Thread: Hello from the UK i own a ford fire truck 1955 f350

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Hi my name is Pete i live in the UK.I own a ford f350 1955 crew bus fire truck and next week i hope a 1957 ford f350 crew bus fire truck.They both have the straight 6 223 engine.I will try to load photos.Both trucks are LHD i would like one to be RHD but getting the bits to do that here in the uk i would say will be hard.The 1955 fire truck is a camper nearly finished just needs painting.The 1957 is still a fire truck 20,000klm

Welcome to the club Pete! Thanks for the pics too. Interesting choice of vehicles you've got. They look to be in nice shape.

Hey! I like those, Pete!

Welcome to the group, and please do send more pictures.

Jim

I like the '55 "Effie" better than the '57, but they're both fantastic rodder material. Well done. A regular contributor to these pages, johnboy, is a kiwi who has been converting a schoolbus into a camper. He referenced this shop as the one doing the RHD conversion, so the pieces to do your fire truck(s) are available I'm sure......
Eagle Automotive Ltd - THE BUSINESS
You may want to read the entire thread here.....
Need help on bus origins.
You could chime in on the thread to ask questions of him or you could send him a private message....

Welcome to the zoo,Pete..Kool place to hang out..Which one do you want to convert to RHD,Pete?? I have a 1960 F100,and kept it LHD,but the original steering box got a bit tired,so it's now got a 1987 Toyota Hilux 4wd pickup power steer box in it..Easy job to make a bracket that can be bolted into the frame,and use the Toyota drop arm,and everything hooks up real easy..

Techinspector is right.
The parts are out there.
Our '51 Ford is mounted on a 2000 Chev chassis, so we used a Chev rhd power steering box in our conversion, coupling both steering boxes in tandem.

Lamin8er is right too; you're not constrained to utilising a standard Ford box, virtually any rhd box that is strong enough has the potential to be adapted.

Good luck...looks like an awesome project!

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the big difference with the Toyota box I mentioned,is that the steering shaft exits through the side of the chassis rail,the same as an F100 box,,but there are only a few years of that particular model that are the same..

Hi everyone thank you for the kind welcome.Its the 1957 Ford i would RHD first.I have thought about putting the body on a ford ranger that has a diesel engine and rhd as the price of petrol over here.£133 pr litre.

Originally Posted by fordf350camper

Hi everyone thank you for the kind welcome.Its the 1957 Ford i would RHD first.I have thought about putting the body on a ford ranger that has a diesel engine and rhd as the price of petrol over here.£133 pr litre.

Your UK £ is worth about NZ $0.50, so that equates to about NZ $2.60/litre, which is not far removed from what we're paying.

Be warned; it's a pretty big job to swap a chassis from under a vehicle just to change to rhd...I know we did it, but our reasoning was different from yours.
In the early fifties Henry built buses/trucks that were capable of fifty mph, with lights that were capable of forty mph, and brakes that were capable of thirty mph.
We set out with the intenton of upgrading the entire set-up; and at the same time changing it to rhd.
By the mid/late fifties Henry's engineering had improved; so I think you'd find it easier and cheaper to find a donor steering box to swap in, and do an engine swap to a diesel, utilising your present chassis.
There's a lot involved in changing to rhd; it's not just a question of bunging a hole in the firewall and shifting the steering column...the brake, clutch, accelerator pedals, gauges all have to go too.

Whatever you decide...good luck!

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