JDM LHD Conversion/Firewall Questions

I’ve had a look through the forum and tried to find info on doing a LHD conversion to a JDM RHD machine and couldn’t really get the answers to the questions I’ve been looking for.

My poor old rusty HJ60 died on me a little while ago and I would really like to replace it with a clean well equipped JDM Cruiser with all the goodies on it. I just don’t want one that’s RHD! Doing an engine swap would still leave me with a rusted out truck without the options I want.

Now I’ve heard all the arguments around just keeping a rig RHD, most of them are compelling to me for no other reason than cost but the fact of the matter is that I have my dead HJ60 in the driveway and I would be able to use the parts as I need off it so long as I could find a JDM HJ61 with round headlights and my “square” dash.

Things like the brakes lines, steering box and assembly, throttle cables obviously won’t be a problem; I even have a dash in good shape with fully functioning gauges. The biggest question that I have is whether or not I would have to use the firewall out of my HJ60 or are they “ambidextrous”? Would I be able to remove the dash, swap it over, make the necessary cutouts in the JDM firewall and bolt on parts to it?

If I had to use my HJ60 firewall, which would involve cutting it out and welding it in the HJ61 I presume, I would think that most everything else would be bolt on after that except the wiring harness.

I know that it’s been done but the details are limited on the threads in this forum that I've been able to find, can anyone offer any help?

Thanks in advance

I know one guy on here has one that was done professionally. His member name is Hawke.

I like the idea. You take a good condition hj60/61. And cut the firewall out and swap over yours from the hj60. The one you get doesn't matter if it is a two headlite one or not, as you can use your rad support(i imagine)

I think the guy who did his was namec Cirian, a guy in Vancouver.

here is the thread Hawke talks about it in.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=75180

brownbear said:

I know one guy on here has one that was done professionally. His member name is Hawke.

I like the idea. You take a good condition hj60/61. And cut the firewall out and swap over yours from the hj60. The one you get doesn't matter if it is a two headlite one or not, as you can use your rad support(i imagine)

I think the guy who did his was namec Cirian, a guy in Vancouver.

here is the thread Hawke talks about it in.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/showthread.php?t=75180

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Thanks, I saw Hawke's thread, that conversion is perfect and thanks for clearing up the firewall question.

The reason I think that I would need to source a HJ61 with round headlights is that they always seem to have the same dash as my Canadian HJ60. If the truck has square headlights then it seems that it will have the fJ62 style dash.

I managed to find Cirian's number in another post, I'll try to contact him to see if he will swap my firewall over for me when I get a truck landed. I don't mind the mechanical end of the swap but I'm not up for the cutting and welding the firewall in. Though any competent body shop should be able to do this I guess.

Rusty:

I was going to recommend Ciaran as well because I have personally seen his conversion at Cruiser Days 2005. If you can fit into his busy schedule, he would be the person I would like to do a conversion if it was my truck.
BTW...I thought you had a well-balanced post in the "other" thread. You bring up some good points, and after owning a RHD as a dialy driver for three years, I would be the first to concede that you have to be more careful when driving a RHD in our LHD roads. That being said that is not to say that a RHD cannot be operated safely on our roads.

Cheers,
Stone

The 70 series in nearly 'ambidexterious" but every other model has a LHD and RHD version. The biggest challenge of doing the conversion is all the re and re. I think once you had the two firewalls looking at each other, some quality time with a spot weld cutter would get the job done pretty quick. You want a pre 87 for the Squarish dash and round eyes I think.

Thanks for everyone’s input. I had a lengthy conversation with Ciaran the other day about the conversion, it’s doable but is very time consuming and understandably expensive if you’re not prepared to take it on yourself and don’t have a donor rig with the LHD parts. This obviously isn’t something that you would be able to do in the underground parkade of your apartment building, thankfully I have a 800 sq ft two bay shop and my dead HJ60 for parts.

Basically the firewalls are stamped with blanks for LHD and RHD however the windshield wiper motor hole is handed, it’s too small to be used on the other side. The brackets for all the accessories, brake master, pedals etc. are not there either, if you didn’t change the firewall you would have to swap all the brackets over. For ease of re-assembly and quality of the final result the firewall has to be changed.

Lowenbrau, you are right about the firewall being spot welded in. I was under the assumption that the firewall was solid welded, and I wasn’t looking forward to cutting out and re-welding the firewall. I should be able manage to re-install the firewall with my wirefeed without trouble. It looks like it was meant to be replaceable; Spectre has it listed as a separate panel, though no longer available.

http://www.sor.com/sor/cat114.tam?xax=25753&page%2Ectx=cat114%2Etam

Supposedly there are reference marks on the body so that you can line up the firewall without trouble to achieve a factory install.

