Octavia dashboard

"Poppa" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Flog it and buy a cack-hander...

Seconded. Cost of conversion will be > cost of one from the continent, and won't be as good. Not as if it's a particularly interesting mod after all.

(ah, you've made it then Adrian. I did wonder when you'd get round to reading this NG :-) )

cheers, clive

Thirded. By the time you've changed all the bits and reprogrammed the car to LHD, you'll wish you'd just bought a LHD one.

Right, in answer to your question: sorry I dunno about whether a golf dash will fit. I suspect the dimensions will probably be similar, so there's a good chance for you physically.

However, completely not answering your question: after having done major surgery to replace a heater matrix on a Peugeot 306 (

) I'm fairly sure that you've got a much, much bigger job on your hands than just replacing the dash. The wiring loom will be very different between LHD and RHD cars, fittings, fixings and various moulded plastic gubbins will be the wrong shape and I doubt whether most of the ventillation system will fit. And that's just inside the cabin, under the bonnet is going to be a similar nightmare with changing the steering rack and brake/clutch piping etc.

I suspect that there are so many differences that to do the conversion properly, it'd be worth buying a wrong hand drive donor car. By the time you've gutted them both and swapped the bits that you might as well get one in decent nick and just use it.

Good luck if you do embark, it's a big project, I forsee multiple head and brick wall interface opportunities on the way though. (c:

Hmmm... OK, thanks all.

It was a thought that hadn't been fully thought through... I'm about to replace the car & Lithuanian father in law needs a new car. He knows a bloke that can fettle & probably get scrapper bits, etc. so it would only cost parts & Vodka.

I know of one guy that had his Subaru Imprezza converted RHD to LHD in Lithuania for around £1200 to 1400, & thought it might come in well under that as it's not a 'specialist' car - they have lots of VWs & Audis around, but not many Subarus.

As suggested though, it might just be better to sell here & buy there.

Cheers, Dom.

"Poppa" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Apart from the price of parts (which they'll almost certainly be importing through "contacts" anyway), the labour will be the same for the Subaru as the Octavia.

Might as well just drive the thing RHD over there, there are plenty of vehicles LHD over here.

I'll go along with what all the others have said. I have no idea what average wages and the prices of 2nd hand cars are, but is it not likely that the price it might command over here would be higher than the cost of buying similar over there? I which case chucking anything, let along £1k+, at it really doesn't make much sense...

You won't be able to make the others fit without some work and probably swapping the door cards over as well.

Not fourthed. I know a Czech chap who imports loads of UK Octavias and converts them to Cack-Hand. He reckons it's dead easy, but he's from Mlada Boleslav so probably gets the bits 'on the cheap'...

Hi Pete,

Would it be possible to contact this chap to see how much he'd charge? It's a little out of the way, but might be a better option.

Thanks, Dom.

I'll ask. Might take a couple of days to get a reply.

Cheers. No hurry.