Meaner than a junkyard dog

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This article was published 29/05/2020 (2137 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Even though David Lesack has been restoring vehicles for most of his adult life, the Brandon resident wanted his latest project to have a little edge to it.

While many gear heads wouldn’t consider a 1991 Mazda B2200 to be a particularly intimidating truck because of its size, Lesack and his dad Brian spent the last couple months giving it the look of an old fighter plane.

This task was accomplished using Lesack’s airbrush skills, his father’s mechanical know-how and basically whatever spare parts they could find lying around.

“The truck itself was literally built with junkyard parts,” he told the Sun earlier this week. “The wheels, the front bumper is actually the bumper off of a Isuzu Rodeo … the side skirts came off a Chevy Lumina.”

Ironically, the 45-year-old only bought the Mazda to scrap it for spare parts, wanting to use its long box for another project.

But when Lesack and his father brought the truck home from its previous owner in Esterhazy, Sask., the duo started coming up with ideas that eventually snowballed into the junkyard hybrid that sits in their workshop.

Of course, the truck was in such poor condition when they originally bought it that it was a struggle just to get the Mazda roadworthy in the first place.

“The floor boards were gone, the back was gone, there was nothing left,” Lesack said. “The axle was literally going sideways down the road, the holes in the floor were so huge you could put your foot through them.”

Luckily, Lesack had the good sense to recruit his father for the project, since his mechanical expertise proved useful in big automotive projects these two have tackled in the past.

Outside of replacing the motor, Lesack said his dad actually contributed to the overall look of the Mazda as well, including picking out the colour of the box’s sideboards.

However, Lesack was responsible for coming up with the truck’s more outlandish features, including its airbrushed shark mouth and rivets, wheel spikes and fake aerial bombs that are hanging off the undercarriage.

“We also carried the military theme into the interior and added a whole bunch of switches and aluminum door panels and all sorts of stuff,” Lesack said.

In its current form, Lesack said, the Mazda has provoked quite a strong reaction from his fellow motorists in Brandon, so much so that some have resorted to stopping him at the side of the road to take a peek.

Even though he admits the truck will probably never become a pristine show vehicle, Lesack is still proud of what he and his dad managed to accomplish on such a small budget.

The duo are also putting their heads together to restore a 1972 Chevrolet Chevelle, which will hopefully pay similar dividends somewhere down the road.

For anyone who is hoping to spearhead a similarly off-the-wall automotive project in the future, but is nervous about how it will turn out, Lesack advises that they stop hesitating and simply do it.

“Enjoy the little things in life and don’t let it get too serious,” he said. “It can be fun. For some people it’s just transportation, but for me this is a blast.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson