View Full Version : Right hand drive
elexfx16
01-07-2005, 11:29 AM
I was curious if anyone has ever looked into or tried to convert from left to right hand drive in the s13. If I bought the front clip, would I have what I need to do the swap?
s14 blacktop
01-07-2005, 12:39 PM
Dont try it unless you have at least half of the car(half meaning not the front clip but also the 3 feet of where the chair goes back, the weld job alone is going to cost $2000 for prof welder, depending on how fast he works will determine how much you gotta shell out, On the weld you dont want to go cheap, Oh yeah did I mention it was illegal....
you would need to splice the wires, too much work .....
take it from me I tried to do it on my s14, just swap motor its way easier...
I thought just weld the front onto my car and thats it, the wires that go to the back of the car are the biggest pain to work with I tried to change it but could not get the wires correct since theres a double of every color 3 days into it I gave up on it and switched it back to us ver..(I played with it to see if it would work and it didnt so no go)...
Dont waste your time or your money on this unless you are a profeassional welder, and you know exactly where every wire goes to the back( I mean if you could distinguish 5 blue wires from 4 blue wires, with out taking the whole harness out and following every wire..)
wootwoot
01-07-2005, 12:47 PM
I also dont see how that could be the slightest bit legal in a state so crazy with inspections
SR240DET
01-07-2005, 12:55 PM
Dont try it unless you have at least half of the car(half meaning not the front clip but also the 3 feet of where the chair goes back, the weld job alone is going to cost $2000 for prof welder, depending on how fast he works will determine how much you gotta shell out, On the weld you dont want to go cheap, Oh yeah did I mention it was illegal....
you would need to splice the wires, too much work .....
take it from me I tried to do it on my s14, just swap motor its way easier...
I thought just weld the front onto my car and thats it, the wires that go to the back of the car are the biggest pain to work with I tried to change it but could not get the wires correct since theres a double of every color 3 days into it I gave up on it and switched it back to us ver..(I played with it to see if it would work and it didnt so no go)...
Dont waste your time or your money on this unless you are a profeassional welder, and you know exactly where every wire goes to the back( I mean if you could distinguish 5 blue wires from 4 blue wires, with out taking the whole harness out and following every wire..)
are you saying your tried to weld a front clip to your 240?!?!?!
final act
01-07-2005, 01:00 PM
or you could always make a new fire wall.
some people dont always weld the clip onto the 240sx, me personally wouldent go that route...if using it for spirited driving and all.
dizastaman
01-07-2005, 01:04 PM
you could get one of those kits that mail people put in thier vehicle to deliver mail. just a thought.... a pretty dumb thought..... but its still an idea. :duh:
RHD is not illegal, and you dont weld the clip to the front of the car, just swap parts and edit the firewall.
s14 blacktop
01-07-2005, 01:12 PM
No I implied I researched it about the welding, and I tried to reconfigure my existing B1 harness to mach the E101 SR harness, to see if it would work..
s14 blacktop
01-07-2005, 01:17 PM
edit the firewall? you mean swapout the firewall!!! thats a way to do it but its even harder that way, and if you ment to cut hole in the fire wall you would have irregularities in the way your pedals are( one would be closer to the driver while another would stay farther than the other and so on..)
Oh its not illegal? then why did one of the guys I know get his car impounded 2 years ago..
its legal if you imported a car thats RHD but it not legal to convert a LHD to RHD, but some cops dont know any better it just wound up that the cop that
pulled him over knew...
kazuo
01-07-2005, 01:25 PM
rocksco on FreshAlloy did it to his Kouki S14. A woman in a Mustang later crashed into his car.
He had a very in depth post on what he did to do it. He did not weld a halfcut to his car or anything, IIRC. He just drilled new holes and swapped shit.
s14 blacktop
01-07-2005, 01:29 PM
never mind then, I guess it can be cut..
Wei240
01-07-2005, 01:51 PM
it's been done before...
but still i ask why...
sooo useless/pointless, imo...
