Posted By: 71TA
How many RHD Mopars were made? - 09/19/12 01:49 AM
Are there numbers somewhere? E body? B Body? a body?
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Gasket customer was looking for RHD E body gaskets. My wife was dealing with him. Think she said he said it was an Australian car.
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Gasket customer was looking for RHD E body gaskets. My wife was dealing with him. Think she said he said it was an Australian car.
What gaskets would be right RHD specific ??
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Gasket customer was looking for RHD E body gaskets. My wife was dealing with him. Think she said he said it was an Australian car.
What gaskets would be right RHD specific ??
The Australian cars had thier own heater boxes and what not...I have a couple out in the back I could dig out if you were curious, were different ones though depending on the model of car.
Jim...I've never heard of one, maybe someone else has ?
They never got RHD E bodies in Australia though.
As I mentioned, I would guess it's just a converted car. The mirror conversions done can be pretty good. (They have gotten much better than they used to be.)
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The way they used to do it.. (A friend of mine has the very first 1968 Charger ever sent to Oz actually, and was the first converted one..) was to just chop up the original dash and just chop and glue, bondo, etc until the got the look they liked, then skin the original chopped up one in vinyl to get the grain in the fiberglass mold.
Then just flop them out of the mold, clean them up, and paint.
I've seen it done in person numerous times on Chevy trucks as we did hundreds of RHD conversions on them.
The modern way, yet higher price of course is the way the new Camaro we did was done. The original dash is scanned by computer, flipped, then a 3d model is carved out of like styrafoam and the fiberglass mold is done from there.
I know a guy who does full volume conversions on new Ford trucks and he ended up going all out and having an OE style plastic dash made in RHD for them which is about the ultimate way to go..
All the steel plates under the dash and for firewall are of course cut out and welded in place.
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No, there are no full size trucks sold there... Ford and GM have the ute though, which is extremely popular.
People wanting US Ford or Chevy (and Dodge) trucks have to buy from a place that converts them.
Same as back with the B and E bodies (or US A bodies) if you wanted one...you had an importer bring one over and it was converted to RHD.
(Now a days you don't have to convert the older cars, but people still do in some cases)
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No problem on the hijack. Great info.
2 things;
- looks like a mirror imaged A body heater box there in your Australian A body dash photo
- and I read a while back Ford made a 4 door diesel Ranger for the Australian market that looked a great idea for OUR market. I always wondered why they didn't bring it to the US. Has again 4 door, a decent towing capacity AND got like 30 or 35mpg!
PS On the RHD drive conversions, do they RE-offset the motors to the left? Cause the us cars are offset to the right. If not it would be VERY tight on the RH side. By the way why do we offset to the right. To allow room for the brake booster and steering box or to compensate for the added weight of the booster and steering box or both?
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I cant understand why USA is the only country in the world that won't get the diesel ranger
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There's a guy who works in the management team at a Northrop-Gruman shipyard in Mississippi that drives a triple white 67 Barracuda vert to work sometimes he says
His RHD A-body he said was factory & looked it.
He said that he owns a B5 notchback factory built RHD to go with the vert too
I met him at "Cruising the Coast" a few years back