The windshield has to be removed to get the firewall out though I’m not sure about the motor. It would be nice if once the dash and windshield are out of the way the firewall would lift out, but having the motor out would probably make it easier to work with.

The dash on Cruisers equipped with round or square headlights are interchangeable, they both mount up to the same firewall, so this doesn’t matter. I prefer the old school look of the square dash and the round headlights so I will use mine, though if I change my mind I will have to buy the other dash, which I think is still available. The switches for the most part work with either dash.

The wire harness has to be flipped and reinstalled, this is a big part of the job and apparently is the most time consuming part of the conversion. I’m going to do a dry run so to speak on my HJ60, taking it apart should give me a good idea of what will be involved for reassembly of the J-spec truck.

It looks like I’m on my way to JDM Cruiser ownership, it will be nice to have a clean rust free truck for sure. I’ll take detailed notes and photos so that anyone that is interested in doing this will be able to reference the procedure.

Looking forward to a good write up on it.

Just curious, have you decided to actually go ahead and do the conversion? Not to belabour the issue, but I've been driving RHD now for nearly 3 months and it is no problem at all. There are also countries where both RHD and LHD co exist on the same roads in near 50/50 ratios, so don't discount that as an option. From what I've read, you may be better off buying a nice mint bodied (choose your cruiser type) and transplanting the engine of your choice into it. But I still think it's not worth the trouble once you actually drive RHD on our roads. As part of my job, I drive a LHD vehicle all day, then get into a RHD cruiser and drive that with ZERO problems. Just food for thought.

We just dropped a HJ60 body onto a HJ61 chasis,moved the steering box over and off to the small things.

Hard to find decent Hj60s for this conversion.

I would personally probably attack this conversion altogether differntly, chop the Hj60 about mid way on the window pillar and under the front seats on the seam.

This way you get the windshield wiper assembly and whole fire wall, forget about messing so much with the wiring, especially if its a HJ60, even if it were a FJ60 I would leave most of the wiring.

There are a lot of little issues I am not going over but you get the idea.

In the past 12HT conversions I have built a mini wiring harness that goes across the firewall as the electrical items on the gasser and diesel are opposite, thats all.

Rob

I agree with Martin. I have no problem driving a RHD vehicle in a LHD world. I have a LHD pick-up I occasionally drive, and I have no problem switching between it and my RHD cruiser.

Quotes: Heinlein - Specialization is for Insects

hummm, RHD / LHD... it is a learning curve. simple. if can not drive a LHD stay away from the RHD.

i will play Devils advocate here:

as for the conversion why not just buy a JDM drivetrain from someone like G&S or Japan 4X4 and pick up a rust free FJ60 from the states, drop the diesel in and turn the key although i would strongly recommend the 1HZT for the swap due to parts issues in the near future.

think about it, you will have hidden rust issues on the firewall. the wiring harnes will either have to butchered to fit the conversion and you will still have the drives control panel on the wrong door. you will have to find a manual (non-elec accesoried truck) and they are getting very hard to find in Japan. it is, in no way, an easy conversion to go RHD to LHD and have it function and look the way it should.

an engine will be about 4500 to 7500 from the above blokes, a rust free 60 can be foudn cheap from the states... under $6000 and with your own labout you will have a kicking truck that you can get parts for in the future for around $18K. a rust free HJ60 from japan will be at least $7500 to buy, $1000 for japan sourcing fee, $800+/- for trucking in Japan, $300 for inspection at a shop over there (your are not going to buy and ship an uninspected donor truck are you?) $2500-$3000 for shipping over, $1000 for customs here...
so $13K +/- just for a donor truck without your importers fees AND THEN YOU FIND OUT WHAT YOU HAVE BOUGHT.

your parts rig has how many km on the steering box? is everything you need in good to excellent shape?

it is your money, your time and your frustration.

Me either, prefer the right hand drive trucks actually.

We give our customers what they want and some are adversly against the right hand drive.


Unfortunatly we all do not feel the same as Crushers does about driving right hand drive, but if we keep posting how wonderfull they are maybe one cruiser head at a time will give it a chance.


RHD drive VS LHD has been beaten to death, lets put it to sleep for a bit, cause this thread was not about that in the first place.

Rob

M John Galt said:

I agree with Martin. I have no problem driving a RHD vehicle in a LHD world. I have a LHD pick-up I occasionally drive, and I have no problem switching between it and my RHD cruiser.

Quotes: Heinlein - Specialization is for Insects

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I prefer RHD too. Thats the point Its what the customer wants.

No the point was fire wall conversions.

prado t said:

I prefer RHD too. Thats the point Its what the customer wants.

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