That’s what you get for ruining a good Ford with a Chity engine. 
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Good to hear you are relatively OK.
I would have thought the radiator would be damaged on the hit and run truck. Cops should have found it within 5 miles.
You have proved that even upside down the wood burner did not cause an issue.
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Well it wasn’t lit currently. But if it did I would have probably shot my fire extinguisher into the nozzle entrance to smother it.
If I can find another truck body I think I will remove the gasoline system entirely and just run pure producer gas. I’m hoping I can find an old F150 or something lightweight with a V8, Dakotas are inflated in price so I can’t afford them and they typically have hundreds of thousands of miles.
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Everyone at work is telling me to just hack the top off, weld in a roll cage and either save the original windshield frame or add a new one.
I might try to find an old truck body and just replace the whole front end and build a wood bed. If the rear end from the Jaguar has the same track I could do the 350sbc swap and use my Turbo350 3 speed auto with the jaguar rear end.
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Looks like the Mazdas track is 55.5 inches and the 76 xj6 has a rear track of 58.5 inches. Really makes you think. It’s only 3 inches of difference.
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I think I might instead piddle with the Mazda and make her electric. The 5 speed in it is solid and I’ve seen plenty of videos using industrial motors just direct hooked to a straight drive. Mazda could get an indirect taste of charcoal vis a vis the generator.
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I talk about wanting a very Spartan electric vehicle so depending on my insurance payout I’ll BUILD ONE.
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I used to be you Cody Tate, itching to build everything that popped into my head. Old age fixed that. Now I only try and build half the things that I wake up thinking about.
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I’m just keeping my thoughts logged on here until I hear anything from Insurance. Police report given to me now has the owner of the stolen van. Owned by a muffler shop and they had Travellers Property insurance. If I never get paid for it I’ll maybe do the etruck. The body sans roof and bed is fine.
Dad’s talking to a coworker that has a 68 chevy longbed rolling chassis. The 350 swap would be more realistic for that and a hell of a lot less work.
Everything over all I’m glad I have my Sierra to depend on. Knock on wood that nothing happens to it! Really not enjoying buying gas though.
Dad thinks the cab is salvageable. If anyone would know it’s him, he’s been a paint and bodywork man for almost his whole life. If I can re seat the front driver tire I’ll see about fixing the roof with the porta-power and limp it over to his friends garage. The bed is just in awful shape so I’d rather build a wood bed for it and use my surplus aluminum diamond plate as the floor for the bed.
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I’m going to try to cut the roof this weekend. If the cab isn’t so warped I can open and close the driver door after cutting the roof and bending the windshield back into place then I might try for a removable rag top with permanent roll bars.
If the cowl didn’t have a slight curve I could attach a Jeep folding windshield but there would be such a gap it would be silly.
Bed is pretty toast, rear bumper too.
Every time I look at it I get so mad. But it’s still got a valid tag and I need at least one running vehicle on Wood in case gas gets prohibitively expensive for me.
The front fenders are actually pretty unscathed, hood is a little dented. Back glass is shattered. I might just chop the whole top off and build a full roll cage.
Technically speaking you don’t need a windshield, just need functioning wipers!
Seat and interior is cloth though so I’d hate to see what rain would do.
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Bed is pretty much kaput. Going to fab up a flat bed for it. We are going to chop the top from it as well once we get the doors to be able to shut cleanly. Hood just has one big dent but that’s fixable.
Will need a new radiator, it tore the brass top off of the core. Hopefully radiator support can be fixed.
I’m thinking of removing the plastic grille and mounting Dietz style headlights on the bumper and lollypop posts for my turn signals. Also thinking of getting replica Ford Model A tail lamps, if you buy a pair from Speedway you get one that has a license plate light.
The radiator support is now twice warped and I can’t align the square lights, the mounting points are hard to reach and the support is welded into place. Not fun. Round Dietz lights sound fun though. Could make a nee grille using conduit tube and expanded sheet metal to keep the birds out of the radiator.
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The main anchor for the roll cage will be directly to the frame behind the cab, subsequent ones bolted to the floorboard.
I’ll be on the lookout for a Jeep folding windshield. I can skirt the bottom of the windshield with rubber to the cowl for an air seal.
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You are well on your way to having a Classic Rat Rod Mazda Gasifier Truck. I like it, this is going to be cool.
Bob
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Red neck diamonds. I must be rich. I’ve knocked the back window out of my truck twice throwing firewood in the bed. I never bothered to clean it out. I’d go full Mad Max on that truck Cody.
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I wish I had an excuse to build a piano hinge bonnet for a Model T style front end.
The front bumper leaves me plenty of room to attach some Dietz headlights. I might finally wire in some of my spare incandescent KC lights in front of the radiator.
I’ve made the joke that since insurance wouldn’t help me I’d make this truck a menace to society. Property values will drop from the mere passing by! A joke obviously.
Technically since they never could pay me, the truck hasn’t been totalled again. In fact since I’m still keeping up the insurance my tag is still valid.
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Your speaking my language
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Yes there are a lot of rat rods that are being built these days and a gasifer rat rod would fit right in with the crowd of builders. The gasifer could also go with the steam punk theme. Yes it produces steam in the hopper, and the steam is changed into hydrogen gas that burns and makes it go. Flaring fire pipes when staring the gasifer up.
Yup properties could drop in the neighborhood. Cool.
Bob
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