Steering shaft and column itself is universal, but the stuff that bolts onto it (regarding key being in the right place, turn indicator and light switch, surround, etc) just bolts on accordingly. Nice writeup, good luck with that conversion. The hidden welds and dissection photos should help anybody doing heavy rust repair in those areas as well. As for the flexing MEASURE MEASURE MEASURE before the first cut, place the body on a solid BUCK, and BRACE THE HELL OUT OF IT! Give yourself room to get to what you need to get to, but bracing and solid support will prevent sag and more importantly "twist" once the boxing member is removed, the whole front of the car will be able to "turn parallelogram" once that firewall is out of there. Bracing up front between the strut towers will limit access, but you should consider it as well. Anything you tack weld on can always be removed and ground off afterwards with little trace. Better to be overbraced and rigid, than underbraced and find your panel wont line up and you have to tweak things to make it fit going back together! Good Luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ncfisher Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Hi Joel glad to see you are going through with it. Makes the 16 hour drive almost worth it. can't wait to see it finished. Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zjoel Posted November 2, 2009 Author Share Posted November 2, 2009 hehehe, I wish i wasnt so sick this past week, or i would of gotten alot more work done on the car. I did manage to take out the dashoard and do some cleaning up. Ill post some pics in the future for the parts that look to be the same between RHD and LHD for reference. Thanks tony, I'm going to use the RHD pedal box, which i believe bolts onto the firewall, so I'm covered there unless i skipped something. Hopefully i will have some updates this week with more progress. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stealth-Z Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Ditto with what Nick said. Nice to see it going to good use. I am at an internet cafe in the middle of Mindanao, Philippines. Nick emailed me about your progress and I had to take a look! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garvice Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Can I ask why you would want a RHD car when you drive on the wrong , I mean right side of the road? Also, if you need specific photos, let me know. My car is all together at the moment, but may still be able to get some RHD photos if you need them. Brad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoov100 Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Can I ask why you would want a RHD car when you drive on the wrong , I mean right side of the road? Also, if you need specific photos, let me know. My car is all together at the moment, but may still be able to get some RHD photos if you need them. Brad Pedal box Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zjoel Posted November 2, 2009 Author Share Posted November 2, 2009 Thanks Nick and Eric, I am going to try my best to make it look as clean as possible. Here is a pic of the pedal box bolted to the firewall. I was too lazy last night to check it out, so there it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garvice Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Pedal box Was that a request for a photo, or an answer to my question? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoov100 Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Was that a request for a photo, or an answer to my question? probably both at the moment, But it is a request with a "pretty please" and a "cherry on top" in it. (I dont know how I'm typing so good, for being so drunk) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garvice Posted November 3, 2009 Share Posted November 3, 2009 Pedal box Not sure what pictures you are exactly after. Let me know if I can get better ones for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zjoel Posted November 5, 2009 Author Share Posted November 5, 2009 *sighs* the more I look at it the harder it gets, lol in order to remove the cowl panel and firewall, i need to remove the these bad boys to get to a couple of welds on the A-post that cant be drilled from the inside since the flange faces up and on the inside of those posts..... to be more specific, I cut part of that section out to show were the welds are that need to be removed. Well, Ill figure something out, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaggz00 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 I guess what's done is done, but couldn't you have just cut an access hole, say 2-3" tall, and as long as you need to get to the spot-welds? It seems it would have been a lot less work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zjoel Posted November 6, 2009 Author Share Posted November 6, 2009 :icon15:Well, actually i came up with a plan that will allow me not to drill those out, Im going to chop out the firewall and cowl panel with my cutting disk and leave about 2 inchs of sheet metal along the factory welds so that i can drill them out easily, since the center section will be out i can have good access to the spot welds, then just drill and remove the remaining pieces of sheetmetal. I will have to drill out the top of the cowl panel and remove it to weld up the spots inside but thats so much easier than removing those posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rturbo 930 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 How do you plan to brace the car while you do all this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zjoel Posted November 6, 2009 Author Share Posted November 6, 2009 How do you plan to brace the car while you do all this? Im going to weld a support across the frame rails about 5 inches in front of the firewall, also weld a brace where the stock trans mount bolts also a brace to bolt between the A-post(ill bolt it on the inside where the door hinge bolts are) and I have to figure out a way to weld in a cross brace from the floor board to the top of the roof. Im also going to get 6 oem style jacks(with the turn crank) and position them in the rear, middle and front. Im going to hand turn them all till they hit the frame rails, and turn them all one revolution and distribute the pressure evenly. Hopefully this will be enough, anyone feel free to chime in and let me know if I will need more support. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoov100 Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Not sure what pictures you are exactly after. Let me know if I can get better ones for you. Those are beautiful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garvice Posted November 6, 2009 Share Posted November 6, 2009 Those are beautiful! Glad I could help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
280zjoel Posted November 9, 2009 Author Share Posted November 9, 2009 ok, got some more work done, I finally got everything separated, I did end up removing the top portion of the cowl panel so that when i install it, I can just weld it from the factory points from inside the cowl instead of removing the side posts and going through all that trouble. Here are some pics of the parts ready for installation. I will have some good progress by Wed. since my bro has half day at work, and he will help me out with the install and welding. Heres the top section of the Cowl panel: Here is the front: Right hand side: Left hand side: And, back side: If anyone wants more specific shots of sections let me know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.