Beyond the pedals being ready to go in the car none for a while. Just sold the house, moved house, went overseas and now setting up the new garage. Might say i am a little busy.
------------------ Dana Mitchell Member of the Gateway Fiero Club 86 SE Red w/ Black 3.2L w/ T-440, 87 GT Maroon w/ Silver Auto, 87 GT Blue w/ 5-Speed 95 Impala SS, 95 Roadmaster Estate Wagon w/ Air Ride 06 Colorado 3.5L, 06 HHR (wife's ride), 91 CBR1000F
I have come to a bit of a standstill. The garage in the new rental is more storage than anything at present. Once I clean up a bit more I will get back into it. But winter in a cold garage isn't appealing right at the moment with so much going on.
[This message has been edited by AusFiero (edited 07-22-2006).]
Originally posted by AusFiero: ... But winter in a cold garage isn't appealing at present with so much going on.
I wish we could send you some Texas heat. Right now I'm dreading going out to a hot garage.
I'm anxiously awaiting updates, this has to be the most extensive interior makeover I've ever seen. The only thing I can imagine more difficult would be a center drive.
I bought my fiero converted but with damage to suspension so far have fixed suspension and replaced it all at same time with one hicup i still cant have the driving experience till i fix the steering properly and get an allignment. Also have to fix clutch so not drivable but it could be as little as a fortnight away and it will be on the road driving again eagerly awaitng paint. It is registered so i will start to drive it around finally without steering and alligement probs. I have a question to put out to others. I have a RHD fiero with full peddle assembly moved. I have a damaged tie rod and my steering and allignment is crap to the point where i cant drive it. I purchased a new fiero tie rod to find the parts didnt suit.(thread was wrong on ends) After speaking to Ausfiero he said that the steering rack is most likely from a Holden Gemini or from a 240 series Volvo as he has heard that it works for a conversion. I have just purchased a new Volvo tie rod and will try that first when it arrives. But what year model geminis or other model racks could it be? Questions to other RHD owners.
I don't want to hijack the thread, however I have a question about RHD. I have never ridden in one to know. A friend of mine said he drove a RHD once and the pedals were backwards aka clutch on the right gas on the left, is this true? I would never be able to learn to drive a clutch if I had to hit the gas with my left foot. It took me long enough to figure it out with LHD.
I don't want to hijack the thread, however I have a question about RHD. I have never ridden in one to know. A friend of mine said he drove a RHD once and the pedals were backwards aka clutch on the right gas on the left, is this true? I would never be able to learn to drive a clutch if I had to hit the gas with my left foot. It took me long enough to figure it out with LHD.
Nope, the pedal configuration is the same. Your friend musta been high or something
Thanks for taking the time to post all of these pics. I can't wait to see the finished conversion.
Hopefully I will have a week to spare soon to get stuck back into it. It has been sittiing for 6 months untouched. The downside of self employment is often time.
Hopefully I will have a week to spare soon to get stuck back into it. It has been sittiing for 6 months untouched. The downside of self employment is often time.
To deposit a foreign check into the bank can be a days mission on its own. Hard to make money when only skilled staff are running around doing the chores and the chores take all day. The way business is set up in this country is you have to be able to expand 10 fold to grow. Hope you can still make time for the hobby cant wait to see it registered.
Ok I have allocated myself some time wether I can afford that time or not. I have a guy with a Fiero based Ferrari 360 convertible replica who wants my Fiero engine and trans so I figured now I have a bit of financial incentive it is time to finish the RHD conversion and then go straight into the 3800sc swap.
So after a wasted day trying to remove a damn Fiero wheel locknut ( I will go into that in a different thread) I spent tonight out in the garage finishing the last part of the steering. I had to just notch the new steering shaft on the chain drive unit so the bolt on the factory uni-joint connector could attach to it. Too boring for pics there for 1 bolt.
Next I decided I best do the wiring conversion because a lot of it is in the way of finishing off the crossover shafts for the pedals. So I started with the wiring that connects to the left hand side of the gauge panel and the left hand side of the gauge pod switching.
The pics below will show the progress. Of course I numbered each wire as I went and tonight got 21 wires cut and spliced ready for moving to the other side of the car. I am out of soldering flux so that will be the next job, to solder all the new joins and to insulate all the connections. Then I will tape it all into a nice neat harness and move it over to the right hand side. I have to buy some heavier gauge wire for one of the wires though as it is the main power wire to the gauge pod and I didn't have any wire that gauge.
