Greg's 58 Corvette - another conversion to right-hand drive
Greg imported this Signet Red 1958 Corvette some time ago and has been going through the process of restoring her to her formal original glory.
Unlike most of the cars I get involved with, this is not a "restomod", Greg wants to retain the original features of his car with the exception of right hand drive .... good man, we live in Australia after all!
Like many of these old girls, he got her as a project car so many of the parts were missing, which isn't really a problem because there is a vibrant used parts market for these cars for most parts.
If you go through Frank's page you will get the gist of the conversion process. The key differences in this conversion is that Greg is retaining the original steering design (albeit RHD), heater, handbrake and hood release and cowl vent mechanism.
The dash and heater covers were made up from my custom moulds, the original dash chopped and all the metal mounting brackets modified. Every dash needs a certain amount of tweaking to get the perfect fit.
The firewall was next, Greg had a aftermarket brake booster, it was pretty large so it needed to be positioned millimetre perfect to avoid fouling on the inner fender, hood and steering column, it also mounts to the pedal box which also needs to be in the correct position otherwise things start getting tricky in the cabin.
Next was the heater, the old holes were made good and the box located on the other side. The plenum needed some work to point the demister hoses in the right direction, the control cables fitted without too much hassle. The handbrake and hood release were relocated and the lever that provide the purchase on the brakes was reversed on the chassis as were all the brackets.
One of the trickier parts was the cowl opening lever, it is mounted by the drivers knee and when pushed down opens the cowl to let in fresh air, just about everything is wrong here, the centre console needs modifying, the handle itself has to be mirrored in operation and the linkage to the cowl reversed, it also mounts to the bottom of the gauge pod mount on the opposite side from the original position. When NCRS judges scrutinise the cars, they check that the lever clicks into the 3 cowl position settings, Greg's does just that!
I also fixed up the centre console and installed a replica modern Wonderbar radio from Classic Car Radio and installed a new wiper/washer system from Speciality Power Windows.
The steering box is being done elsewhere, my experience is with using power rack and pinion, Greg wants his to be as close to original as possible so has found a shop that can do that for him and get it compliance engineered.
The process took about 3 weeks in all.
John Ward