I have been working on this project for a number of years. Around 8 or so actually. The majority of the time has been on and off while collecting the needed parts and working on other projects like building the ReSpeed wide body, flipping a few first gens, another '76 REPU, an Rx3 and an Rx8.

Currently the truck is ready to go to paint. I will get a few shots of it before it leaves and post later. I have been posting updated pictures on Facebook but figured I would update here since I am at the paint mile stone.

The dis-assembly of the truck is pretty straight forward so I did not take any pictures. Once it was apart this is what I had to work with:

 

First came the frame & suspension restoration. I cleaned the frame up and sprayed it with POR15 and then truck bed liner.

The rear end is from a GSL-SE. I cut off all the 4 link brackets and welded on leaf spring pads. The rear leaf springs were sent to a drive line shop and de-arched 2". New rear leaf spring bushings were installed. All new bushings and ball joints were used to rebuild the front suspension.

Front shocks are bilstein for a camaro. Springs are 525# with a 2" drop. Front brakes have been converted to TurboII calipers and rotors. Rear brakes will be stock GSL-SE.

 

Next came repairing the rotted floors and rockers. Luckily the truck I purchased came with a spare set of decent floor sections cut from another truck. I also found some NOS outer rockers on ebay. Drivers inner rocker had to be fabricated by hand.

Started by cutting out all the bad stuff.

 

The floor sections were welded in place along with the rockers. Once all the sections were repairs the entire inner and outer surfaces were coated with POR15.

 

These are a few shots of the typical repair of the window frame rust. The blue repair section was cut from a B1600 cab I purchased for just such an occasion.

 

Once the floors were repaired I sprayed inside the cab, under the cab, engine bay shelf and the wheel wells with Lizard Skin. The underside and wheel wells than had bed liner sprayed fro undercoating.

 

One of the fenders required a repair. I cut a section from the aforementioned spare cab and welded it in place. The fenders were then sprayed with Lizard skin and then bed liner for undercoating.

 

Next on the agenda was to dye the white headliner and spray the inside back of the cab. This gave me a chance to make sure I liked my final color choice for the truck as well as hopefully keep over spray off the head liner while at paint.

 

Behind the scenes there has been progress on the fresh wire harness. The entire harness was sent to Stephen Sheppard with a list of my wants, desires, must haves and such.

The plan is for a completely fresh harness built to today's standards. The harness will have feeds for the Megasquirt and secret audio built in. The layout will also be tidied up to eliminate a bunch of extra stuff.

Images show the original harness, a couple if shots of the all new rear section of the harness as well as the new fuse blocks that will be used.

 

Started working a bit on the drivetrain. It is a S5 6 port engine with a large street port. Manifolds, throttle body and turbo are S5 turboII parts. Front cover is GSL-SE.

The engine was rebuilt a while back so it only needed to be cleaned up and painted. decided to go a bit subtle with the paint colors, cast aluminum for the rotor housings and cast iron for the irons.

Water jetted a few block off plates as well.

 

looking good billy!

 

love the color...will go well with my clue wheels ahahhahahaha just joking. that is a lot of work you are putting into her......good luck

 

Went by the body shop on Friday to help bolt the cab back on the frame. Paint is looking good. Should have the truck back next week.

 

what is that color called Billy? It looks similar to mine but I think it may be darker... maybe just the lighting

 

It is Deep Blue Pearl from a 2004-2008 VW R32.

 

Bill what did you use polyurethane bushings or rubber bushings?
Jacek

 

Jacek, What part specifically? The cab bushings are polyurethane. Suspension bushings are stock rubber replacements.

-billy

 

Suspension bushings.
I am looking for myself REPU, and also I'm looking for parts. In my RX7 I have polyurethane bushings from you and doing well, so... I thought that you have found something.
Jacek

 

Jacek, the repu/courier suspension bushings are still available but in rubber only.

 

repu and rx7 axel are the same length?

 

https://www.rx7club.com/old-school-other-rotary-63/gauging-interest-superpro-bushings-988783/page3/

Contact Juan he can get you poly bushings for the rear leaf springs 74-77 REPU. All front suspension bushings are available thru your local auto parts. Only thing that is not available is the drag link but you can buy one brand new from a B2200 pick up and lengthen it to fit

 

thank you
Jacek

 

nice truck , I restored one of these 2 years ago and sold it to my neighbor for 12k. If you need any parts help let me know , I have a lot of good sources .These trucks can be a pain in the *** to restore because they don't make **** for them anymore . The inner and outer weather stripping for the driver and passenger windows are still available from mazda , so buy them now while they are still available . Buy 4 outers so you get the chrome strip on the top ,the inners are bare metal .15.00 each pretty good deal . Hope that helps you .Here's a pic of my old truck

 

I did pick one of those up. Will extend it in the next few weeks.

I wish I could send all my grille stuff off for chrome like yours, just a bit out of my budget currently.


Looks Great! I have all the window rubber and door seals. Ordered them through Mazda a few years ago.

What I am looking for currently would be a decent set of headlight bezels and some tail light trim rings.

-billy

 

No, but my front end is converted to TurboII hubs as well so it all matched up.

Although my truck is 100% un-molested and could be returned to factory, many of the items are custom.

-billy