Picture 1
Picture 2
RHD-LHD Conversion
On a 4 banger B this is a piece of cake, relatively. The B has always been build with export in mind, so wiring loom and dashes are easy to find or have already been prepared for both RHD as well as LHD. Most importantly, the hole for the steering column has been made. Last but not least you have quite a lot more room under a four cyl B bonnet.
The V8 is a bit different. It has been produced for the home market only, except seven pre-production USA export models. Especially the chrome bumper cars feature a mixture of later rubber bumper part and c/b parts. A nice example of this is the dash. The combination of a wide steering column combined with smaller 80 mm clocks is unique for a c/b car. Here we have a problem if the desire arises to convert the car to European spec: there is no European spec dash for the V8! Given that all lhd "factory original" V8's have survived, there is no chance you will even find a USA spec dash for the V8. In my opinion the LHD European steel dashes are prettier as well. So one has to be made up.
|
|
|
|
Picture 1 |
Picture 2 |
Picture 1 is exactly as my car was before the conversion. I like the look of the steel dash with the black wrinkle paint finish. I even retained the big steering wheel. The seats are still in the same fabric, though I put new foam and webbing in the seats and in the backs. In all, I liked the look and wanted to keep the style.
Picture 2. The interior of a LHD "original" V8. The autumn leaf interior aside, the dash, the lay out of the clocks and the place of the controls is all different. The center console is also different and the whole thing is certainly not to my liking. "factory original" or not.
There are more differences that should be taken into consideration when a V8 is to be converted. I was told that the following problems would have to be solved:
 | no aperture for the steering column in the bulkhead on the left hand side |
| wiring loom behind the dash is usually shorter on the V8 (not prepared for LHD) |
| uncertainty with regard to the steering rack that could be used (R/B item on a C/B car?) |
| the mounting points for the steering rack on the crossmember are different |
| the pedals have to move to the left hand side as well, so master cylinders have to switch place with the servo. |
After discussion with the workshops who could convert my car, the following approach was chosen:
| buy a 1973 steel dash, cut up the old dash and convert the lhd steel dash to V8 spec |
| lift the engine out |
| create the appropriate apertures for pedals, steering column |
| relocate master cylinders, servo and the consequent plumbing. |
| weld the right mountings on the crossmember |
| use a new R/B steering rack and of course re-align the wheels |
| all other parts can be re-used |
Companies that can do this conversion are:
All of these companies have done the RHD-LHD on a V8 before and can show examples of the finished product.
Imparts and Hebels both quoted around 40 hours of labor and use the same approach. Looking at the above mentioned points you can see that the costs of the job will be mostly labor-cost driven. Peter Seegers was more cautious and thought he could do the conversion without lifting the engine. Looking at the under bonnet space I can't imagine how he is going to do this, but he sure knows what he is doing.