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Rough Start: Would You Roll The Dice On This Small-Block Swapped Mazda?


Rough Start: Would You Roll The Dice On This Small-Block Swapped Mazda?

When you only have a few grand to spend and you are preparing to make a purchase as major as a car, you want to get the most for every dollar you are spending. You want reliability. You want to be sure that you aren’t just dragging home a sinkhole for all of your hard-earned cash, that you might actually win in the long run…or, at least, have the vehicle remain useful long enough that the cost amortizes in your head, anyways. Buying based on sheer emotion alone is usually a horrible thing…or is it?

On the surface, this 1987 Mazda might look like a dumpster fire raging near a gas pump. The paint, the hoodscoop, the fresh-from-the-Eighties wheel choice cry out, “Run, bro!” pretty loudly. Sketchy isn’t the word that best describes the first impression leaves upon a potential buyer. That’s the rational side of your brain…you know, the one that occasionally deserves to be ignored. And here, ignoring the Mazda’s outer shell is a smart idea.

350, TH350 with shift kit and 3,200 stall converter, Camaro rear end. In a Mazda B-series, that’s entertainment…or an unaired episode of Fear Factor for an unsuspecting passenger. If all of the ducks are in a row, and this thing is just ugly, we’d have it at the first test-and-tune night we could find, playing dumb for $100 races all night long. “Yeah, it’s a V8. Nah, nothing special, just a small block. Just testing it out. Run it? …hmm, ok, I can do $100, no more though.”

Or you can be rational and go hunt for something else, but for three grand, we wish you luck. You can fix the ugly and still have money left over with that kind of coin…

Craigslist Link: 1987 Mazda B2000


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4 thoughts on “Rough Start: Would You Roll The Dice On This Small-Block Swapped Mazda?

  1. Jay

    There’s nothing wrong with that paint that a couple rattle cans of flat black wouldn’t fix.

  2. Brandon

    A buddy of mine had a B2200 with an olds 403/TH400 stuffed in it. The smog dog 403 was worked over, and it still had the banjo-style OE differential, stuffed with 3.90’s. Him and I tried and tried to blow that thing up, it just wouldn’t die. We put 10.5 inch slicks and 400lbs of weight in the back, still wouldn’t die after numerous launches and burnouts and general stupidity. What a fun truck!!!

  3. C.M. Bendig

    I don’t like that body and frame, so I wouldn’t buy it. Yet I would get some silver paint and flattening agent add just enough to paint it stock silver so it looks sun faded. Leave the period wheels. I’d make it look like a stock 80’s refugee that got a set of wheels, and had a bad muffler.

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