'87 Mazda B2000 Pickup ~ With a 13b Rotary swap

[lightyearman]

Well, I've been a long time lurker on this forum but I've never really contributed much - and for this I feel bad.
I've always got various projects and bits of automotive tat hanging about but I'm curse word at remembering to take pictures and so I have little in the way of project threads. Sad face. So I'm going to try and make this my first attempt at a proper build thread, words and pictures and everything!


So what have we got here then?
It is a bit crusty and dinted, it has unashamedly been painted in Initial D AE86 colours with what looks like Dulux, black duct tape has been artistically applied to the sharp edges on the bumpers and bed corners BUT it's an 80's Japanese pickup with a running and driving 13b rotary from an FC RX7; and for these reasons it gives me the fizz.

It was built in 2001 by a rotary specialist RX Motors as a shop truck from an '87 FC shape normally aspirated RX7. They used the engine with a modified cross member, radiator, airbox, gearbox and fuel tank from the RX7. Last week I googled RX Motors and gave them a call. Much to my surprise the chap who answered the phone knew of my pickup well - he had built it! He also explained that it had given over 10 years reliable service since the build and was only sold a couple of years ago.
We picked it up this time last year - an adventure in itself towing it from Essex up North to Grimsby on a twin axle builders trailer behind my 3 series... fun though
It then sat on my drive for the best part of a year thanks to the usual excuses of work, other projects and generally being a boring adult but at Christmas I decided to pull my finger out.
It ran when we first bought it but it was misfiring and sounded rough so we have worked our way through the ignition side of things. New pair of Bosch coils, new dizzy cap and rotor arm and no improvement. Frustrating. The only way forward is to keep replacing things so I tested the leads and concluded it needed new spark plugs. 4 spark plugs from Mazda are £87 plus VAT!? Nice try. A quick check of evilBay from a wholesaler got me 4 new NGK items of the correct grade for less than 20 quid. Mazda what are you trying to pull.
New plugs in and nothing. Do a little cry. In a moment of inspiration we turned the dizzy cap 180 degrees and it fired straight up with apocalyptic vigour through the straight through exhaust. Happy dance.
Best of all it sounded healthy. We ran it up to temperature and did all the normal checks: it held its oil and water, thermostat opened at the correct temp, moved under its own power up and down my driveway and idled with a sinister brap brap brap...
We braved a hot start as a rudimentary compression test and it started instantly, so I declare the test a pass and ready to think about an MOT.



At this point I should point out that the acquisition and custody of this beasty is a joint affair between myself and pattycake who is also the owner of the 80's L200 undergoing a Lexus V8 swap.

End of part 1

[pattycake]

[mrbounce]

LOVE this. What a brilliant idea. 

[lightyearman]

Cheers! I'll take a load of pictures of its rough-hewn glory tomorrow

[Deleted]

I take it it came minus the rear windscreen 😂😂😂😂
Remember seeing this at Uncle Timmy's and having a good laugh....

[lightyearman]

Feb 1, 2017 18:10:21 GMT @johnnybravo said:

I take it it came minus the rear windscreen 😂😂😂😂
Remember seeing this at Uncle Timmy's and having a good laugh....

Nope, it had a full compliment of glazing when we bought it, and it still does today!

Have you met this particular truck before? Do tell, I like a bit of history

It was a gloriously grey and drizzly British morning so I took a couple of pictures











One pair of expensive Bosch coils. They are mounted to the inner wing and despite the muck, they are completely rust free both sides.




The installation itself is fairly neat, just missing a fan shroud, although it still provides adequate cooling even when stationary



Yep, that's an industrial isolator for an ignition switch. The benefits are many, including quirkiness, industrialness and of course now it has a racing push-button start





Apart from taking a few snaps today I fitted a new battery as the old one wasn't holding charge and had a general poke about again. It was rainy and I had little mojo.

