She's "finished"!

"jminer" (jminer)
06/16/2020 at 13:15 • Filed to: None

As some of you may be aware I bought a 1990 Mazda B2600i just over a year ago. It was a project that was a pain in the ass to buy (because of the seller) and ended up being more of a proj ect than I expected once I tore into it - but that’s what you get for buying a 30 year old pickup in the rust belt.

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I never ended up detailing everything about it in a post, I’m very bad at that... I have sent in a few dispatches from it in the year I’ve owned it but they are pretty uncommon particu larly in 4x4, extended cab and 5 speed. The pictures below are not it in progress, but mostly her as she sits today as I’m terrible at documenting the progress of a build.

I do love how this thing looks

The guy I bought it from was a customer service rep at an area Mazda dealership network and he had it services there. The story he told me is that he bought it a few years ago from a Mazda mechanic who as a hobby/make money rebuilds these old trucks. It came with a stack of receipts including a new head ~20k miles ago which is already more paperwork than any vehicle I have bought to this point.

It had really sketchy brakes on the test drive and he said he would have a mechanic at the dealership bleed them to fix it and give it a state inspection for an agreed upon $1500. It felt good to me but then it took him a week to get it looked at then the tech broke off both front bleeders from the caliper. So we negotiated a new price of $1k and he’d drive it down to me. He lived an hour away so that worked but it took a week of no-shows and un-returned texts to finally get the truck.

I still liked the truck and put it up on jack stands to inspect more thoroughly and came across a host of problems so off to rockauto to order parts. At this point the truck sat a couple months as work travel picked up and I worked on other things around the house.

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The interior is surprisingly good and has the captains chairs out of a much newer car and the driver is power. The center console is from some subaru and it generally looks great. The dash is pleasantly retro while still functional. The cabin is a pretty nice place to spend some time even for a big guy like myself. The A/C even works!

I fixed a few things over the Christmas break like new calipers which did a good deal to fix the brakes but there was still a long list to fix so she again sat.

In mid-March when we got sent home for the end of the world I wanted to work on the truck again. I started with simple things like cleaning the rust off wiper stalks and painting them and it helped me get motivated to finish it.

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I’ll also credit !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the work he’s done with his amazing Pajero as he has inspired me a good deal to work on my own quirky 90's Japanese 4x4. While mine isn’t anywhere near as cool as his it reminds me of mine and my desired use cases.

My Sportwagen gets me to most of the places I want to go but I always have to stop before I’d like to when exploring.

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This rapidly turned into larger items like a significant cold starting problem, new ball joints, terrible exhaust, bad fuel smell while driving and a ton of deferred maintenance.

Since I’ve bought the vehicle I have:

Replaced upper and lower ball joints on both sides

Replaced front brake calipers and pads

Bled brakes all around

Replacement front axle CV boots

New exhaust pipe from header to muffler

New O2 senor

Cleaned MAF

Cleaned throttle body

Replaced valve cover gasket

New cap/rotor/plugs/wires

Replaced fuel filter

Fix few wiring glitches

Replaced several bulbs

Oil Change

New Air Filter

Repainted front bumper

Replaced passenger mirror

Likely a bunch of other things I am forgetting as I take terrible notes on this

Luckily the hard starting/fuel smell/shitty exhaust ended up all being kind of the same problem with a bad 02 sensor, no cat, bad fuel filter, old plugs/wires/cap/rotor, filthy throttle body and a couple vacuum leaks. Essentially she needed a major tune-up and runs great now with only a little stumble on startup.

The still filthy engine bay after much mechanical TLC

I refuse to count dollars in parts for my automotive projects as you almost always end up spend more money and time than just spending more on the initial purchase. If I had to guess I’d put my total investment at ~$22-2,500 and I’m comfortable with that as it would be hard to buy a truck like it for that here.

I have willfully ignored the rust as it’s spread too far for me to do anything about and everything is still structurally ok and it looks alright from about 20 feet. There is some rust through on panels and serious scale/rot underneath. The frame is still solid-ish with a few holes but it is mostly in one piece.

