Right hand drive

[GMC JUNKIE TOO]

Has any body ever seen a right hand drive 67-72 it shows them in my assembley manual, I think it would be cool to own one I saw one in a magizine that a guy had converted over.

[weasel29gm]

No but they might have been ordered for a mail truck.

[GMC JUNKIE TOO]

That makes sense, because I couldent under stand why we would send them to other countries.

[brad2]

I saw one last summer. It was a factory truck. Even had the backward working windshield wipers. It even had a heater delete option on the glovebox. The guy wanted $1500 but it was pretty rusty. I did some checking around at that time and appearently they made more than you would think even though they are hardly ever seen.

[JVictor75]

I saw two or three in Australia last year.

If you look closely at the dashes of most of the cars of a vintage simliar to our trucks you will see that all of the brackets and boltholes can be used for right hand drive.

That is why the glove compartment door and instrument cluster have the same measurements....

Turns out that there is a HUGE business potential in converting American muscle cars over to right hand drive and selling them "down under". Most beautiful car I ever saw was a 1968 Impala SS that was converted over. Looked for all the world like it came from the factory that way.

So what I'm trying to say is that if that's your thing (and you have the $$$$), you might want to look for wrecking yard listings for "Down Under" and give them a ring....

Never know what you might find.

[GMC JUNKIE TOO]

I would like to see one, a right hand drive, and crew cab are the only 67-72's I havent seen.

[mikep]

Originally posted by GMC JUNKIE TOO
That makes sense, because I couldent under stand why we would send them to other countries.

Youve got to be kidding. Take a trip through central or south america sometime. Besides Volkswagens and Mercedes most of what you see are old American cars and trucks. Exporting American cars and trucks has always been a huge business for the automakers but it was really big back in the 50's and 60's. You'd be surprised where American trucks turn up. Theyre all over Africa and the middle east. I was in Russia a few years ago and even saw a couple in St Petersburg.

[Longhorn Man]

I saw an old chevy in Korea...not a sodier's truck, but may have been shipped over by one. Little Korean female driving it too. Thing was twice as big as anything else out there.

[72addict]

I saw one in Holt Michigan about 10 years ago. Funny looking thing. It even had metric gauges. Truck was a beer can though, didn't have any options.

[Lippyp]

As an expert at driving on the "wrong" side of the road, I can tell you that in the UK you do occasionally see original right hand drive American cars. Various manufacturers over the years have dabbled with selling converted cars to us and usually given up after short time, partly because we really don't have the roads for your cars, too small and winding, little parking lots and expensive gas! The last one to try was Chevrolet themselves, they were selling the Tahoe and blazer over here a couple of years ago (Left hand drive only) but pulled out after only a couple of years. The only company to be succesful on a large scale and ongoing basis is Chrysler with the various Jeeps, Neon and Voyagers (My wife has a RHD '01 new shape Cherokee (liberty)

The majority of American cars imported were/are standard left hand drive. In Europe we are the only country to still drive on the left, although my parents can remember when one of the Scandinavian countries (I think it was Sweden) changed over from left to right over Christmas one year.

Japan and a lot of the Pacific rim countries drive on the left still as do a few African ones (Kinda irrelevant to most drivers in Africa as they tend to drive on whichever side has the least holes, scared the cr*p out of me when I went to Kenya a few years ago!) I also visited Australia and you are right, there are quite a lot of American cars. I would imagine that like most of the British cars sold in Oz they were shipped out in CKD (completely Knocked Down) kit form and assembled in a factory out there. This was usually done to get around import taxes as the cars were then considered to be local products and attracted lesser rates of tax. They may also have been converted locally to RHD. Land Rover/British Leyland had a factory out there were they assembled cars.

Converting classic American cars to right hand drive is a real taboo in UK classic American circles and can have a real impact on the value. My truck is left hand drive and proud of it, I wouldn't want it any other way (although it makes ordering at a drive through McDonalds and pating at toll booths a little harder, the windows being kinda on the wrong side!

End of lecture!

[Lippyp]

By the way, the scary thing at the moment is the literally boatloads of stolen cars from Japan and the UK being hacked to left hand drive and given a new identity to be sold in Europe, in sweatshops in the Middle East. We're talking brand new top of the range Mercedes etc with the wiring loom extended BY HAND SOLDERING butchered to the other side, and the mechanical side bodged real bad, there have already been a number of deaths due to cars literally falling apart. This is the dark side of converting cars.

[smokekiki]

Besides my trucks I have a 99 ford van that I had converted to 4x4 by a company in manchester pa,Quigley Motors,and at the time they had an order for 200 chevy trucks.They where switching them over to right hand drive for the south african goverment.The trucks looked like they came from the factory.

[68racer]

If you really want to do this (why?) use a car steering box with a truck pitman arm. As the car box mounts to the inside of the chassis, when you put it on the right hand side it is on the outside. Truck boxes have been used to convert cars to RHD.

[Brad]

Charley at Charley's Drop Shop had a 67-72 that he converted many years ago. He drove it back and forth from Cali to Oregon. This was a sweeeet truck!!! Convertable and all. Unfortunately, about a year ago it was stolen right out from under him one day as he was working inside his shop. Damn b@stards! It's probably in a foreign country now as there wasn't a single panel or square inch of sheet metal that he hadn't modified. Very easily recognizable to anyone that had seen the truck.

[GMC JUNKIE TOO]

This isint sompthing I want to do I would just like to see a factory job. Brad thats probably the one I saw in a magizine.

[Capitol68]

Im curious, do they make pillar type gauge holders for RHD ?
I was thinking about putting tweeter speakers in place of gauge.
Would that work ?

[Gee_Emm]

I always though it would be cool to have a left hand drive truck with the right hand drive type of wipers, just to mess with ppls minds :p