1973 LHD to RHD Conversion

[JEM911]

Hi All,

I know I have another active thread going here for my 1978 to 1973 backdate project, but I figured I should share this other project that's going on in my life.

For those who don't read the location on the left, I'm in Australia where we drive on the Right Side of the Road. Anyway before I get badgered with which way is the correct way, the fact is my car in RHD is a LOT easier to drive.

Anyone who looks at the various LHD to RHD conversion cars in Australia seems to get something from a good to horrible conversion. Considering that I'm fairly fussy about things, I couldn't stand driving a car and not knowing how or what quality the conversion was.

So... I'm arranging the conversion of a 1973 myself...

There isn't a great deal of information out there on this, and a lot of people told me it's not worth it etc... I don't care about if its worth it, I want a great Porsche to drive in Australia whenever I want and with ease.

So I started with a fire damaged 73 purchased in Canada and shipped to Phoenix, AZ, where Patrick Motorsport stripped it for me...



With rust in all the usual places...

[JEM911]

So having found heaps of rust, and needing to make some decisions we ended up with a shell that I thought was salvageable.





It was at this time that James Patrick convinced me to get my other project on a Turbo Chassis, which in hindsight was the right call. It's really allowed me to build two cars with completely different characteristics. The "RSR" as we call it is a LHD beast, really designed for track days.

So we sent the 1973 chassis for acid dipping while the RSR was being built up, and got the pictures back....





This gives as a nice clean platform from which work on...

The next issue was a RHD clip... sourced from the UK





These give us all the parts for the RHD conversion. They logically needed to be dipped as well.... Can't have rust.

[JEM911]

So the plan on the conversion is this...

Cut out the LHD components.

Cut out the RHD components.

Insert RHD components to the LHD shell...

You have a RHD 911....

Well that's the plan, i'm sure that we will come across some other issues as we go, but the idea is there.











So the LHD components are cut out now... and we need to salvage the RHD components across for the conversion.

Ideally we would have swapped the entire front, but the clip we got didn't really allow for that. I think we will get a good result in any event on this, approaching it this way. It will probably help also when an engineer has to approve this in Australia for road use.

[QldChef]

Hi James,

Great story, i'm very interested to follow this as i've had dreams of doing this myself. Is all of the work being carried out at Patrick Motorsport in the states?

[Fishcop]

Nice! You're certainly not doing it by half!

[JEM911]

Yes, all the conversion is going to be done by them.

They have been doing my other project at the moment, and seemed the logical choice. I spoke to a couple of Sydney firms who were happy to do it but they all seemed not that interested in it.

[JEM911]

I really like these first two pictures. They show the RHD V LHD versions of the car. This really is a mammoth undertaking to do correctly.






This is a great breakup of the components in RHD and LHD.




This photo shows the floor area that needs to be transferred across from the RHD to LHD.



Finally the clean shell ready to accept all the parts carefully cut out and prepared for transplant.

[twin plugged targa]

Interesting thread, but I am surprised it was not cheaper to buy a rusty RHD 911 in the UK?
I would have all the work to convert would have been cost prohibitive?
Are Patrick Motorsports ging to build the car complete before shipping out to you or are you going tio receive the car part done.
I guess the strength of the Australian dollar is helping a huge amount!
I once wondered about the price vs logistics of converting RHD to LHD as UK based RHD cars were/ are a fraction of the price of LHD cars here in France
Best of luck
Ben

[JEM911]

Twin Plug - I looked at the prospect of buying a RHD in the UK. To be honest I probably would have done that if I was starting this again, but the reality is I owned a LHD 1973, and thought I would start from there....

I will get the car with the body done, and then take it from there. I really want to do some of this car myself.

I didn't realise the conversion cost would be what it would be. I built a Mustang and that was an easy, quick and cost effective change. It's not so easy on the 911.

AUD / USD has helped out a lot.

[LakeCleElum]

Nice work James. Ambitious project for sure...

