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began teaching himself how to weld,
and though he admits he really had no
idea what he was doing, he knew he
wanted to build a mini-truck. “I snagged
this truck for $900 and, within a few
weekends, it was ’bagged. I fell in love
with Mazdas immediately once I started
ripping into this truck. The body lines
and interior cab space make it the best
looking mini, in my opinion.”
As it turns out, Mazda actually
produced a Rotary Engine Pickup
(REPU) in the ’70s, so Chris tried to
imagine what Mazda might have done
if it were to have built a REPU in the
’90s. Not only that, but his aim was to
build something classy and sleek. Given
there are so many ways to build the
same vehicle, there’s no right or wrong
way to do things, and you can truly do
whatever you want. “I wanted to tie
my love and passion for import styling
together,” he explains. “I didn’t want to
make it look like anything was forced, so
I always kept that in the back of my mind
throughout the progression of the build.”
However, one thing Mazda didn’t intend
on was offering this in a righthand-drive
configuration, which created a new set
of challenges for Chris.
“A lot of people will section dashes
out of older cars or build one-off
sheetmetal or fiberglass dashes,” Chris
says. “I’m sure there are many dashes I
could’ve made work, but I didn’t want to
do that; it wouldn’t flow right with the
rest of the truck, and the interior had to
match.” It just so happened that he had
a righthand-drive front clip from an FC
RX-7 that he’d imported to use for the
engine swap. After some cutting and
trimming, he fabricated some mounts
and bolted it in. The biggest challenge
was finding clearance for the steering
and pedal setup since the intake,
exhaust, and turbo are all on the same
side as the steering column. To remedy
this, a custom turbo manifold, Tilton
floor-mounted pedal setup, and Geo
Metro steering rack were installed.
Vehicles this low always get our
attention, but this one immediately had
us wondering how difficult it was to get
it as slammed as it is: literally hugging
the ground. After several different build
phases, when Chris decided to “door”
the truck, he had to buy a new cab
since the old cab had already been body
dropped twice. The rockers were cut off
and the firewall also had to be cut out to
get it to lay flat on the ground. Wicked
Welds Custom Shop helped fabricate the
one-off frame then trimmed the rest
of the cab to fit. Next, a new floor was
built and fresh, bead-rolled sheetmetal
was welded in on the firewall and back
cab wall to bring everything together. In
addition, new seat and cab mounts were
laid out and custom built to fit the floor.
As for the bed: “I wanted a completely
cut-out bed floor that looked like it
wasn’t connected to the truck. A floating
We’re used to seeing mini-trucks made out
of Chevys and Toyotas, but one look at the
engine bay and you’ll know this is all Mazda!