This is Spectrum, the truck's driveway buddy. I'll do a proper build thread on this when I get chance. It had a full photographed restoration when I bought it in 2013




All feedback welcome

End of part 2

[Deleted]

That was used for Chav baiting around Blanford forum. It was used to good effect at Santa pod. Mr White ,being the lovable eccentric that he is drove it around for ages sans rear windscreen because he knocked it into the cab loading something on the back. Proper sleeper...😊

[lightyearman]

Feb 1, 2017 19:09:21 GMT @johnnybravo said:

That was used for Chav baiting around Blanford forum. It was used to good effect at Santa pod. Mr White ,being the lovable eccentric that he is drove it around for ages sans rear windscreen because he knocked it into the cab loading something on the back. Proper sleeper...😊

That's ace! Is Mr White the chap I spoke to at RX that built it? I do love how it's still such a sleeper. It seemed a bit odd to me at first - drop a 13b and all the running gear into a pickup but leave it on steels and truck tyres with absolutely no lows... If it was used in anger as a sleeper that makes a whole lot of sense

[Deleted]

^^
Yep. That would have been who you spoke to. He,unfortunately,doesn't do social media,but he has built some awesome rotary powered cars over the years. You now have his parts hauler....😊

[b3nson]

Awesome sleeper. And that sound! Awful paint job though, think it needs a coat of matt black all over...

[mrbounce]

Reminds me a bit of the ex-Robertsons Hire green Transit that used to drive around Clacton in the late 80s. That used to bait all the XR3 boys - it had a 3.1 litre Essex V6 with various additional bits added to it. It was pretty quick for its size!

[lightyearman]

MOT DAY SHENANIGANS.

Yep, MOT day, might as well take the scenic route and have a blast about...

I was so excited I filmed most of it upside down, my bad.


Patty has his war face on, grim determination.


And I'm mardy because my leg is in plaster so I can't drive it. Boo hiss.




Did we expect it to pass first time? Nah, not really, but hey check it out only 6 fails and two are nothing - tighten up the handbrake and put a new rubber on the filler cap.
The other 4 items are welding and it doesn't look too bad at all. Basically 4 of the outriggers are knackered, the two front most and the two rearmost. The chassis itself was deemed 'sound' so its just a case of fabbing up some outriggers and get them sparkled.
So are we happy? Damn right we are! Pretty straight forward mot fail and the truck runs a treat. We did around 20 miles taking a slightly scenic route to and from the testing station, down country roads, a full 4 wheels of air over a remote train crossing popping and crackling all the way and generally scaring children and the elderly

So back at my house and a decent coat of looking at suggests some cardboard aided design will have the templates for the outrigger repairs done in no time at all, ready to be converted into metal on Sunday. I went into the garage to get some cardboard but instead got distracted by a can of satin black spray paint and some old fog lights I had laying around...

[Battenberg]

^^ That is the nuts^^

[Spudgun]

This is cool

I had one years ago with a Granada 2.8 in it.
Mine had a Harvey frost crane on the back as we used it for a recovery truck for our scrap yard.

[lightyearman]

Feb 4, 2017 8:44:16 GMT Spudgun said:

This is cool

I had one years ago with a Granada 2.8 in it.
Mine had a Harvey frost crane on the back as we used it for a recovery truck for our scrap yard.

That's cool, bet it went well? There is a chap on here who has a B2200 with a big tail lift thing grafted on. Looks quite tough and wide steelies and bolt on arches.

[lightyearman]

FRIDAY UPDATE TIME!

First I should point out that in the last post I said how all this activity was going to happen last Sunday. Mmmmm it didn't. What did happen was that on the Saturday I had my first drinks since doing a dry January. Not a problem in itself, thing is I attacked the bars with my usual vigour and gusto and so the subsequent hangover incapacitated me for about 48 hours... Such is life.

Anyway.

Patty brought round an ace little arc welder and a big sheet of steel, I forced down another bowl of rice crispies and sacrificed the box in the name of Cardboard-Aided-Design.
We looked at the grot around the front outriggers and noted it was pretty much symmetrical both sides, so we could at least save a bit of time with one lot of templates.

I think you can just about see in that picture that to the left and underneath the cab mount the metal has holed. Directly above the mount is a 'boxed in' section which was generally solid but was holed as you looked inside it. We decided to patch it in 3 parts, with each patch having a long 'tab' along each edge to be bent at ninety degrees to help attachment to good steel on all sides. That was the theory at least.


