Kei Truck Build - 1990 Honda Acty Attack

It's been a while since I had a good build thread, so I figured now's as good a time as any.  After the pandemic, I got my private pilot's license, sort of a bucket list item for me.  I bought a little Cessna 150 to make that process easier, and once it was complete, I decided to sell the plane and join a flying club with a bigger airplane.  Of course, we couldn't NOT have a strange vehicle in the family, so we decided it was time to buy a kei truck.  My father in law has had a Suzuki Carry for over ten years, and my wife has always wanted one.

On June 1st, I reached out to Stacked Exports over in Japan to figure out how the import process could work.  A buddy of mine had used them in the past for importing Skylines and such, and they laid out the process for me:

1. We find a vehicle we like for sale on the Japanese market, using sites like auctions.yahoo.co.jp, goo-net-exchange.com, etc. with as much or little assistance from Stacked as we want.
2. Once we find a vehicle we want, they arrange shipment (if necessary) to their facility in Osaka.
3. If we're all in agreement that it's a good vehicle once they have a chance to inspect it, they get it on a boat headed to the US.

I spent about a month researching all the different types of kei trucks out there, and gravitated towards a Honda Acty or Subaru Sambar.  The rear or mid-rear engine locations seemed to make them a little better handling for street driving, which is what we planned to use it for, and the 4x100 bolt pattern made finding new wheels easier.  Pure vanity on my part, but it is what it is.  On June 26th, I found this little guy for sale on goo-net-exchange.com for 340,000 JPY:

Stacked looked it over, got some more pictures from the seller, and we decided to go for it.  On July 3rd, money changed hands, and Stacked bought the truck on our behalf.  They arranged shipment from the small dealer in Miyagi to Osaka, and it got to their facility July 25th.  They looked it over, drove it around, and sent us over 120 pictures inside and out:

Only one problem- the wheels were gone!  Somewhere in the process, the 12" aluminum wheels shown in the listing had been replaced with steelies.  Stacked reached out to the dealer for us to figure out what happened.  Turns out there was a miscommunication, and Stacked apologized profusely.  Apparently the aluminum wheels had been a buy-up option that didn't get passed along, so the dealer put steelies on it for the agreed price.  Stacked offered us two options- they could find us some similar value wheels at their expense, or they'd be happy to facilitate purchase of some new wheels for the truck.

Wheel shopping in Japan with no shipping or custom costs?  Don't mind if I do!

Didn't take long to find these white Rays TE-37s on auctions.yahoo.co.jp for around $600:

Amusingly, I found the same set (serial number matched) for sale on eBay in the US market for $2000 or so, including shipping from Japan.  So it'd practially be LOSING money to not buy these, right?  Stacked was happy to purchase them for us, and bought and mounted some new Yokohama all-seasons.  All in, it cost us about $1400 for some legit Rays with new tires.  Not upset about that.

By July 27th, the truck was in queue for shipping from the Port of Kobe.  At this point, we're about $3500 into the truck itself (including Stacked's fees) and the shipping via Ro-Ro cost $1500. It didn't leave until Sept 26th, but that sort of delay is just part of the process right now, it sounds like.  While the boat was en route, Stacked sent me the original export certificate via DHL, and I reached out to TurboISF to help with the paperwork process.  I didn't want to pay someone to handle the whole import process, but I'd heard some horror stories about the total-DIY type messing up some of the Customs paperwork and getting stuck in bureaucratic hell.  So, $300 later, I had all the paperwork squared away for Customs, EPA, and NHTSA.  The import tariff was $644 (thanks, Mercedes, for the Chicken Tax). 

It arrived in the port on Nov. 6th. There was an additional $200 port usage fee. I borrowed a buddy's trailer and drove down last Sunday night and crashed in a hotel.  I paid $112 for a TWIC esc0rt since I don't have a TWIC or CAC (federal ID that gets you into secure Homelad Security ports), followed her into the port, waited in line with a bunch of truck drivers, and the nice lady behind the desk said "okay, you're all set, it's somewhere in that parking lot over there."  Thankfully, the baby towing mirrors and white bumper made it easy to pick out of the sea of kei trucks.

It's here!  5 months after finding it for sale online in Japan, I finally see it in person.  Everything is as expected, except for one problem- the battery is stone-cold dead. The root cause is a problem for another day, but I need to figure out how to get this thing out of here.  I brought a bunch of tools and whatnot, including a little lithium jump box for this exact scenario.  Turns out those little lithium jump boxes don't work on batteries with 0.00V, because it was berkeleying useles.  Thankfully, the truck only weighs about 3 lbs, so I pushed it through the sea of vehicles to the 4Runner. I hooked up jumper cables, and it fired up on the first hit!  From there, loading was pretty straightforward.