As you can see all the new wiring is black. I figured all the extension pieces will be inside the harness so you would see them anyway. No point buying 3000 rolls of different colour wires when it is hidden.
I was really bored one day and researched the history of LHD versus RHD and was interested to discover keeping to the left and RHD is a custom that goes back thousands of years. In ancient times people kept to the left such that their sword arm...the right, was closest to the person coming from the opposite direction, (think jousting). It wasn't until the French Revolution that keeping to the right became popular, and it was Napoleon, (and later Hitler) that influenced the keep right (and LHD) on the rest of Europe and America. RHD versus LHD then followed political and economic alliances, and some countries have actually switched in modern times, (most notably the Netherlands). Okay I was really bored the day I had to know all of this...
Just came across this thread and read it all. Very interesting as I have often thought of converting to RHD just to be different. Keep up the good work! I can't wait to see the completion of this project. Leroy
should try to get a few of the parts together and try to sell a kit or 2
------------------ DONE: 86gt 5 speed 4.9 complete rebuild with buds outback northstar pistons , delta cams E303 cam , full ported , polished , stronger head springs, and flow tested heads and manifolds. rockcrawl's custom chip , polished crank . too much to list
It will be a couple of more weeks until I get back into it now. I just returned from a stint in Thailand and of course there is weeks of work waiting for me now I am back.
in the last few days i have read the 4 pages here several times. ive been trying to convert to rhd for ages. the chain drive unit, its a stroke of genius. the only thing i'd be worried about is the brake pedal / tube adaptor, but if its been x-rayed, i guess it'll be ok. my problem is, i cant find anyone who makes the chain drives. i tried searching for the american machines company in SA, they're not in the phone book or any web pages i could find. A.R. engineering used to make them, not anymore. anyone know of someone who makes them? do you still have the contact details of american machines? are they still in business? please post some info here. the only thing i found thats even close is the terrifying company below. http://www.postalthings.com/right_hand.htm i thought it was a joke when i first found them- lol. i particularily like the way the "steering wheel" sits in front of the airbag. fun in a crash.
aus, if you have any more pics, please post them. i cant wait to see how it ends up.
[This message has been edited by andy0 (edited 06-25-2007).]
the guys who convert hummers and corvettes to rhd have them(chain drives), but they want to do the work themselves, and charge $100,000 for the job. they won't tell me who makes their parts. if the price was reasonable, it would be an option. its not.
have you opened up the chain drive to see whats inside? i was wondering if theres chain tensioners in it.
are you regretting doing the whole loom in black cable? i remember doing something similar, and spaghetti was an understatement.
[This message has been edited by andy0 (edited 06-25-2007).]
No real progress on my part due to being out of action for a few months. Time to catch up on my business and finances at present.
The Fiero only needs the pedals done now and the emergency brake relocated. I have changed the plan on how to do the pedals now and no shafts will be used. It will be a hydraulic system from one side of the car to the other.
The chain drive units are an engineered piece that have had to meet strict Australian engineering requirements to pass registration. Not a cheap item at $1100AU but part of that cost is covering the original huge development costs to get them passed as legal.
Well I have only just started to get back to the Fiero. Things have not been real good for me for the last 18 months or so. My health is a major issue at present so I haven't been doing much at all except battling to support my family and stay afloat. Not doing too good a job of either but hopefully things are starting to look up a little. That is the reason why I haven't been on here hardly at all in the last year.
Because of that the Fiero too a huge back seat. Almost considered selling it but it wouldn't have sold partially converted. I actually did spend a few hours on it on the weekend. The first time in a LONG time. The wiring is now finished and the steering is finished.
I am currently working on a relatively simple project on it next of relocating the neutral safety switch and the headlight dimmer unit. Well not exactly straight forward as they used to attach to the steering column and the bar work to operate them was simple. Now because of the shortened column I have to relocate them and reroute the bar work.
I didn't realise the pics had disappeared. Must have lost them when I changed web hosts. I will eventually get them all back up, with some new ones.
Here are a couple of crappy pictures I just took with my phone. Hard to see but the wiring is now on the right and pic 2 is the fiero in its current home.
[This message has been edited by AusFiero (edited 05-28-2008).]
oh keep us updated! i totally want to do this to my car. iv always wanted to have a different fiero and other cars on the street. i think it would be kinda rad.
..Nice work 
