New 1989 B2200 owner (again), Toronto area

Hey everyone! Nice to see this forum is so active. I just bought a 1989 Mazda B2200 SE-5 regular cab. It's a rust-free Florida truck. Looks like it was a grandpa truck too. Totally stock, unmolested. It has brand new whitewall tires (soon to be turned in so I have blackwalls, or get new tires). I always wanted a red truck, now I've got one. It's got a white cap/canopy which I want to paint red so it blends in better.

At the risk of exposing unfaded paint, I want to remove the stripes and graphics and give it a good detailing. Then maybe I'll remove that 1990s AM/FM/Cassette deck and put in something more modern with an iPod hookup and maybe satellite radio. Otherwise I like the old skool look and feel.

Back in the mid to late 1990s I had a silver B2000, but it was quite rusty and belched out blue smoke unless I used super thick oil with lots of additives. Loved that truck, so I was happy to find another one now, in 2012.

I always liked the simple, 4 cylinder mini trucks, especially the Japanese trucks with a 5 speed manual transmission. The only thing better would be a 4 cylinder turbo diesel engine, but we'll see about that later on!

The reason for buying this truck was because I just got rid of a new vehicle that really I wasn't using much but was costing me a lot. Paying over $500 a month for the note and insurance was getting expensive. I have a company van I use most of the time, and also a gas guzzling 4.3V6 Chevy Astro van (love that van and I'm keeping it). But I wanted something smaller to drive around town and that uses less gas. The B2200 gets better fuel economy, but not as thrifty as I would have liked. And it's nice to get back into driving a manual transmission.

Just curious, what did the SE-5 package add to the truck? My 89 B2200 SE-5 seems pretty much the same as my previous base model 86 B2000 that (as far as I know) was NOT an SE-5.

Tired I am but owned my 87 cabplus se5 since brand new! It came with the graphics on body(common) white spoker wheels,sliding rear glass( I have a cabplus) cloth interior,NO ac and normal am/fm radio and big quote tow mirrors on mine.Mirrors got smaller on 88/89 models nothing special really. The mirrors bigger,stripes diff,rear glass with slider opt,bedliner(which I have) white spkr wheels, for 87 models for sure.Dealers added stuff to a variation of the se5 models so some may have less/more than others on some little things.Tired and prob leaving something off,but general idea.

My 1988 B2200 SE-5 Cab Plus has/always had power steering, white spokes, AC, cloth interior, single rear window, white spokes, black "tow" mirrors, black door handles.

I had posted a PDF of the 1988 B-truck brochure on MT, PM me with E-mail address if you want a copy.

Thanks for the replies! That equipment sounds pretty much like my truck: graphics on the body, white spoker wheels (only mine are black, probably repainted at some point in the past), big tow mirrors, sliding rear window, bedliner and a/c (being a Florida truck, I'm not surprised it has a/c, might have been a separate option). I'm surprised that it doesn't have power steering though. Still seems like a fairly basic truck.

I guess the base model was really basic! Thinking back to my 1986 B2000 I had in the 1990s, it must have been a base model truck. It had the other style steel wheels, no sliding rear window, no a/c and I dont' remember what kind of mirrors it had, nor do I remember if it had power steering. I think it did, but I can't be 100% sure - it was a while ago!

the SE5 package got the full door cards to instead of ending just 2" short of the top? or was that just a specific year they started the full cards?

If I remember my 86 B was an se5. It did not have a right side mirror on it. Also I think there were 2 or 3 different strip packages.

1988 Base had left mirror only, no white spoke wheels/raised white-letter tires, lesser grade carpet, no fuel release door, rear bumper as accessory option, and of course no SE-5 stripes.

1988 Cab Plus had chrome wheels, slider rear window, AM-FM radio and tachometer as standard.

Hey, I just remembered that Axel Breaker Earl (or, in this case, Axel Breaker Url !!!) taught me how to copy parts from PDFs:

Very good info to know.

I just bought some used chrome wheels today from a guy on Craigslist. He said he had a 1993 Mazda truck. Probably a B2200 SE-5 extended cab, seeing as the chrome wheels were for extended cabs, unless they became available on regular cabs later on. I bought the set of 4 14" chrome wheels for $100, including center caps. No rust on the chrome finish, but there is some minor surface rust on the painted steel inside part.

So when I put these chrome wheels on my 1989 SE-5 regular cab, it should look good. I figured it would be easier than sanding and repainting my steel wheels, plus chrome looks nicer. Just got to swap over the almost brand new tires from the stock rims. Eventually I want to get some nicer 15" or 16" wheels and tires, but these will do for now.

nice truck bro. looks alot like mine haha love these trucks. this is my second one. dumb lady in a cadi escalade pulled out infront of me n the old one got this one for 400 bux and alota work to do.