diff --git a/v2/ansible/utils/unicode.py b/v2/ansible/utils/unicode.py
index e6f43d799c2..2cff2e5e45c 100644
--- a/v2/ansible/utils/unicode.py
+++ b/v2/ansible/utils/unicode.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 __metaclass__ = type
 
-from six import string_types, text_type, binary_type
+from six import string_types, text_type, binary_type, PY3
 
 # to_bytes and to_unicode were written by Toshio Kuratomi for the
 # python-kitchen library https://pypi.python.org/pypi/kitchen
@@ -37,6 +37,9 @@ _LATIN1_ALIASES = frozenset(('latin-1', 'LATIN-1', 'latin1', 'LATIN1',
 
 # EXCEPTION_CONVERTERS is defined below due to using to_unicode
 
+if PY3:
+    basestring = (str, bytes)
+
 def to_unicode(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace', nonstring=None):
     '''Convert an object into a :class:`unicode` string
 
@@ -90,7 +93,7 @@ def to_unicode(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace', nonstring=None):
     '''
     # Could use isbasestring/isunicode here but we want this code to be as
     # fast as possible
-    if isinstance(obj, (string_types, text_type)):
+    if isinstance(obj, basestring):
         if isinstance(obj, text_type):
             return obj
         if encoding in _UTF8_ALIASES:
@@ -112,7 +115,7 @@ def to_unicode(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace', nonstring=None):
             simple = None
         if not simple:
             try:
-                simple = str(obj)
+                simple = text_type(obj)
             except UnicodeError:
                 try:
                     simple = obj.__str__()
@@ -123,7 +126,7 @@ def to_unicode(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace', nonstring=None):
         return simple
     elif nonstring in ('repr', 'strict'):
         obj_repr = repr(obj)
-        if isinstance(obj_repr, str):
+        if isinstance(obj_repr, binary_type):
             obj_repr = text_type(obj_repr, encoding, errors)
         if nonstring == 'repr':
             return obj_repr
@@ -199,15 +202,15 @@ def to_bytes(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace', nonstring=None):
     '''
     # Could use isbasestring, isbytestring here but we want this to be as fast
     # as possible
-    if isinstance(obj, (string_types, text_type)):
-        if isinstance(obj, str):
+    if isinstance(obj, basestring):
+        if isinstance(obj, binary_type):
             return obj
         return obj.encode(encoding, errors)
     if not nonstring:
         nonstring = 'simplerepr'
 
     if nonstring == 'empty':
-        return ''
+        return b''
     elif nonstring == 'passthru':
         return obj
     elif nonstring == 'simplerepr':
@@ -222,7 +225,7 @@ def to_bytes(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace', nonstring=None):
             try:
                 simple = obj.__unicode__()
             except (AttributeError, UnicodeError):
-                simple = ''
+                simple = b''
         if isinstance(simple, text_type):
             simple = simple.encode(encoding, 'replace')
         return simple
@@ -230,7 +233,7 @@ def to_bytes(obj, encoding='utf-8', errors='replace', nonstring=None):
         try:
             obj_repr = obj.__repr__()
         except (AttributeError, UnicodeError):
-            obj_repr = ''
+            obj_repr = b''
         if isinstance(obj_repr, text_type):
             obj_repr =  obj_repr.encode(encoding, errors)
         else:
diff --git a/v2/test/parsing/test_data_loader.py b/v2/test/parsing/test_data_loader.py
index 5117150b4fe..b9c37cdd0c7 100644
--- a/v2/test/parsing/test_data_loader.py
+++ b/v2/test/parsing/test_data_loader.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
 __metaclass__ = type
 
-from six.moves import builtins
+from six import PY2
 from yaml.scanner import ScannerError
 
 from ansible.compat.tests import unittest
@@ -80,6 +80,11 @@ class TestDataLoaderWithVault(unittest.TestCase):
 3135306561356164310a343937653834643433343734653137383339323330626437313562306630
 3035
 """
-        with patch('builtins.open', mock_open(read_data=vaulted_data)):
+        if PY2:
+            builtins_name = '__builtin__'
+        else:
+            builtins_name = 'builtins'
+
+        with patch(builtins_name + '.open', mock_open(read_data=vaulted_data)):
             output = self._loader.load_from_file('dummy_vault.txt')
             self.assertEqual(output, dict(foo='bar'))
diff --git a/v2/test/parsing/vault/test_vault_editor.py b/v2/test/parsing/vault/test_vault_editor.py
index fd52ca2490e..2ddf3de27a2 100644
--- a/v2/test/parsing/vault/test_vault_editor.py
+++ b/v2/test/parsing/vault/test_vault_editor.py
@@ -132,7 +132,7 @@ class TestVaultEditor(unittest.TestCase):
         # verify decrypted content
         f = open(v10_file.name, "rb")
         fdata = to_unicode(f.read())
-        f.cloes()
+        f.close()
 
         os.unlink(v10_file.name)