So I thought I would document this whole process and get help from the brains trust where necessary. Which has turned out to be sooner than I thought.... As part of the RHD conversion I have acquired a portion of firewall from a 124 coupe that could supposedly act as a template, plus the steering column mount, pedal box and steering box. What I thought I could do was cut sections out of the existing firewall and transpose from one the left side to the right. Turns out that it's not quite that simple... so any thoughts helpful... I'll try and explain with pics.

Picture of the firewall with everything removed. You can see in orange where the brake booster cylinder sits and my outline for cutting and transposing. I thought if I did this I could preserve the geometry between the steering column and the pedal box.



Pic of the cutout section transposed


Holes cut for the theoretical location of the booster and the steering arm


Now the steering box mounted, together with the grommet where it goes through the firewall

So then I transposed the bracket that holds the steering column mount behind the dash and had a look at the geometry between the steering column and the pedal box. This is where the first problem cropped up. in the LHD car the steering column should emerge on the right hand side of the brake pedal. I've shown it with the steering column between the brake and clutch pedal. With the steering box in (seems to me the rate-limiting step) the position of the column is fixed (I could put a spacer or 2 presumably to shift it slightly to the left but not much). And there is no room for the pedal box to move far enough to the left to clear the column entirely. Am I missing something? Am I going to need the other pedal box??

Brake booster cylinder temporarily in place. Barely clears the steering box.


Temporarily holding the steering column mount and pedal box in place


Picture of the steering box in relation to the firewall. Not much room to shift it to the left, thanks to the transmission tunnel..


Close up of the firewall + pedal box. You can see how far apart the holes are....



Handy hints? since I'm working this out from first principles and lots of you have done this before....

Here's a few shots that may help you. By the way ...... what is your location Sambo ??

I would seriously recommend double plating the firewall where the pedal box and especially the clutch cable mount.



On a RHD conversion the steering column does come up between the brake and clutch pedals and you can position the upper mount wherever seems comfortable - within limits

That's a huge help - thanks. Can I ask another one? The accelerator pedal linkage presumably has to have an extension bar to reach over to the other side. It looks like it's going to be tight where it crosses over the brake booster....

I'm in Melbourne (Newport - inner west). I was planning to use the templates I've cut and plug weld them over the firewall so there will be double plating over most of that area. But it sounds like it might be a good idea to reinforce from behind as well.

Hi again Sambo,

I"m really enjoying watching your thread and how you're progressing absolutely great job…Blurry pic of my bay.



Good to see you back Curly

Why would you want to change it all?
Is it the law to drive like that or what,

Seems like a bit of a head scratcher for sure. Mine was already converted when I bought it, but something else to keep in mind is where abouts the clutch cable will have to pass through the firewall. On mine it is just to the right (viewed from the RHD drivers seat) of the drain tube from the sill area. For the accelorator pedal, mine has a pivot point each side of the pedal box, with a connecting rod and an arm travelling up the LH side of the pedal box with the cable coming out near the exhaust cambox. Not sure what fiat it was taken from but it isnt CC gear! Hopefully that makes a bit of sense

I know in south australia to have a LHD car registered it has to be completely original in every sense, down to matching numbers and paint code. Going rhd makes it easier/safer to drive on the roads and allows for a little "personalisation" to take place.

fiat218 wrote:Why would you want to change it all?
Is it the law to drive like that or what,

I drive in UK (London area) and i decided to leave mine LHD, but i must admit, when driving out in the open roads overtaking a truck or a bus can be a bit ...risky...

I see, it just seems like a lot of work, I assume it hard to find the RHD cars?

the spider was never offered in rhd, the coupe and sedan were, thats where most parts are sourced from

Sambo, Sorry we didn't chat sooner! I've never seen it done this way, not that it wouldn't work but there is no real reason to do all that cutting.

Look closely at the firewall, it's a mirror image. measurements from the inner guards left and right are equal and would have been a sufficient guide.

Try your RHD pedal box, I'm fairly sure your problem with the steering shaft to pedal relation will be solved.

Accelerator linkage?? Be done with that idea, use a 124CC RHD acc pedal and go cable all the way from pedal to carb.

Regarding where you will weld the steering column onto the cross bar, personally i would do a mirror image of where it was on the Left as this will make it easier to match up with the bump in the dash for when it gets converted.

BTW, converting the dash only need 4 cuts done, no more than that. I will cover this when it's time and if you need the info.

Oh and as i suggested in another thread and curly mentioned now, go double skinned behind the booster bracket and clutch cable hole. I found much success with simply pop riveting the second skin into position as it does not need the strength of weld, it just needs to be held in position securely. Sikaflex between the sheets of metal to avoid any future vibration from the two plates sandwiched together.

Ausspider is also correct in that the clutch cable will exit the fire wall very close to the drain pipe (as does the booster). You can still run the drain pipe if the cable exits in the correct place. once you have the pedal box in position Use a small 1/8th drill bit from in the engine bay and drill a small hole mirroring where the LHD one was in relation to the old LHD holes for the pedal box. Pull a piece of thickish string trough the hole and connect it to the center of the clutch fork where the cable would go. now get someone to hold a bit of tension on the string from in the engine bay while you depress the clutch cable. if the string travels a straight path from the hole through the whole stroke then you've hit the mark, if not move left, right, up or down with a new hole and get it right. once your ok with it, THEN you can drill the big hole for the clutch cable.


I will PM you my phone number so you can get a hold of me easier.

Also sambo, Converting to RHD means that we need to use a longer clutch cable. A Longer cable equates to more friction between the cable inner and outer. It would be wise to reinforce the back of the fork on the clutch pedal now with some of your special welding before you install it.

fiat218 wrote:I see, it just seems like a lot of work, I assume it hard to find the RHD cars?

Like Beek mentioned, unfortunately they weren't produced in RHD.
It's not a lot of work when you finally get to drive the finished product and not only have a most awesome and hardly seen Fiat but something that looks as elegant and cool as a 124 Spider.

I did not know that

What? that 124 Spiders are cool, mate i'd love to be slapping one of those engines you're building into mine right now and go top of the class when it comes to cool..