MELLO*SOS
01-07-2005, 01:54 PM
Why waste your money on a conversion like that. If you're trying to make show car or something then just start with a real jdm vehicle....
elexfx16
01-07-2005, 02:14 PM
I wanted to do this conversion mostly for the experience and for some stupid reason, RHD cars fascinate me. I was think more along the lines of swapping parts and modifying firewall rather than welding a half-cut. If I were going to do that then I might as well get the JDM cuz the VINs would be different anyway.
stevo22
01-07-2005, 02:53 PM
Correct me if I am wrong but I didnt think converting your car to rhd drive is illegal. I have seen jeep cherokees with it done for delivering mail and still used as daily driver.
elexfx16
01-07-2005, 02:56 PM
i think its legal as long as you dont mess with the VINs...i might be wrong though
s14 blacktop
01-07-2005, 03:06 PM
Well this was a misunderstanding I though you was assking if you could swap the front clip, oh well its still too much time and money for what cuz your on the right hand side, if your that crazy over RHD, import a 180sx from japan and dont use it on public roads.
I'm not shure anymore either, a mechanic in houston told it was legal to import a RHD but not to switch it, even the guy I got the clip from said it might be illegal, and then This guy I know told me what happened to him so I assumed it was illegal... I dont know anymore..it might have something to do with the state inspection!!!
iyceman
01-07-2005, 03:25 PM
Can't speak for CA, although NY is prolly the second most anal state in this country, and it's 100% legal to have RHD vehicles here. I'm not positive, but my guess is that if your friend got his car impounded, it's because they thought that it was not a legal US vehicle, not cause RHD is illegal, but like I said, that's NY law, now CA law, I can't speak for sure about where all you are.
weirdstyles.net
01-07-2005, 10:51 PM
Well this was a misunderstanding I though you was assking if you could swap the front clip, oh well its still too much time and money for what cuz your on the right hand side, if your that crazy over RHD, import a 180sx from japan and dont use it on public roads.
I'm not shure anymore either, a mechanic in houston told it was legal to import a RHD but not to switch it, even the guy I got the clip from said it might be illegal, and then This guy I know told me what happened to him so I assumed it was illegal... I dont know anymore..it might have something to do with the state inspection!!!
Im hearing a lot of, "A guy I know..." and "I heard..." and opinions.
Swapping a dash is going to have it difficulties much like anyother project, but that makes it worth it. Ill take some pictures of my bare firewall so you can see what you are getting into. You will have to swap the Brakle M/C, throttle linkage, pedals, JDM Rack (eye think...), dashboard. To complicate things more add A/C and heating...
RHD is not illegal in USA. The worst way to do it is by welding the pillers. The best way to do the swap is by drilling out the spot welds on the firewall and spot weld it back into the OEM position and do a complete 16 point measurements. Once that is done, you use the complete RHD engine harness, dash harness, but keep your interior harness but swap them (left to right, right to left, etc.). You also need to move your trunk/gas latch over. Everything else from front clip should bolt right in. Don't forget to get RHD seats and door panels (or power switch). The driver seats sits lower. maybe it's the rails. In USA, you drive on the right side of the road; so by using the JDM(RHD) headlights, you'll be blinding on coming traffic because of the cutoff. So use USDM headlights. I see so many idiots using JDM headlight housing and don't understand what cut-off is.
I'm not talking from experence. I do automotive body work and this is what I think would be done.
Furthermore, if you're going to attempt a RHD convertion, spend the time to do it correctly the first time.
There has only been a few people doing this convertion correctly. First person is Jay smith's Integra RS.
IMO, why the hell would you do this. It's a waste of time and dumb. You'll just get more blind spots and it's not fun for a daily driver -friends have RHD cars.
If I wanted a RHD car, I would much rather import one myself and do a vin swap ;)
The cops won't know if it's a convertion =D
FYI, JDM RHD cars don't have the DOT aproved impact brace on the doors
Micky Mouse RHD convertion:
http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNjkzMjA3NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE%3D.jpg
http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/wetoddimage.wtdr/wNjkzMjE5NnM0MTNkZmQzMXk1NDE%3D.jpg
Thread: http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1072221
S14DB
01-08-2005, 01:53 AM
Swap the USDM doors on.
max_misawa
01-08-2005, 02:34 AM
RHD is perfectly legal, Bringing in a RHD Silvis or 180SX now thats illegal.
