Right Hand Drive ? on a 1st Gen Blazer

Max, you are a god in my book. You are a wise person and you have some real creative mojo going on...

ok, enough with the compliments, now a serious question about what I am doing.

I cannot claim to be one of the best fabricators out there, but myself and my friends do good, clean work. I use logic and do the math to come up with designs and overcome issues... in fact, I personnally believe I think too much into things before getting dirty.

I'm looking to build a SFBD 1st gen 2dr blazer to use as a daily driver. My other rides include custom bikes and a body dropped 2nd gen.

Plans for this SFBD include an underslung chassis. My front frame clip is a donor off of an 89 S10. I will be fabbing up a good frame table for this project.

I would like to also convert this to a right hand drive but I have no clue as to what I should purchase when it comes to finding a steering box capable of mounting on the right side. I would really like to keep the front suspension simple and use as much OEM parts as possible.

What suggestions could you give in my search to build this SFBD with a right hand drive?

I really don't know what you tell you about right hand drive stuff. If it were me I would probably mount the box somewhere on the right side of the frame that is convienient and use a bell-crank to drive a steering swing-set. If you aren't familliar with a "swing-set" it is where the steering center-link is attached to an idler-arm on both ends and the steering box would drive the whole thing from a remote location. Off-road trucks use this type of set up to eliminated the bending loads from the tie rods being transferred directly to the sector shaft on the steering box. It is also good for when the steering box can't be mounted in a location where the pitman arm can be used as one of the ends of the center link.

I hope that this is at least some help.

you can also try looking up ebay australia, and try to find stock chevy truck parts that are rhd
http://www.ebay.com.au/?_trksid=m37

A good friend did that in his 1st gen blazer. He used a Saturn rack, and made some tabs so that it would sit just above the steel that sticks out to the front of the engine crossmember. Another friend chris allred (unusual fabrication) did one in his nissan, and he drves the hell out of it 13,000 miles, if not more on his set-up, and it is sooo simple looking. Hope this helps!

Never done it but I do know that postal trucks use s-10 suspensions and have right hand drive. Something to look into.

the main thing to remember on RHD and swapping in a different device for steering... one is that the knuckles on the rack or tie rods must fall in the line from upper arm bushings to lower arm bushings when looking from the front. If this is not in that line your steering will be crazy opff and the toe will change as you raise and lower the truck.

If you are planning on, or maybe want to run a rack you would need a rear steer rack, then flip it around and it will work fine. I used a first gen Tacoma rack on my Mazda. You can find all kinds of different lengths of rear steer racks on front wheel drive cars.

If you would rather stay with GM or specifically S-10 parts just cut into the front frame horms on the right hand side and mount the box there in the same location as if it were there already. then move the idler to the other side.

There have been several S-10s done this way. do some checking and I bet you find pics.

Do the postal trucks use an S10 chassis or just the bolt on components like control arms, spindles, etc? I've never seen the underside of one to see for myself.

Lots of great advise... I'll take all of these ideas into consideration.

I have been trying to figure out what to look up for a postal truck, and have not found out what to look for... I have a budy who works at Napa, I may see what he can find out and see what they are using...

Gotta love projects

if you use a center steer rack and pinion from a grand am it will be good for RHD when used in front of the wheels. i found it here http://www.cadvision.com/blanchas/54pontiac/center-steer-rnp.html

yes ANY left hand drive rear steer rack will do right hand drive when used in the front. Also the Taco rack was easy to make the fittings hook up to the GM power steering pump.