[JesseA]

Impressive work!

[JEM911]

So attached are some pictures of the parts from the RHD, in place but not welded into the former LHD car... It's a test fit before taking the dash out again to weld up the floor etc.












I'm having some issues with the Air-Con on this conversion and will need to ask for some help / guidance on this ? Are there any resident RHD Air-Con experts?

[QldChef]

Great work James and a very informative thread. I've wondered how they actually do these LHD to RHD conversions, so it's great to see these pictures. It makes it easy to comprehend what's involved, thanks mate.

[KevinP73]

Sub'ed

[quozl]

Hi James,

Both of your projects are amazing but I'm curious why you didn't just buy a good rust free Australian Delivered RHD car and then if you wanted Patrick to do the work exclusively ship the car to them? There are plenty of good cars and shells here and I would have though it would be a lot cheaper than doing a full conversion but you have obviously done your homework so I guess it must have been cheaper to go the way you did?

Oh one other question, your last name isn't Murdoch or Packer by any chance is it LOL, just joking mate.

Cheers Al

[neilca]

James,

I converted my 914 to RHD. One sticking point I found was in the universal joints for the steering. When i moved the steering wheel to the right side there was a hard spot when rotating the wheel. I found it to be the clocking of the universal joints was off. I had to grind a flat 90 degrees from the existing flat and reclock the joint to smooth out the action.

This may not make much sense now but once you install the steering shafts I think you will understand.

Good luck,

[JEM911]

So i'm going to post this here, and will hopefully get the answer I need.

I'm not sure if the RHD 911 came out with Air-Con?

The reason I asked this is the RHD clip I have came with an under-dash system, which was definitely not factory. The way it was originally piped further indicated how butchered the system in the clip was.

When I've looked at the RHD clip versus the LHD car, and looked at LHD Air-Con setups, there doesn't seem to be all the same stuff?

Any tips / knowledge would be great.

Thanks

[JEM911]

Originally Posted by quozl

Hi James,

Both of your projects are amazing but I'm curious why you didn't just buy a good rust free Australian Delivered RHD car and then if you wanted Patrick to do the work exclusively ship the car to them? There are plenty of good cars and shells here and I would have though it would be a lot cheaper than doing a full conversion but you have obviously done your homework so I guess it must have been cheaper to go the way you did?

Oh one other question, your last name isn't Murdoch or Packer by any chance is it LOL, just joking mate.

Cheers Al

Hi Al,

There was a few reason. Firstly I already owned the 1973 LHD car in the US. The second was by the time I buy a RHD, and do what I'm going to do, I don't think the $$$ difference will be that substantial.

Sure if I could source a good factory RHD it would be a LOT easier, but many of the RHD's in Australia are actually LHD conversions. Needless to say I've spent some time inspecting these RHD converted cars and the manner in which some have been done are scary!

Ultimately two reason why I decided against it. I have a friend with a 83SC, RHD conversion (Ex USA car), and it just doesn't line up right. He didn't even know or notice until I pointed it all out. Secondly a family member's old business was the import and conversion of Porsche's in the 70's & 80's. Having spoken with them I decided to skip this.

Better the devil you know in my mind...

But yes, if I found a good valued RHD (factory) car then yes I would have.

[JEM911]

Originally Posted by neilca

James,

I converted my 914 to RHD. One sticking point I found was in the universal joints for the steering. When i moved the steering wheel to the right side there was a hard spot when rotating the wheel. I found it to be the clocking of the universal joints was off. I had to grind a flat 90 degrees from the existing flat and reclock the joint to smooth out the action.

This may not make much sense now but once you install the steering shafts I think you will understand.

Good luck,

Thanks for the head's up! That feels so far away at the moment.

[Joeaksa]

Patrick did the backdating on my 1985 Targa and the quality was/is excellent.

Just hope you are sitting down for the bill!

Good luck with it and keep us in touch!

Joe A