The TWIC esc0rt was fairly useless for anything other than the literal "follow me" and "go over there" directions, so I had to load it myself.  Thankfully we'd measured before we left, because the track width is only about 4" wider than the open deck of the trailer:

Once I got it loaded up, the esc0rt said "alright, follow me to the gates, then you're all set and you can head out."  Okay, cool, but what about customs stamps?  I read online some DMVs require your CBP paperwork to be stamped, and if you don't get it when you pick it up, it's a huge hassle to get it stamped retroactively.  So, she took me to the local CBP office where a very nice officer reviewed and stamped my 7501 and 3461 forms.  Glad I asked.

The drive back to NC was fairly uneventful.  The 4Runner got about 12mpg towing this parachute-shaped truck, so I stopped for gas 3 times. As an aside, that's really my only complaint about the V8 4Runners, the tank is too small for reasonable cross-country legs. 

I had this dopey grin staring at me the whole way home:

From here, it's on house arrest, limited to tooling around the neighborhood until I can get it registered.  Insurance through Hagerty was very simple and straightforward.  I need to get a "VIN Verification Inspection" done at the License & Theft Bureau since it's never had a US title, to verify I'm bringing in what I say I'm bringing in.  Not sure why the state can't trust the stack of federal paperwork I have confirming that, but I guess that's just how America works.  After I've got that done, I'll be able to get a license plate for it like normal.  Mayberry Mini Trucks up in Mt. Airy has done all the leg work getting these things properly legal in North Carolina (HB 179).

I've already ordered a pile of parts to do some maintenance, which I'll document here.

Jake

Oh, I figured out what killed the battery.  The brake light switch meets up with a little plastic bumper on the brake pedal, which opens the NC switch when the pedal is moved.  At some point during shipping, the plastic button failed and fell off, leaving the pedal switch poking through an open hole and thinking the brake lights needed to be on.

I didn't take a before picture, but it was a simple fix with a 3D printer:

In reply to unevolved :

Due to spammy posts, the word Esc0rt has been added to the word filter to change to "Ford Econobox."  This made your posting a little confusing referencing the TWIC Ford Econobox, so with my mod-powers I edited your choice of the word to be spelled with a zero rather than an O.  

Fun adventure!  

John Welsh said:

In reply to unevolved :

Due to spammy posts, the word Esc0rt has been added to the word filter to change to "Ford Econobox."  This made your posting a little confusing referencing the TWIC Ford Econobox, so with my mod-powers I edited your choice of the word to be spelled with a zero rather than an O.  

 

Fun adventure!  

Ha! That's funny, I didn't think about that. Thanks for the assist. 

Cool! You've got less in this than most of the folks with golf carts and it's much more useful.

There's so much room for activities!  (Actyvities?)

First "mod" complete.  The Facebook group "Honda Acty Enthusiasts" keeps a nice record of part number interchanges that are easier to get in the US.  The radius arms in the front are a pretty easy way to improve the steering feel, and Moog K9733 can be bought on Amazon for $25.  Hard to beat that.

Before:

Here's the old ones:

I cleaned up the rust with a steel brush, then reassembled with a liberal amount of Red #2 grease:

The right side went together pretty easily, but the left side took a hit at some point in the past.  Looks like a curb strike, or something along those lines?  Easily straightened out with some channel locks.

Overall, a very simple job.  30 minutes, maybe?  14mm ratchet, 14mm wrench, and 17mm gear wrench was all it took.

On a less positive note, I found some structural rust that made it through the inspection.  Hidden under some underbody coating and aluminum tape was this crunchy hole:

Definitely going to need to be addressed at some point, but doesn't appear to be structurally concerning.  It's not through to the cabin floor above, just this little frame doubler.  I stuck my little USB borescope in there, and it appears to be isolated to this area.  Here's the inside, looking forward:

And backwards:

I've looked over the rest of the truck and haven't seen anything else, so I guess for buying a vehicle sight-unseen from the other side of the world, that's not too bad.  I'll keep an eye out on FB marketplace and CL for some "parts trucks" that might be able to donate some healthy sheet metal from this corner of the cab, but if I have to freehand something, it shouldn't be too terrible either.

We're off house arrest!

