68 Charger Cowell

[Darkman]

G'Day from the land Down Under!

As part of my 68 Charger right hand drive conversion (please do not crucify me), I need to swap the wipers around. This poses a problem with the grill in the cowell as the locations of the wipers, and hence the penetrations through the cowell, need to be shifted.

My questions are, is the grill necessary? What purpose does it serve (other than to collect debris)? I was thinking of removing the grill and blanking it off. What problems would that cause?

[OneofNoneRT]

  Carefull everyone this may be a trick question!.. 

[Darkman]

How is this a trick question? 

[HOTROD]

It bring in the vent air in !

[Mike DC]

Yes.  The interior cabin's ventilation air is brought in through the cowl vents. 

I don't think it would be that difficult to redo the wiper mounting locations.  If you've got someone good with sheetmetal work then I would expect it to be mostly a cut & paste job. 



I'm impressed that you are going this far with a right-hand-drive swap. 

Are you gonna reverse the factory's whole drivetrain offset?  Like, to make more room for the steering box on the right side?

 

[Darkman]

Thanks for the input guys. I have already mapped out how I will cut and paste the wiper penetrations, but just figured while I'm at it I may aswell close it off. I may still look at "relocating" the air intake so it may still be on the cards (or a custom intake on the cowl)

In regards to the motor offset, I will be looking into various options on that. The steering rack/box will be replaced with a rack and pinion setup (most likely from an Aussie built car). Once I make a decision on that, then I will see what needs to be done from there to make it fit.

It will be a monumental task, but I think it will be worth it if it means another Charger gets back on the road (especially here Down Under).

[motorcitydak]

You can just blank out the entire grill if you want, just have another way for air to get into the heater. There are 2 stacks under the cowl, 1 on each side. You could put some slots on the front side of the cowl so it could grab air from the wheel wells but that may come with the smell of that area. You really want fresh air in there. What about just rearranging the grill or maybe make a small scoop inplace of the grill itself?

[NorwayCharger]

Some inspiration for ya 

Looks like a monowiper system

http://www.purevisiondesign.com/rides_69charger.asp

http://purposebuilt.com/purpose-built-515-gtb/

[tan top]

prolly totally wrong on this , but thought you could register LHD  historic type cars now in Oz 

[Darkman]

prolly totally wrong on this , but thought you could register LHD  historic type cars now in Oz 

Yes I can, but that would mean that the car would have to be restored. Sorry to all the die hards out there, but yet another plain old looking Charger is not my cup of tea! I want something different to a restoration.

[squeakfinder]

Any updates? I was wandering if any right hand drive Chargers were ever built and came across this thread.

[HOTROD]

This was done back in the 70s when cars went over there -- there is no old ones laying around junk yards ??

[KSChrgr68]

buy Rain X... Gallons of it!!

[charger Downunder]

Don't change the sweep on the wipers rust rust and more rust will occur.
If for rego you have to have more of the right hand area of the screen swept just put on a longer wiper blade,  it will over sweep at the top of the roof but should provide enough of the screen swept.Another option is just move one wiper arm across the right hand side one i have seen this done on a few  chargers that came to Australia in 1968-1970. Some cars are right hand drive and have never had them changed.

[doctor4766]

Yep, unless there are regulations specifically regarding the wipers I'd try and get away without changing them at all.
It's all too much of a headf*#@ if you ask me, but I know.. you didn't ask so I'll take that comment back.

[charger Downunder]

Pic of a rare 70 sunroof Rh drive charger with the one wiper moved across notice how close the end is near the pillar this way it wont over sweep at the top of the roof. I think this car is now in Western Australia pic taken in the mid 80s.