Parts are sometimes hard to find and have to be ordered as this truck wasn’t very popular and the engine was I think only used in this truck and the MPV for a few years. They are usually cheap though, I think the most expensive parts I have bought were the front calipers at ~$60 ea. I do still have a large box of parts I haven’t installed, but didn’t need as of yet. Things like front rotors that were in serviceable shape and would have required wheel bearing removal to replace or rear wheel cylinders that bled and work fine.

All in all she makes me smile when I drive it and it is a good size little truck. I have not driven it enough to have any idea about gas mileage or reliability but the plan is to get her a state safety inspection this week and hopefully not have anything left to fix. Then drive her for errands and exploring!

Like most of my posts this ended up long as hell - thanks for coming along for the ride though Oppo!

DISCUSSION (17)

RacinBob > jminer
06/16/2020 at 13:38

Nice work. Example of how old vehicles can be restored to functionality by doing the basics.....

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > jminer
06/16/2020 at 13:40

Those trucks have aged better than expected. Good job for showing a tired old truck the love it deserves.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > jminer
06/16/2020 at 13:40

Looks great. I really like the mazda B series before they became a badge engineered ranger.

jminer > RacinBob
06/16/2020 at 13:41

Thanks! Yeah she so far hasn't required much more than extensive basic maintenance. It's just time consuming.

jminer > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever
06/16/2020 at 13:44

Thanks ! It’s one of my favorite small pickups too and they’re pretty uncommon to see on the road today. I just love how this truck looks in this body style with the small lift.

jminer > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
06/16/2020 at 13:46

Thanks! I too am a fan of their look.

TheRealBicycleBuck > jminer
06/16/2020 at 14:15

My first truck was a previous-generation B2000 and my second truck was the next generation B3000. I loved the little Mazdas and would have bought another had they not stopped making them.

Good for you keeping that one alive.

jminer > TheRealBicycleBuck
06/16/2020 at 14:30

Thanks! I really do like it, hoping the rust stays as bay long enough to keep her alive a good bit.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > jminer
06/16/2020 at 15:11

Nice Matsuda , yeah the interior is cool. We used to have those in Hawaii, they all rusted I think. I had a Nissan myself and my friend had a Mitsubishi of that generation.

jminer > 415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°)
06/16/2020 at 15:23

Thanks ! They're pretty uncommon around here too, we salt out roads heavily so most rusted away.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > jminer
06/16/2020 at 16:33

“The story he told me is that he bought it a few years ago from a Mazda mechanic who as a hobby/make money rebuilds these old trucks.”

Ugh... as soon as I read that, I was pretty sure I was gonna read that the truck was a basketcase in some way ... and I was right.

In my experience, by the time a mechanic gets rid of an old/cheap vehicle, there’s probably a number of things wrong with it or it has some fundamental problem that is difficult and/or expensive to fix.

I guess with the demand for trucks the way it is, any truck you buy for under $3000 will be a basketcase in some way. So the fact you have a functional truck you like for ~$2500 isn’t bad at all.

jminer > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
06/16/2020 at 16:39

That’s where I am and the guy I bought it from had neglected and abused it for a while . It used to be his daily but it had been relegated to farm truck for the year before I bought it so I was expecting some neglect.

shop-teacher > jminer
06/16/2020 at 17:31

Nice job whipping a great little truck, into usable and presentable shape. I can't remember the last time I saw one of these on the road.

jminer > shop-teacher
06/16/2020 at 17:41

Thanks! There used to be a slightly older B2600 4x4 around here that belonged to someone working at a local gas station but I haven’t seen it in 3 years. The 2wd Mazda trucks are uncommon here and I haven’t seen one of these like mine in years. The combo of 4wd, extended cab and a 5 speed meant I wanted to put this time and money into it.

shop-teacher > jminer
06/16/2020 at 17:47

Yeah, that's the perfect combo for a truck like this.

dogisbadob > jminer
06/16/2020 at 19:30

cool truck

jminer > dogisbadob
06/16/2020 at 19:31

Thanks! I like it