Last week, I took the morning off and drove it up to the county License & Theft Bureau.  This was the first trip out in the wild, and it did pretty good!  It was pretty cold for NC, maybe 28°F or so, when we left the house, and after about 5 minutes it was heating up the cab so well I had to turn it down- not entirely unconvinced it's not a small chunk of plutonium somewhere under the dash. 

I was a little curious to see how it would handle at speed (kei truck speeds, mind you) and it was totally fine.  I don't have a tach, so I don't know how high I was actually revving, but it was able to hit about 60 mph on some back roads and never felt skittish.  I'd heard some horror stories of guys with clapped-out, higher mileage trucks getting a "death wobble" like a Wrangler, but it felt fine.  I made it to the next town up the road in about 45 minutes staying off the freeways, which usually takes about 30-35 minutes.  Oh well.  Kei truck problems.

Look how adorable with those little baby Rays.  How can you take this truck seriously?  It's so ridiculous, I love it.

After waiting about an hour and a half, a nice highway patrol officer looked the truck over, verified the VIN matched all the paperwork, and gave me a piece of paper to take to the license plate office.  First time getting gas on US soil:

I also learned this trip how predatory gas station phone chargers are priced.  My phone almost died, because I'm a dumbass and browsed the interwebs the whole time I was waiting after using it for navigating.  After seeing the $35 they wanted for a charger AND cord and a couple gas stations, I decided I'd rather just let my phone die.  This was fun, though- the odd little cupholder on the dash is the perfect size for a can of Red Bull.

Another 45 minute drive at 6000 RPM back home, and it was time to get a license plate.  The final boss. 

Somewhat surprisingly, it wasn't too challenging.  I gave the nice, but confused, lady behind the counter the sales invoice, the export certificate (original and certified translation) and the inspection paperwork from earlier in the morning, and she looked everything over.  There was a little bit of confusion over the invoice having the vehicle price in yen- bless her heart, the lady didn't quite understand the concept of paying for something in a currency other than US dollars, and didn't understand why I couldn't just "get them to get me an invoice in dollars."  Thankfully, the customs form 7501 had the taxable value in USD, which after consulting with her supervisor was sufficient to register it and pay sales tax.

I was a little surprised they just gave me a plate without a standard safety inspection, but I wasn't going to complain.  Officially a US citizen!

I realized over the last week, we've driven the truck more than it's probably driven in the last year.  I think the mileage really is 20,700 km rather than 120,700 (5 digit odometer).  It started running pretty rough after my wife drove it around, so I put a can of Seafoam in the gas tank, which helped quite a bit.  It's developed a hot-idle problem, which appears to be a failed "fuel cut solenoid" which isn't uncommon.  I ordered a replacement from Amayama, which hopefully will be here next week. 

I took an oil sample and sent it off to Blackstone, and I'm sure that's gonna be comical.   Ever seen a magnetic oil filter?

Oh wait, not like that.

Given the strong smell of gasoline in the oil and the metal in the oil filter media, I'm gonna assume this motor's kinda tired.  I'd debated freshening it up with a timing belt and water pump job, but I'm leaning towards getting a second motor to go through completely.

I snagged this HH3 (Acty Van) cluster off eBay to wire up- it'll bolt in, but it'll take a little bit of finessing some wire to get it to function.  I think it'll be worth the effort to have an OEM tach.

unevolved said:

Given the strong smell of gasoline in the oil and the metal in the oil filter media, I'm gonna assume this motor's kinda tired.  I'd debated freshening it up with a timing belt and water pump job, but I'm leaning towards getting a second motor to go through completely.

I'm glad that another offbeat and outside the "USA mainstream" build showed up here.

Since you had mentioned replacing the motor, my brain immediately went here:

I think the only practical thing to do is a 'busa swap.

Busa swap? Nahh, stick with Honda and make it the "Kei 24." 

There's been a LOT of thought put into that particular topic between myself, my friends, and my coworkers.  I'm an engineer, so I've gotta approach this from a need-based perspective, right?  The main objectives for this truck are:

1. Lowe's Run

2. Backup Vehicle

Those two goals actually drive the engine selection somewhat strongly.  The "Lowe's Run" use case means the bed has to stay somewhat useable.  One of the big appeals of this truck is it can fit a full 4' x 8' sheet of plywood in the bed.  An engine poking up through the bed would ruin that, which unfortunately rules out pretty much any conventional FWD platform due to the upright orientation.  Challenges with retaining the 4WD notwithstanding, the top of the block is roughly even with the bed, meaning the entire head and valve cover is poking up into the bed:

(Picture from here.)

