LHD 109 ambulance

[wantapinz2]

I would like to find a LHD series III ambulance, but here in the US I can only find the RHD, which will have huge blind spot when merging

left on the freeway etc. My question is which is a more practical conversion:

1) Buy a LHD 109 military pickup (soft top) and find someone willing to swap the pickup tub for the ambulance body.

or

2) Buy the RHD 109 ambulance and then convert it to LHD.

Of course I would love to do option #3, which is to import a Dutch lhd series III ambulance, but that is even more expensive.

Thanks

[Snagger]

I think option one is unlikely to happen, so you're looking at option two.

Getting hold of the mechanical items shouldn't be too hard - you only need a LHD steering box, right side steering swivel arm and heater blower assembly, gear lever and hand brake lever assembly (lever, left side mounting and torque rod). I suspect the heater matrix could be modified without too much effort to have the pipes emanate from the other side, and you may even be able to modify the blower in a similar way. The steering rods and column can be swapped side-to-side, as can the pedals.

The clutch and brake pedal boxes will just need a bit of new piping. The accelerator pedal and linkages should be easily adapted. The wiring harness may need a little extending, but that's just fiddly, not difficult.

The bigger problem will be the fascia, instrument panel and heater controls, which need to be LHD spec. The upper fascia is no different, but the lower fascia needs to be swapped to have the steering column notch and foot well/demist flap control cable on the left side (you could try modifying yours, again), and the existing instrument panel would have the switches on the wrongs side, which could cause problems for the speedo cable. That said, if you keep the speedo on the right side of the panel, it might be OK - the cable needs to be in line as much as possible with the aperture in the bulkhead.