rustbucketrocks
+1y
Cool forum! I never thought I'd join a "car buffs" website, but my "Zippy" little pickup was the best vehicle EVER. I want another one and hope to find something I could afford at some point, as a backup vehicle / road-trip truck.
If anyone likes to read Mazda B-series stories? Here's mine: Zippy was my first car, a 1984 Mazda B2000 that I bought in 2003 for $500. Best vehicle EVER. Had 114,000 miles on it and one owner who maintained the engine--but not the body, because in Utah where I bought it things don't rust like they do here in Wisconsin. Over 18 years, lots of body rust (frame and gas-tank were fine) to the point that one friend asked me if it had been shot at!
No heat, no AC, loved the vent-windows in 100 degree summers! Pour a glass of water down my shirt and aim those windows at myself, I might as well have had AC. Holes in the floorboards meant that the passenger footwell carpet was often wet. In Winter, I had to stop and warm up every hour of driving or my foot would get too numb to operate the gas pedal. I got 40 mpg--45 on one long road-trip, made 600 miles on one tank with some to spare!
A month after I bought it, someone rear-ended me and knocked off the bumper. (Baling wire time! Eventually, I traded a guy a 12-pack of beer to weld it back on.) The insurance company gave me $1300 to declare it a salvage--for my $500 truck. Two years before it "broke even" from that payout based on maintenance!
Always had a minor crack in the head--then the mechanic didn't hook up a spark-plug wire tightly enough after maintenance, and the shop was far from town. A "friend" dropped me off to pick it up--then they drove away without waiting to see that I could drive it home! (Pre-cell phone days.) I HAD TO drive it back home, and of course, 10 miles later the engine blew up in a cloud of antifreeze. Boo.
Looking for something that has even some of the spirit of that great little truck. And after that, it would be cool to look at learning to do all the engine maintenance. Body will never be a priority--I see out of one eye and often bump into things when I park.