The Truth About Ford Mustang Right Hand Drive Conversion

The Ford Mustang is such an iconic car that it is hard to imagine tampering with it in any way except to restore it to its former glory. However, when you have a car that you are totally in love with and you are moving to a country where the people drive on the left-hand side of the road, this is exactly what you must do. You gotta suck it up and get a Ford Mustang right hand drive conversion.

Ford Motor Company released the 'Stang on an adoring American public early in 1964. It was the first in a new genre of "pony cars, " sporty coupes with a long front hood and a short rear deck. Other motor companies soon followed suit, and that's how we came to see the Dodge Challenger, Plymouth Barracuda, Chevy Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, and the AMC Javelin. There are even rumors that the pony car inspired the creation of the popular Toyota Celica and the Ford Capri.

Converting your 'Stang for right-hand drive is a monumental decision, one from which you cannot easily claw your way back if you don't like it. It involves the removal of no fewer than five major panels. Then, all of the original spot welds have to be drilled out. These are then swapped for factory-stamped, right-hand drive panels.

Once the panels are out of the way, the instrument bezel, dash pod, and dash trim can be installed. Some people find that installing a rack and pinion, either manual or power, makes the car easier to handle. Countries where driving on the left is the norm include a few in southeast Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (this includes England, Scotland, and Wales).

As might be expected, opinion is divided on whether such drastic surgery is worth it. On the one hand, if you have spent years and years and thousands of dollars restoring a classic car to its original condition and added a few performance-boosting enhancements, you are not going to want to hack it to pieces. On the other hand, making the switch will make it easier to overtake other cars on the road.

The down side of converting, according to some, is that it will not enhance the resale value of the car and may, in fact, reduce it. Advocates of keeping the car in its native state say that it doesn't take very long to get used to driving an LHD car on the left-hand side of the road. There is a brief period of reaching for the door handle when looking for the hand brake, but you soon get over it.

In Australia, such conversions are covered by the National Code of Practices and the federal government's Vehicle Safety Standard Act. If you are planning on having the work carried out in the LHD country where you plan to drive the car, it is a good idea to look for similar protective legislation.

Converting your car to right-hand drive is a huge decision. Changing it back is a risky proposition if you decide you don't like it and it may affect its desirability to new buyers should you decide to sell the car at a later date.