So, what about a motorcycle engine?  The sad lack of motorcycle engines with dry clutches and separate transmissions makes selection tricky.  I'd need to find a way to mate a bike motor to the Acty transmission, or give up 4WD and run a sprocket diff, assuming I could find a bike motor that fit under the bed.  That also means I'd lose reverse, have way less low-end torque for hauling E36 M3, and make for a much harder truck to drive, which goes against goal #2 for when we've got company in town and they need something to drive.

My conclusion is the best option for more power (60-80 hp would make this thing a RIOT without really messing up the driveline too bad, I reckon) is converting the existing engine to EFI, or swap in an E07Z from a Honda Beat, and some sort of forced induction.

A little AMR500 would be about right, but packaging it would probably mean getting rid of my rear diff lock, or finding a new home for it somehow.  A little baby turbo like a Garrett GT06 would be even more fun, and in my opinion somewhat easier- there's loads of room in front of the engine, and I bet I could package an intercooler of some short.  The thought of a little kei truck tearing away from stoplights making angry turbo noises is hilarious to me, especially if it still runs out of gearing at 72 mph.

There WAS one easy problem I was able to solve, though.  My little Panavise phone mount couldn't quite seem to suction to the windshield on a cold morning, so I got an idea.  The Actys had little clocks in the dash that was a buy-up option mine wasn't equipped with.  I drew up this mount the locks into the dash, and printing it out of Tough PLA:

It's got some locking tabs on the back with captive nylocks so they rotate into position before tightening down:

Excuse the crappy surface finish- my home printer is somewhat of a science project, and I need to replace the belts badly.  It'll probably get some paint to match the dash a bit better, but it'll work just fine!

Love the wheel choice!

In reply to nuthunmuch :

#TE37allthings

Found a spare motor on facebook!

Someone in the "NC KEI CLUB" facebook group posted they were thinking about getting rid of this.  It was overheating in their 95 Acty, so the imported a fresh(er) motor and swapped it for this one.  $300 and a hour-and-a-half drive, and it's mine.  It'll turn over, and it doesn't have a hole in the block, so it's perfect.  Been looking for a rebuildable core since we bought this truck, and they don't come up often.

A few little updates.  Was having some issues with it idling like E36 M3 after warming up, which is a classic sign of failed solenoids.  The Actys have these little solenoids on the side of the carb that adjust the idle speed and choke when it warms up to lean it out, and mine was going super rich.  Ordered some from Amayama, which cost way less than buying from eBay, just took a couple weeks to get here.

Put those on, adjusted the idle stop, and it's idling much better now.  Still isn't making much power, even for an Acty, so I think this engine is just tired.  I probably SHOULD do a compression test, just to know, but I suspect it's pretty meager.  Check out what Blackstone Labs had to say:

Even though we don't know how long this oil was in use, the extra metal in this sample is high
enough to point to excess wear at the pistons (aluminum), piston rings (chrome), steel parts like cylinders &
shafts (iron), and bronze parts and bearings (copper/lead). For reference, universal averages show typical
E07A wear over ~4,600 kilometers of use. Listen for knocking and check for low oil pressure (if possible) as
signs of bearing wear. Check for a rising level on the dipstick, too, as fuel dilution is high at 3.0%. If no
issues arise, check back in 2,000 km to monitor.

I don't know that I've ever seen an oil analysis recommend listening for rod knock.  I guess I'm proud of this little engine for continuing to run so well, even if it's not very strong.  Clearly has the odds stacked against it at this point.

Our little Honda only came with a speaker in the passenger door, and an AM radio that doesn't work anymore.  So, as part of my goal to make this a daily-able truck, it's gonna get some very mild audio improvements.  First up- speakers.

I had these 3.5" speakers laying around from another project; turns out they might work pretty well here.  Drew up a simple mount in Solidworks:

...then printed them out on my little home printer out of Matterhackers Tough PLA.  I made some little "anchors" to hopefully prevent any permanent sheet metal modifications.  If these don't work, I'll add some rivnuts, but seems like we're in business:

I kind of eyeballed the radial positioning between the door, but it came out okay.  Window still moves up and down without interference.

(Please ignore the awful surface finish, I pulled it off the raft before it cooled all the way.)  I think it might be pushing against the inside of the door card, but I'm not sure that's worth redoing it at this point.  Good enough!