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| Not everyone who owns a Yank wants a left hooker, but then that kinda limits
your choice, or does it? |
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Words by Jon Betts, pictures by Mike Key. |
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It's a sad fact that the Yanks,
along with many other countries, drive on the wrong side of the road. Now,
personally I prefer the feel of a left-hand-drive car, being right handed I feel
more natural changing gears that way, but I have to admit that to use a left
hooker regularly on UK roads can be a pain in the proverbial. It's not so bad
on the motorway or dual carriageways as you don't need to see what's coming
the other way, but when you get stuck behind a slower moving car on an A or B
road it can be a nightmare, and have you ever tried going through a drive thru
or a toll booth? Thankfully, most of the American cars we drive in this country
have the power to get you out of trouble should there be less time to overtake
than you anticipated, but it would still be nice to have the style and performance
of a classic Yank yet still have right-hand-drive. A number of the current crop
of American vehicles can now be purchased in right-hand-drive form, the Chevy
Blazer or the Chrysler Voyager are just two examples, but if you are looking for
something a little bit older then I'm afraid you are going to be out of luck,
unless of course any of you know a man who can! |
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Colin Parker, it seems knows just such a man, or men, in
the shape of Paul Burnham and his crew at Burnham Autos in
Gravesend, Kent.
Colin was introduced to the hot rodding scene by his son-in-law
John Coy, an NSRA committee member. John has managed to bestow
his love of Fifties' American trucks, and in particular the Ford
F100s, on to Colin, who immediately went over to the States to
buy a truck for his first project, as John explains. "We'd been
over to the States together when we bought my truck, and while we
were there we went to a few shows and I showed him one or two
trucks and then when we got back he called me a few weeks later
to tell me he'd bought a truck just like mine.
Once Colin and John had picked
the truck up from the docks, they were straight on the phone to Paul at Burnham
Autos to discuss the options available. From the word go, Colin was keen to go
for right-hand drive and as Paul had previously fitted a few of the Jag front
clips, it was decided that was the way to go. Opting for a RHD front end cut out
many of the problems associated with this type of conversion and, once a nice
new column had been attached to the steering components; it only required the
pedals and dash binnacle to be swapped over. Ok, so we've made that sound really
simple, but in reality it did require a considerable amount of fabrication,
especially on the dash, although as you can see from the picture Paul and his
crew did a perfect job. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was a factory
build. |
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The Ford 9-inch axle that came
with the truck was retained, but to compliment the low stance of the front-end,
the rear was lowered severely by relocating the stock leaf springs on to the
underside of the axle. Being almost 50 years old, the truck obviously needed a
considerable amount of repair work, which included new door skins, cab skins
and repairing some well hidden crash damage on the nearside front corner, which
was again all carried out by Paul prior to the VW Yellow paint being applied.
Whilst Paul was given a relatively freehand with the build-up of the car, it was
Colin himself who obtained most of the parts required, as John tells us. "Colin
brought a lot of the bits back in his suitcase when he went over to the States;
he had a pair of bumpers on the plane one time!" Such escapades seem to be a
popular past time for American car owners!
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Colin and John made regular visits to the Burnham Autos rod shop
to watch the progress of the truck, but it was John who first saw
it as a finished article, as he tells us. "Colin had seen it in
paint, but not fully finished as Paul wasn't happy with a few bits
and wanted to redo them. When Paul told us it was finally ready,
Colin was actually in Florida so I went and picked it up!" And at
the time of writing this feature, Colin is still yet to get behind
the wheel, a little nervous of driving his new toy we think.
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According to John the truck is great on the road. "It drives very
nicely: it's just like an everyday car. It's a bit hard on the
back with the leaf springs but really it's very good." The engine,
however - a big-block Ford - is not doing as well and is in need
of a rebuild. This was the engine that came with the car and other
than a lick of paint and a clean up it has yet to be messed with.
"It's a bit tired really and its using a lot of oil so we will
probably rebuild it over the winter", comments Colin.
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The truck certainly looks stunning and is a credit to Colin as
well as the crew down at Burnham Autos, and while many people
may turn their noses up at professionally-built cars in favour
of the home grown variety, not everyone has both the time and
the skills to produce such a car, and I for one would much
rather see as many rods and customs out on the streets as possible.
Who cares who builds them as long as they get to be used on the
street instead of sat in someone's lock-up waiting for the day
when they have the time to get it finished!
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From the
horse's mouth
Converting to RHD is
nothing new, and Paul Burnham the proprietor at Burnham Autos has
carried out a number of these conversions over the past few years,
but they all have one thing in common, they look factory built!
"We spend hours making it looked like we haven't done anything,
we like the cars to leave our workshop looking like they came out
of the factory like that", explains Paul. The Jaguar front clip is
a popular choice at Burnham's as they are easy to source and
relatively easy to fit... well, as long as you know what you are
doing of course. The clip is used alongside the Jag master
cylinder and the power steering components to retain some
continuity, which helps to reduce build time and ultimately cost,
as well as making it easier for the customer to source spares
should the need arise.
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Colin Parker's 1958 Ford F100
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| Body
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Stock
body restored by Burnham Autos |
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| Paint |
VW/Audi Yellow
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| Chassis |
Stock chassis with
Jaguar front section, modified rear spring mounts
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| Suspension
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Front, Jaguar IFS,
Rear leaf spring
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| Wheels/Tyres
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Polished ARE Torque
Thrusts in 6x15 and 8.5x15, with 215/65 and 255/70 tyres. Burnham
Autos Rod Shop spare wheel cover
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| Steering
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Jaguar power
steering, Ididit polished billet column
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| Brakes
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Jaguar front disc
brakes,Ford drum brakes rear
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| Engine
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Ford Thunderbild
390ci Ford big-block V8
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| Transmission
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Stock C6 automatic
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| Axle
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Ford 9-inch
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| Interior
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1980 Chevy truck
bench seat, black leather trim, dash converted to RHD
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