Returning to the fray, going Left or Right HD ?

[rfs1957]

Been away for a while, and owe some of you an update.



The car has been with Hutsons since January after a trailered trip north that was uneventful, save discovering two would-be emigrants hiding under the tarp as we boarded the ferry at Ouistreham.



Nice try, lads.



The shell had zero rust, but a late eighties restoration had left all sorts of unsatisfactory legacies, and having decided that these were beyond my local skill-sets it has been a pleasure to see the scuttle re-skinned (Andy Rayner at Hutsons admired Chuck's Monocoque panels) and the sills removed to put nicer ones, this time in the right place.



Angus Moss points out that his car is LHD as he "can only ever really use it properly in France", and I think I've decided to swap mine to LHD ........... which it was originally anyway when it went to the US in 1962.

I'm guessing (hoping !) that there is an embarassment of unused LHD kit lying around in the UK, and I'll put an advert on the Forum to that end.

Aside from the general, I did have a couple of more specific questions that The Usuals will be able to answer from the tips of their tongues.

1. Are the LHD and RHD harnesses massively different ?

As my harness has already been modified to cope with my numerous alterations, I'm inclined to want to keep it - save for stripping off all the binding, tweaking whatever needs doing for the RHD-LHD swap, and then getting Autosparks to re-bind it.

Is that a realistic approach ?

2. If I wanted to make my own cable-operated throttle, what is the best starting point to get a drop-down LHD throttle pedal set-up as a basis for such an adventure ? I can't (yet) justify £750 on the Mangoletsi one and think I have enough cable-operated experience to make this a plausible avenue to explore "solo" as it were.

Nice to be back.

[david muir]

Wondered where you were Rory!

[Heuer]

Welcome back Rory!

Notionally the only difference between LHD and RHD is the instrument panel harness which you can buy separately or extend yourself. Only hacks required to the forward harness will be for the fluid bottles.

Don't think you can fit a drop down accelerator pedal (although you will no doubt prove me wrong!) and getting a cable fro one side of the engine to the other is ugly. Angus has fitted the Mangoletsi throtle and routed the cables along the bulkhead so it looks really neat.

[Gfhug]

Pity the would be immigrants weren’t young, pretty ladies

Welcome back, Rory.

Geoff

PS, wouldn’t have thought it too difficult to make up a drum to fit over the throttle rod between the carbs with a plate attached between a couple of carbs then route a cable back from there to a pick up position above the throttle pedal. May not have the multi-positional throttle pedal but you can set that up to suit you. See below:

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8867

[rfs1957]

Thanks for the kind words, the ideas, and the comments.

I think this kind of snail-shaped part is a very clever way of providing a rising radius and would intend to make something as far removed as possible from Heath Robinson.



This is from the HiF44 from the 1380 Mini.

Otherwise I'll buy the Mangoletsi kit.

Does that still use a floor-pivoting pedal for LHD cars ?

It's a very fine piece of kit, and its complexity doubtless justifies its price, but I need to prove to myself that it's necessary to go to those lengths.

However, as the car is on a spit in Yorkshire I'm some way off needing a throttle pedal.

[265bhp]

Hi Rory

The Mangoletsi kit is beautifully made…and looks lovely….spoil yourself…..
I did and don’t regret a penny

Buy it at Stoneleigh and get 10% off…..

Best
Jonathan

[johnetype]

Rory, nice to have you back

To add to what David said, it's only the steering column electrics along with the speedo and tach that move over. The central instrument wiring remains the same.

Also note that you need a pair of LHD brake and clutch pedal levers or bend your RHD ones to the LHD dimensions - that is of course assuming they were altered the first time. If you go for a drop down accelerator then you may end up needing custom dimensions for the brake and clutch pedal levers anyway.

You may already know that you only need a LHD rack housing or you do a cut and shut on your RHD housing as the rack and pinion themselves are the same for RHD or LHD.

[ralphr1780]

Hi Rory, good reading you and learning about your project progress.
Last week we took a break down on the côte basque, had hesitated with Hérault, great weather and lovely roads topdown !
There were few iterations of a cable throttle setups on the US jaglovers forum, but the Mangoletsi remains superior in all respects. On my plan for this spring together with the 5speed box.
Cheers.

[rfs1957]

Thanks for all that ; I'm reading the LHD-to-RHD account in the library section, skim-read so far.

Am I right in thinking that the Mangoletsi - when used with LHD - conserves the floor-pivoting pedal ?

As I have no car to muse over I'm thinking that the LHD has no room for any sort of hanging pedal - is that correct ?

Hutsons seem very happy with the shut-lines now that the door edges have been tweaked, I'm hoping the car will look a million times better than in it's previous iteration.







Truly great firm to deal with ; how different from Chesman ..............

[rfs1957]

Further to all that, I've ordered a LHD instrument panel harness and will get my main harness re-braided once the dust has settled.

So essentially I need to find LHD right and left-side dash panels, a pair of LHD pedals, and a floor-hinged accelerator pedal assembly.

[Heuer]

No room for a hanging pedal but the pivot pedal with the Mangoletsi system is as good as the RHD version.

[1954Etype]

Ive got a hanging pedal on mine - we used the Mangoletsi setup. Works fine.