I love to tell couples at car shows looking at my car that I got tired of my wife telling me how to drive so I got a car with the wheel on her side. If the guy laughs too hard at that comment they sometimes get a wack from the little lady. And yes I have been asked if I drove it over! Some real bright guys out there?
There was one sitting in the scrub beside the Prefect body I picked up last year for my gasser, could of had it for $50.
I almost picked up an AAnglia ute with full boxed chassis, narrowed 8inch just needed motor, body work, interior and glass for $600 a few years ago. I still kick myself for not taking the offer up, I wonder what happened to it? Doc.
Too right!!! She's one special lady... you can believe that! Blokes come around like blowies whenever this dinki-di's about, mate! ~Jason
Don't let me whiteant ya mate, but you should really check into this: https://www.vbulletin.com/order/ It's what the HAMB is... and it's only $100 - $180, with code monkeys to hire! ~Jason
I remember seeing that one for sale - I always wondered what difficulties were had getting it legally registered LHD, since I want to convert my one-of-none AP5 Valiant Wayfarer ute to LHD if possible. The theme of my build is that it is meant to look like it was built as a factory prototype by Plymouth over there, then shipped over here as part of the 1966 'Drag-Fest', which saw a bunch of US drivers and cars ('Yellow Fang' for one) come over to contest a series of drag events up and down our east coast. LHD would make it way more convincing, and with American steering components would be no more complicated than a dashboard cut & shut, which is a pretty easy job on an AP series Valiant.
Over the years I have had several Americans contact me, wanting Slopers utes and even early Holdens. That could be sent over to them. But their second request was that they be converted to LHD before shipping, as they had no interest in driving a RHD car. They wanted the Australian body style, but not the Australian driving position.
I would never consider switching the driving position on my UTE. It is one of the things that makes the car stand out over here. The only downside to it are things like drive up windows if you are alone and if you want to pass on a two lane road you better really be able to trust your passenger and if you don't have one you probably aint going to pass. Every so often I still go to the wrong side of the car when I get in. If I am checking in at a car show I just holler "damint someone stole my steering wheel again!" then walk around to the other side. I do not find it hard to drive and it is a lot easier to parallel park. The daughter loves riding with me and even does the hand signals for me when I turn (no blinkers, evidently kagaroos didn't give a damn what way you were turning) she also likes it when people think she is driving. granted the wife gets a little nervous when she rides she is constantly moitioning for me to move over I am to close to the line but she is a worry wart anyway. I did not find that shifting the three on the tree with my left hand was a problem either. If you don't like to talk to strangers don't by a UTE here in the states!
Chrysler Australia beat you to it- they made these from '57 to'60 and were called "Wayfarer". They only made a few hundred, and there's bugger all left. They ran the sidevalve 6 or V8 (313 ci).
Yeah, driveup windows & toll booths. At least @ a bank I just drive in the wrong way. Love to tell people it was part of a special order for the Post Office, or they flopped the plans & made a few before noticing. Passing hasn't been a problem & driving on the right is easier than riding on the left w/o controls! Though about giving the wife an extra steering wheel & acting like it has come off!
My 59 Chrysler Ute is my daily driver in warm weather. ( No heater ) It gets good comment every day. Oh it's got a 265'' Hemi 6 and torqueflite. Frank
There is a well known Mopar guy here in Brisbane who converted a lot of Dodge darts and Sygnets to right hand drive by simply replacing the floor pan from the firewall join down to the boot with AP5 and 6 parts. He may have some LHD steering boxes etc. The Americans steering box is far nicer to drive with ,even though the early AP Vals drive nice anyway. Try your local Mopar club to see if anyone has "Daves" contact details.
I was looking at the Ponti back out on the Holden utes (2 and 4 door) thinking it wasn't the smartest thing GM ever did..... but hell what do I know I thaught they would have found a decent niche in the USA
You guys are killing me with these pics... I want the 55 Ford one as a match to my 55 Customline... does it say Ranchero on the fender? Or did the guy put it on? What was the designation for the ute? Mainline, or did they have a Victoria like here? I just need the Ute part, I have the rest. Or someone sell me one of those grills!
Maate ... Its actually a 58 and the badge on the guard says Mainline ... and you could probably score a star of the year grill in Canada ... Not to take anything away from it but they were a mixture of leftover parts from earlier US stuff ...
I forgot the years were off, but you know what I mean. I still want one. I have seen those grills on Canadian Meteor cars. I wasn't sure if you guys had them as well. The Canada stuff is hard to find. I'm looking for a Meteor grill for my 58 Ford wagon as well, and have had no luck.
And those Falcon Utes are not Ranchero's .They look the same but the OZ Falcon is shorter. The story goes that a couple of Rancheros were imported for evaluation but were found to be too long in the back. When you drove into the average OZ driveway the tail hit the ground when going through the deep curbs so the station wagon floor pan was utilised to make the Falcon Ute. Look inside the double panel on a XM etc and you can see the rear door sills of a sedan or station wagon.
I reckon that if you ever found it difficult to pass on a two lane road because you couldn't see round the car in front, you could always buy one of those aftermarket rear view camera setups, mount the camera on a clip-on bracket that you can fit near the passenger side mirror so it looks around the left side of the car in front and mount the display screen to the windscreen with a suction cup, then you can see oncoming traffic as easy as if the car was LHD and you had your head stuck out the window. Quick-release mounts means you can whip them off and hide them at shows, or when you just don't need them. I think I know who you are referring to, although my difficulty is not so much sourcing the parts, it's negotiating the bureaucratic minefield of trying to convince the local authorities that they should let me do it!
Much the same story with the early Valiant utes too, they are basically a wagon floorpan with different roof and rear quarter pressings, and a bunch of special 'infill' pressings to neaten up around the B pillars.
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/FORD-MAINLINE-UTE_W0QQitemZ220372241603QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Car_Parts_Accessories?hash=item220372241603&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318 http://cgi.ebay.com.au/UTE-STANDARD...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:1|39:1|240:1318 Heaps of utes http://cars.shop.ebay.com.au/items/...rksid=m270.l1313&_odkw=utility&_osacat=101893
Desertrat, the utes were called Mainlines, sedans were Customlines. The Aussie $ is only worth around 65 US cents or so right now, could be a good time to buy!
The Jalopy Journal