This is a picture from halfway through the sparkling procedure I think demonstrating what a pain it was to get it to stick. Paddy carried on like a trooper though and after much lubrication with Yorkshire tea he had some genuinely solid patches in there. Its also worth pointing out that the rust - although bad enough to penetrate and cause holes - was pretty localised to what I can only assume is a water trap. Apart from surface rust, everything around there seems rock solid. Even the inner wings visible in the picture are solid with just surface rust and weird powdery mud covering it.



A reeeet good coating of Waxoyl gloop and I think its going to last at least as long as the rest of the truck








As I've come to write this I've realised I didn't get half as many pictures as I thought, and the ones I did take are mostly rubbish. I'm going to use the cold weather, lack of light and sleet blowing through the open garage doors as excuses for distraction.
Just the two rear bed mounts to go now and it could be retest time

[lightyearman]

GOOD GRAVY less than 24 hours later and I have more updates WHAT A TREAT!!
All the action happened in the dark in my garage when Paddy finished work so ill just give a brief explanation then a bit of a photodump. If you can pick out any morsels of interest from the pictures, that's just swell

So we had the final bit of welding to do today, one of the mounting points on the bed was really crispy. We originally planned to try and cut it out and replace it in situ but the proximity of the petrol tank and an extremely out of character attack of health and safety led us to pulling the whole bed off.
8 locating bolts came out with a bit of extra leverage from a 2 foot bar, fuel filler neck unbolted from the bed side, tail lights removed and the loom unplugged from the rear apron of the bed and it was only gravity holding us back...
This trivial inconvenience was overcome with some ratchet straps around the rafters of my garage and the herculean strength of Patty!
Have some pictures - Note the garden spade used for leverage and bedside lamp used as calming mood lighting





















And there we have it, the bed is off!

This truck just keeps on surprising me. At the start of this, we figured its all a bit tired and crusty but we can get just about get it MOT worthy and have some fun with it. Now, with the bed removed and the chassis and important bits exposed it seems we were selling the old girl short. The chassis is in fantastic condition, not just for a 30 year old truck but sound by any standard. The newly exposed areas of the cab are also rock solid. It seems the only truly curse word and frilly bit of the whole shebang is the bed. My mind started racing about tray-backs and roll hoops with spot lights and outback 'ute inspiration but for now at least the bed will be staying. It's hard to find a replacement bed and all while this one hold shape, it seems a shame to ditch it.

So then we did a bit of cutting and grinding and sparkling and a new box section mount was grafted on the underside of the bed.













So there we have it. Hopefully tomorrow should get the last few jobs done and it all brought together ready for the re test. Might even treat you to some daylight pictures. You never know

[lightyearman]

Right so where were we?

I think the bed was off, we had a new box section mount sparkled onto the back left hand corner and we were about ready to nail it all back together. Just before it was joined back together we remembered the handbrake needed adjusting so we took advantage of the access and nipped it up. One side was about bob on - the other was doing next to nothing. Everything seemed to be in order so it was just a case of freeing off and using the adjuster. A nice easy one for a change.




Here you can see it uses an RX7 fuel tank rather than the original B2000 job, I assume because the original lump was carb fed and with the 13b being EFI it needed a swirl pot.



Next we had to re weld a support on the stubby little exhaust (mostly made from a cut about Sierra XR4I part)






I also found a red marker pen and we got silly...







So... ratchet straps back around the rafters of my garage, hoist it up a few foot and back the truck underneith - I had visions of this being a nightmarish ordeal getting it lined back up and together but in reality it wasn't too bad at all. A bit of man handling and some persuasion and leverage from the trusty garden spade again had the mounting points lined up









And there you have it, back in one piece!








As you can see, the bed sides distorted a bit from being removed and handled but its nothing that cant be fixed. Anyway, it's characterful.

That's where we are now, MOT re-test is on Friday. Fingers crossed nothing crops up and surprises us but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. I cannot wait!
I'll leave you with one more picture that just won't stop playing on my mind... Inspiration. Comments and feedback always welcome

[heathrobinson]

I like it as it is, tatty and surprisingly fast I'd imagine! Not that the black one isn't the dog's danglies either mind, I just find the idea of a beemer getting left by a really tatty farmer's pickup more pleasing.

[lightyearman]

There is nothing cooler than a sleeper 8)