Here’s a rare Honda mistake, as in, they should have offered these from the factory! This 1972 Honda AZ600 Pickup is obviously a custom since the factory didn’t make pickups, at least in the A/N-Series. This cool l’il hauler is on eBay with a current bid price of just over $1,000 and there is no reserve! There are still five days left to get your head wrapped around the thought of owning this thing and what you’d use it for. This rockin’ pickup is in Rockford, Illinois.
That’s more stuff and more weight in the back than I would have thought would be possible, or wise, to put back there. I’ve seen a custom pickup based on the AN600 sedan, but not on the AZ600 coupe. Even if you don’t like these little Hondas, you have to admit that this is pretty cool. Or, at least pretty unique. It’s like a tiny Ford Unibody, but not really. This vehicle is just my size, it’s just over 10-feet long. I like small to really-small vehicles, they’re so much easier to hoard. I mean, to store.
The A600 coupe and the N600 sedan were officially known as the AZ600 or AN600 in the US, but the “A” is usually dropped, for some reason. Just to confuse things, these cars were also known as the Honda Z and they came with either a 360 CC engine or a 600 CC engine, from a Honda motorcycle, of course. The US only got the Z/Z600/AZ600 starting in 1970 until the end of 1972 because Honda was introducing the Civic in 1973. This Z has a few dings and dents, and a little rust, and some of the details aren’t as well designed as if they would have come from Honda. But, this would sure be a fun little vehicle to own.
The dash isn’t cracked and the seats and door panels look good! I don’t mean to sound so excited but so often they’re cracked and torn on these cars. I would want to track down some headrests in place of the “glass” headrests that are there now. Something to consider with this one, it comes with a bill of sale only, there is no title. One good thing, these Hondas came with power front disc brakes! But, one bad thing is that they need work.
Here’s the 598 CC two-cylinder, air-cooled Honda engine with just under 37 hp. This one was running a year ago when it was put into storage. I can’t say much about that because I’ve done the same thing myself with vehicles, put them into storage and then let time get away from me and there they sit. Ugh, no excuse. But, hopefully this one isn’t beyond repair as parts are somewhat limited for these cars. Here’s what it should look like. But, another good thing is that car has a lot of parts that go with it!
And, there they are. That’s quite a collection of spare parts. There is no mention of a tailgate for this custom Honda AZ600 pickup so you’ll have to fabricate something. There’s a story that exists that sometime in the 1970s, a company built around 50 Honda pickups and, as you can tell from the nicely-finished work, it could be a true story. This wasn’t one of them as I think they were based on the AN (or, N) 600 sedan and the one for sale here has more of a homemade look to it. I still love it, factory, conversion company, or homemade. I would haul my Motocompo around in the back of this after getting it running, getting the brakes figured out, and coming up with some sort of tailgate. Oh yeah, and then there’s that missing title. Hmm.. maybe I’ll haul this around in the back of a full-sized pickup with my Motocompo in the back of it. Would you have a use for a small pickup like this?
Well, it was ORIGINALLY just over ten feet long; seems this was extended in length some when converted to a truck. Are those tail lights from a 1970’s vintage Ford truck?
While I usually like to see an interesting Ute conversion (if only to point and laugh. . .), I find this one to be a bit disturbing. Doesn’t seem capable of handling a few hundred pounds of load, and they ruined what looks to have been an otherwise clean example of the breed.
After owning several N600’s over the last decade I can say that you would need at least that many parts to keep it running.
How funny is that! I live in Rockford Illinois and I’ve been working on Honda’s for over 30 years and I have never seen or even heard of that Honda so it must have been something that has been in storage for a while or something that they just bought and brought in from another area. I’m intrigued!
My friend sold Chevrolets and they got a Honda Franchise. I test drove a new 1972 Coupe. The out the door price with fees, taxes, and license transfer was $1967. Quaker State offered a free drive line warranty if the dealer did all the service using Quaker State
I didn’t buy as the German Capris’s with the V6 became available. In one year someone offered me what i paid for the Capri and I sold. I then ran across a 1972 Honda Coupe. My wife loved it. Parts from the Dealer were cheap, like a battery for $29 and a complete one piece exhaust for little.
Once again, some one just had to have it and I sold.
My wife’s cousin’s husband was the manager of a Honda Motorcycle Dealership, where I bought the parts. They didn’t sell the 600, but did get the 1973 Civic. The early Civics rusted quicker than the 600s, and weren’t fun to drive until the first 5 speeds in 1975?
Oh Scotty, if you do like small Japanese vehicles because they’re easier to “store”, do I have the vehicle for you. Maybe you need to invest in a Cony Guppy! The attached picture is of this vehicle, which was a sub-compact Japanese pickup powered by a 199cc engine. It could carry 100kgs of cargo, featured suicide doors, and contrary to appearance, was actually mid-engined. I think this may be the perfect car for you.
Ha, that’s perfect, Adam! Being 6′-5″ tall, though.. ouch. I’d be sitting in the back, but it sure is cool!
I think you might be in for a surprise on the leg-room front. Because the car is mid-engined, there is nothing under that fake hood, so leg room extends all the way to the suspension points at the front, and the seat slides all the way back to the back of the cabin. You might just fit. If Jeremy Clarkson can fit into a Peel P50, anything is possible!
I ran across this website, pretty cool stuff.
http://www.conyguppy.com/seibi.html
It’s not a great shot Scotty, but you can see that they have a surprising amount of leg-room. You’d be right.
Those red side marker lights look stupid like magnets on a fridge
Merciless Mings needs this as their shop truck!
It’s really cute. Would make a great little parts chaser. And an easy little sleeper project…
We are situated on 24 acres which Angel takes care of. Some tiny little rig such as these would be perfect for hauling her tools, hoses, seeds, fertilizer and the thousand other things she needs as she tends to the land. We would have no need to drive it on the public roads so a bill-of-sale-only would not concern me as I would not license it. I would expect that some government revenue thirsty bean counter who knows nothing about beans will spot it one day and tell me it needs to be licensed, but that is inevitable and in that event, I will put up a enough of a resistance to hopefully defer their attentions to some other thing that should be left alone.
You should buy it then @George
Probably the little grandfather to the Ridge line.
Wow, this Honda pickup sold for a mere $1,035!