RHD 66 US Pontiac

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

RHD 66 US Pontiac

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

It appears to be well done. The fact that the shift lever on the column is right-handed leads me to suspect a Bill Buckle conversion. I don't know, seeing the dimmer on the hump makes me suspect it is factory.

a421cat · Guru

Saw a RHD 64 Grand Prix for sale years ago north of Toronto. Story was built in New Jersey and sent new to state of Victoria. Arrived in Ontario in the nineties. No info on the car history. Dash was mirror imaged but dash pad wasnt. Steering box was cut into the right frame rail. Brake booster and master in original position with an actuator rod running across the firewall. GP back up lenses were recoloured and there was something strange about the mirrors. It was for sale for several months then vanished. Had letters across the trunk lid cautioning right hand drive.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I just noticed now, the speedometer is still miles per hour.

And did anyone notice also the faces of the 2 gauges and the clock all tilt down on the right side? They aren't level with the car.

Man I'd love to know how they made that entire dash unit.

If you think about it, this part I have cropped and pictured below is exactly the layout you'd see if you had your head under the dash and were looking up at the back of the panel. The hole layouts are in exactly that sequence, they haven't changed anything.

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

I seem to recall reading years ago someone was making RHD dashes out of fiberglass.

North · Guru

I believe that in that era there were no factory built right hand drive US Pontiac's. All factory right hand drive cars were made on the chevy based Canadian Pontiacs. However, in places like Australia there were companies that would perform the work locally when a car was imported. The factory built cars would use the same dashboard for several years to better amortize the cost of the low volume dashboard (eg: 66 pontiac's would use 65 dashboards).

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Canadian Poncho wrote:
I seem to recall reading years ago someone was making RHD dashes out of fiberglass.

I remember seeing the same. However, this black and chrome in the area I cropped just doesn't look like fiberglass does it? If it is, it's well done.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

North wrote:
(eg: 66 pontiac's would use 65 dashboards).

Yes, for 65 - 66 - 67 at least the RHD's had the 65 Chevy dash. I'm not sure if they went past that but I've seen at least one example of each of those 3 years with the 65 Chevy dash.

a421cat · Guru

I had a 61 Chev assembly manual years ago. Showed 61 Pontiac as the dash of choice for RHD Chevs to the Commonwealth. Same dash used for 61-64. You should see the diagram for the rods and bell cranks used on a 3 speed std.

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

I think the metal part of the dashes were done in fiberglass and they used the factory LHD clusters etc.

4SPEED427 wrote:
Canadian Poncho wrote:
I seem to recall reading years ago someone was making RHD dashes out of fiberglass.
I remember seeing the same. However, this black and chrome in the area I cropped just doesn't look like fiberglass does it? If it is, it's well done.

cdnpont · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

After Carl's comment, it looks pretty wonky. Quite off.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

cdnpont wrote:
After Carl's comment, it looks pretty wonky. Quite off.

The area around the glove box really looks distorted.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I'm in conversation with the person who posted the picture of this RHD Pontiac on a Facebook group. I commented that the shifter is on the opposite side of the column vs the factory conversion and he agrees, his factory RHD Pontiac has the shifter on the left of the column.

CdnGMfan · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

The shifter on a RHD column would normally fall to your left hand, but not always. I see in the oldcarbrochure site that Australian RHD Big Fords (not the American-based) had the shifter fall into the right hand during the latter 70's.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

CdnGMfan wrote:
The shifter on a RHD column would normally fall to your left hand, but not always. I see in the oldcarbrochure site that Australian RHD Big Fords (not the American-based) had the shifter fall into the right hand during the latter 70's.

Interesting.

I haven't seen a factory built GM RHD yet with it on the right side though, have you?

DonSSDD · Canadian Poncho Superstar!

Mostly manual shift cars there as opposed to automatics, following the British which is what most right hand drive cars are built for. They have the shifter on the left on the floor or on the steering column left as well. A right hand setup would most likely be a non North American model built/converted to RHD?