PrecisionMarine
New member
It was suggested (thanks pixie!) I start my own thread.. so here goes..
In 1989 I found my Imp in a scrapyard, hours away from being crushed. $200 bought it and a spare OC4 rear from the Spryte they'd started to cut up
Stripped off what was left of the original paint- easy in places, other areas seemed to cling better than an old girlfriend named Kristi [I may as well get off on the right foot here]
My Imp seems to have been designed to be amphibious- originally had no doors, complete sealed underbody (with rubber 'skirt' seals to allow the OC4 rear to pivot.)
I added doors, then off to paint in a friend's body shop. He had some 'left-over' aluminum primer.. I shulda knowed not to use. It quickly turned out to be as flakey as... sorry, I shouldn't beat up on a tired old snowca... ahhh girlfriend.
Rebuilt the Wisconsin 4-banger (retrospect tells me that was a bad move), along with new rubber for the idlers and rebuilds on the hyd. brakes (last of the kits in NAPA's national inventory at that time) to get it going.. used it a few hours around here, and then it sat.. too many years of very little snow (and a very ugly divorce along the way.) This year's blizzard rekindled my interest, so the lil' Imp will be getting a new coat of yellow paint after I finish the track rubber (doing that big job right now.)
I don't want to modify the original enclosed cab too much, but may add a quick-detach hardtop over the pickup-style bed.. and a new engine/auto trans.. and… and… (maybe I should ask nuttster if it’d be easier to build one from the ground up?)
In 1989 I found my Imp in a scrapyard, hours away from being crushed. $200 bought it and a spare OC4 rear from the Spryte they'd started to cut up
Stripped off what was left of the original paint- easy in places, other areas seemed to cling better than an old girlfriend named Kristi [I may as well get off on the right foot here]
My Imp seems to have been designed to be amphibious- originally had no doors, complete sealed underbody (with rubber 'skirt' seals to allow the OC4 rear to pivot.)
I added doors, then off to paint in a friend's body shop. He had some 'left-over' aluminum primer.. I shulda knowed not to use. It quickly turned out to be as flakey as... sorry, I shouldn't beat up on a tired old snowca... ahhh girlfriend.
Rebuilt the Wisconsin 4-banger (retrospect tells me that was a bad move), along with new rubber for the idlers and rebuilds on the hyd. brakes (last of the kits in NAPA's national inventory at that time) to get it going.. used it a few hours around here, and then it sat.. too many years of very little snow (and a very ugly divorce along the way.) This year's blizzard rekindled my interest, so the lil' Imp will be getting a new coat of yellow paint after I finish the track rubber (doing that big job right now.)
I don't want to modify the original enclosed cab too much, but may add a quick-detach hardtop over the pickup-style bed.. and a new engine/auto trans.. and… and… (maybe I should ask nuttster if it’d be easier to build one from the ground up?)
