Hello Peter, I have considered moving my hand brake lever( left hand drive ), also, as my gut gets in the road as I bend over to use it. I am thinking of going to a straight pull, as on modern cars, sitting just under the bottom lip of the dash, e.g. Commodore etc. How would that go for your application?


Good luck with it all, looking good.

 

Hey, Nev.
I did think about something similar to that and I think it should work well. I was advised by the guy doing my rhd dash conversion to think about a Commodore handbrake, or even something that you can use beside the seat. Only reason I stuck with original is because I think it's such a big solid mad looking steel thing and nothing else. Let us know how you go! I haven't got mine quite there yet but should have it properly mounted by the end of the week. Cheers.
Peter

 

Found the Vin! Right where the arrow is pointing! Next time it gets a lick of paint over it not flamin' rust seal. Damn, that stuff is hard to get off!

 

Take 2! GRRRRR!
Here we go again! Front end cleaned up, unbolted and ferried away out of the road...






New plated fabbed up for rear mount.


close up.
I aint no welder, but I can tell the guy doing this job (Stuart from Southlake Welding in Illawarra Australia) runs a nice lick.


Both sides of rear mount now have brackets added.
Note engine mounts might seem a little alien to you, that is because they are for the Chevy engine that lives in this thing...

More to come!

 

This is an interesting build. I'm subscribed!!

Dan

 

Thanks Dan. You might be scratching your head wondering why I bolted it up and then pulled it all down...Well, truth is stranger than fiction and, to be honest, I goofed. completely ignored the rear rubber mounts and went ahead and bolted it in, and then realised what I REALLY wanted was to soft mount it. So, this is why it's out again. Good thing we didn't weld it in there!

 

Nicely made laser cut shock absorber mounts made by Toprodz shock absorbers are same as VW Beetle shocks.

 

I was very lucky to source a reasonably good right hand drive dash to suit. This was welded in, cleaned up and hit with a couple of coats of burnt orange. It needs to be done again as I am not that happy with it.



From this



To this...

 

front mounts welded in!

Dorothy is officially soft mounted!
need smaller bolts to complete
Now just need to get the engineer down in 2 weeks. Wish us luck!

 

Bracing added to both sides of mount





One xj6 series 3 Jag front in Dorothy.





more bracing

 

looking good

 

Thanks mate. Will look a whole lot better when we get the engineer's tick of approval on there

 

Next interesting problem I can see looming on the horizon is the setting up of the steering column to suit the original Jag intermediate shaft. Since I have soft mounted the front end, I am required to use the Jag steering linkage. If you are not familiar with it, it is a weird floppy universal designed to absorb vibration, basically. On one end it has a male 48 3/4 spline and on the other a 36 5/8 spline. My truck requires a 1"DD due to the Ididit collapsible column this thing now has. You can buy universals to suit. That isn't the problem. The problem with me is the length of the Jag intermediate shaft.

It is just a bit too long.
So, fortunately, some guys have already done the groundwork on this problem in the past and, thanks to a guy on Ozrodders.com, I was able to narrow down a suitable replacement shaft. Now, I stress that this hasn't been approved by my engineer as yet, so it might not be suitable, but at first glance, it might be a viable option.
I was led onto the Mazda Bravo / Ford Courier range of trucks. 92-98 was the range I needed to look at.
I went to the local wreckers armed with this information and they pulled out a 98 model universal. I was quickly advised that this was not the right shaft for the job. In fact it is WAY different. This is what they sent me. Top one is the one they sent me. Middle one is the Jag. Bottom one is a piece of Anzac biscuit (not included in purchase)



So, plan B.
I chased a few interstate wreckers up and one was nice enough to send me a couple of pictures of the thing I need. He said it is from a 1995 Mazda Bravo.


The bit in yellow is the bit required.
Now, the reason I am chasing this universal up so keenly is this: it apparently fits the power steering end of the Jag front end's spline perfectly, (I am at work and only just picked it up this morning so cannot confirm precisely that it does) and it is telescopic; meaning, you can adjust its length to suit. I just need to find a suitable uni from Borgeson or Flaming River or some such thing and we should be jake.
** have since checked and both ends are 36 3/4

 

Another problem (for me) is the height of the pedal, not so much the length. The brake pedal sits up too high in relation to the throttle's current position (which is going to move to a different place since I last mentioned it in an earlier post). No matter where I put the throttle pedal, it still sits too high. The only remedy is to have an operation to shorten my leg or to fab up a new pedal. And this is what we have done. I am using a GM (Holden Commodore) Brake pedal arrangement from a VT Commodore.
I chose this model because of the adaptability and suitability of its application into many street rods and hotrods at least in this country (Australia) There are a number of decent articles written about the virtues of this arrangement and I am not going to repeat them here as most of you guys wouldn't find it useful I don't think.
Anyway. Here is the modded pedal with new pedal fabbed up



I think it looks pretty funky with that wild curve. Have yet to test it, but it has to be better than the way it was. I had an extra piece of plate welded to the left to accommodate my handbrake cable which I am relocating to the left hand side of the steering column and am taking advantage of the heavier plate as extra support (The hand brake cable bolts go through the firewall but I felt they needed more than that)

More to come!

 

Well, I guess we can see right away that the pedal won't fit. Bit of trial and error.
I modified it somewhat, and even got to use my hi tech orange crayon as an alignment tool.