Well I traded in my RX8 a few months ago on a 15' CX-5. Since then I have also been building a 91' Galant VR-4 that I bought from a friend. It was a rolling chassis essentially. Well as things would have it, I was having a conversation with a coworker about one of his other vehicles when another mentioned that I would be interested in getting his truck from him. At first I was hesitant as I already have a truck and wasn't looking for another project. Well once he mentioned what said truck was I was hooked. He had a 74' REPU that has been sitting in his yard for years with a busted ignition switch. He's getting close to retirement age and doesn't have the time nor care to put any more effort into getting it together. So with the comment of come and get it or it's going to the crushers; I arranged a time to come and pick it up. So now we can start the fun with pictures. He sent me these prior to me picking up the truck.





As you can see the truck was in a mess of weeds and stuff that had been piled around the truck over time. Saturday arrived and with some help from Erick K. of Good Box Motorsports we begun digging the truck out and prepping it for moving it to his shop where it will remain till we get it back together.









It took us about 2-3 hours to get it dug out and moved clear of the house. The passenger side wheels were locked up from sitting. They broke loose slightly once the tow truck pick it up. As you can see it was a mess, but from what we've seen so far it doesn't look too horrible. Me being from NC, this truck looks leaps over what I would have found back home.










Once we get things cleaned up a bit more and get the wheels moving freely. We are going to move it deeper into the shop where we will start the process of restoring the truck back to a running driving condition. So far the engine appears to be in an ok condition. The carb and alternator are frozen and will need to be replaced. The oil and coolant looked healthy enough, but we are going to take no chances and just tear the engine down and rebuild it. Supposedly it has a Atkins rebuild in it though I'm weary as I can find any signs that would suggest it was.

So for now the goal is to rebuild the engine with a street port. 200hpish till the turbo bug bites me and we'll go from there. My biggest thing to do besides the engine details is to replace the deteriorated interior bits and search for anymore rust. As of right now the bottom of the bed, two spots on the cab corners, and one spot in the engine bay will need to be addressed.

This will be a slow but steady rebuild as I have a lot going on. The girlfriend is super excited about this truck (yes I'm serious) and is already storming up ideas of things we should do with the truck. She thinks I should install a wood bed since the bottom needs to be replaced.

Either way enjoy the thread and I'm glad to be back.

 

sweet find...looks pretty complete, just needs some love! keep us updated.

 

Got to work on the truck a bit today. Scrubbed the body down and cleaned some of the trash out of the cab. Needed some gloves so I stopped. Gonna do some more work tomorrow.

 

My friend has one back home red and I must say these things are sweet. The old school 13b and high gear ratio rear-end from factory which just made it better back in the day. I could never get my hands on one so I just bought a b2000 and made it rotary. Its a very easy swap but definitely a heavy body not a powerhouse at all.

 

this is going to be a pretty heavy project judging from the interior and the bed. these trucks are awesome and have pretty much made up to second (to the Rx-2 coupe) on my list of old school rotaries i would try to actually get one day.

i can't wait to see this one start to take shape. good luck.

 

Yes this one will be long process. There are some rust spots that will have to be addressed on the cab. Nothing that doesn't look too tedious, but will take time to correct. Hoping to get the engine pulled this weekend and stripped down.

 

Got the engine pulled today. Going to work on the tear down next weekend.

 

Well now that I finally took the time to upload my pictures. I thought that I would share. Haven't made much progress as I'm waiting on funds to start the build. Going to focus on getting the engine replaced and get it running. Once I get my own garage again. I will then start doing a frame up restore.














Thinking a 13b-RE/REW would look really nice in there. Saw this setup on an FD at a local Toy Run.

 

Haven't had much going on as of late. Today things finally started to take shape.





Picked this up today. Now that it appears I will staying NA, I will start gathering what I need to do fuel injected throttle bodies. I've been looking at the efi hardware kits. I already have a RB header on the truck. The shop that has been helping me has a Haltech Platinum 1000 unit that will handle tuning. We're also going to look and see if we can fit a RX8 transmission in the truck without much of a fuss.

I will also add that I played around with rubbing and polishing compound. Seems i might be able to clean up the truck a little bit.


More to follow now that things are finally taking place.

 

Big fan of repu's.. Good luck..

 

EFI Kits are awesome. One stop shop, you can get all the hardware, injectors, TPS, and injector clips from them so there is no guesswork. They also have great customer service. I have them on my REPU and the EFI Thottle body kit was selected prior to me getting the REPU! Ahhahahahah that's a true story. Look into the Star Mazda one piece intake manifold....its a really nice piece that would compliment the EFI TB's real nice ...keep us posted on your progress

 

Thanks, I was trying to find a manifold and had not found to many choices. Yeah your build and turbo_Dave have been a big influence for my build.

 

Awesome....turbo Dave"s build was a huge influence on mine....keep us posted on your progress. Good luck

 

So I tried finding this star mazda manifold that you speak of and it seems to be none existent now. I did find a company overseas that makes a really nice one piece manifold that I may look at getting if the shipping isn't too crazy. The company was called Racecast? I also started looking at possible wheel selection and I'm pretty set on getting some RS Watanabe R-type wheels. They have them in the size and offset that I want. I also discovered they make them in a 6 lug pattern as well. I found a US company that offers a throttle body that would work as well. Borla of all companies. The carb vs. fuel injection link they have linked on there site actually showed them testing their TB on a 6 port 13b that was streetported. Anyone remember when Dsport changed to that name from drag sport? Atkins has a efi kit as well but it's a complete kit and I'm not sure if I want to go that route.

 

Rotary Shack 1984 1991 Mazda 13B 6 Port Intake Manifold Weber Mikuni DCO Dcoe | eBay

I know the auction ended but you may want to reach out to them to see if they still have any left? It looks like they had sold 10 out of 12 that they had? Possible chance that they may still have it. Also check out the bad business section, as Rotary Shack is no longer allowed to sell products on this forum....so be careful when dealing with Rotary Shack. I got my manifolds thru e-bay from Rotary Shack and never had problems....but it seems that I was one of the lucky ones. Again, be careful.

 

Why not use a Weber IDA manifold, you can get 'downdraft style' throttle bodies with the IDA bolt pattern.

 

Thats what I plan on using. Just looking around for the different style manifolds that are still available.

 

https://www.borlainduction.com/2900-series.html

This is the style throttle body I'm more than likely going to use. The 50mm seems to fit my needs. I emailed them and asked for there suggestions and they said the same.

I may very well go with the Racing Beat manifold. Just wasn't sure of how I would like the look. Kinda looks blocky to me.

 

pretty sure I have a racing beat manifold. I will check tonight and let you know.

 

The shorter manifolds (like IDA style) have better throttle response but by all means shop around.

 

This is the one made by Racecast.com.au that I was looking at.

 

Shipping might be a bit much from AU.

If you're looking for a old school 74-78 13B IDA intake, take a look at Mazdatrix under the racing section. It's a nicer one IMO, better for semi-pp also.

 

The one mazdatrix has listed is the racing beat manifold. at least the picture is the same.

 

Yes it is...mazdatrix sells a lot of racingbeat stuff.

Weber Intake Manifold 48/51 IDA for 74-85 13B 4-Port - Racing Beat

 

So yeah this happened today. Guess I'm going turbo after all. Couldn't pass up the deal on this REW.