You only need to swap out the fire wall for the body.
but you will need the steering parts etc etc etc for RHD.
First RHD swap was a honda? HA!!!
VW guys have been doing RHD swaps for years.
The first bug i saw right hand drive had to in like 1983 when i was 5 years old.
My neighbor did conversions in his drive way for extra cash, he told me about Australia and thier krazy karz and kangaroo burgers!!!
Max
max_misawa
01-08-2005, 02:37 AM
PS Mkinney(sp?) will do RHD swaps on 240's and thier prices where fair last time i checked.
Max
no. first person that i've known that did the convertion "correctly" is Jay smith's car. He paid a butt load to get it done too.
He's not the first person that DID the convertion.
jkjunior
01-09-2005, 11:37 AM
i succesfully did the rhd conversion for any 1 that has questions email me at
[email protected] and heres a few pics of it completed but i do have pics of the firewall swap http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/725558/2 check it email for questions
Uniac
01-09-2005, 01:21 PM
i'm currently in the process of doing the swap. A friend of mine baught a front clip, i swapped the motor and got the clip and goodies as payment. I've been at it for countless hours now, the clip is finally in peices, like they would have come off the assembley line to be wleded on. I just baught a few spot weld drills. Like it was mentioned before it may be the hardest way, but the panels line up perfectly because of the way a proper spotweld drill works. It works like a hole-saw and leaves the centre of the weld intact as a guide for placement of the pannel.
The only real problems i've run into this far follow:
The wiper arms are reversed and the peice that is welded to the firewall where it's located has the stock vin AND the windsheild seems to be attached to this. Now i don't know if i should remove MY windsheild and risk cracking it, and replace the whole peice with the JDM peice and weld the stock vin on.
the other problem now lies with the steering coloumn on the right hand side, the supercharger setup we were working on has clearance issues....tradeoffs i guess...
It's not really that hard to do, it's just extremely time consuming...and to do it right bracing needs to be added temperarorly to keep the body in shape until the new structure is welded in.
i'll post pics up in a week or two when i'm not so busy.
tonyaccord
10-21-2005, 07:27 PM
hello people! i just bought a s14 front clip with the sr20det,and rhd :naughty: .i have a 95 240 sx,im taking the ka out and swapping in :bowdown: the sr20det! but while im doing so id like to rhd the car,whats the best way? i read all the forms,but the stuff is months old.so if anyone knows the best way or any advice? It woul :2f2f: d be greatly appriciated! or e-mail me at
[email protected] :bigok:
mrmephistopheles
10-21-2005, 08:04 PM
Correct me if I am wrong but I didnt think converting your car to rhd drive is illegal. I have seen jeep cherokees with it done for delivering mail and still used as daily driver.
Hi. You're wrong.
Kthxbye
mrmephistopheles
10-21-2005, 08:07 PM
hello people! i just bought a s14 front clip with the sr20det,and rhd :naughty: .i have a 95 240 sx,im taking the ka out and swapping in :bowdown: the sr20det! but while im doing so id like to rhd the car,whats the best way? i read all the forms,but the stuff is months old.so if anyone knows the best way or any advice? It woul :2f2f: d be greatly appriciated! or e-mail me at
[email protected] :bigok:
Oh you dirty bastard.. This thread was rotting peacefully till you brought it back!
Read the thread! It has the answers you seek. Passage of time doesn't make the facts any different.
And to hell with emailing you.
tonyaccord
10-23-2005, 01:10 PM
True that dude :hammer: but i figured that one of you guys would have maybe discoverd something? :loco: soo far about this topic but,i guess not! cool..i already started to take the ka out on friday if i find an easyer way :bash: ill let you guys know ! PEACE OUT
DP_Michelle G
10-23-2005, 01:17 PM
:lockd: :lockd:
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