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Hello troops

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 3:09 pm
by Snowy Rivers
Discovered your little corner of the planet and decided to say hello.

Been around snow machines and such for many many years.

Finally retired and have waaaaaay too much time on my hands, so decided to build a "FRANKEN CAT"

Scored a lovely 92 GMC Safari van a while ago and am going to marry the van to a custom Cat frame with tracks and rear diffy from a Thiokol Spryte 1200 series

Here are a couple pix of the van

Lovely rig with zero rust
$250 and it drove home too (Yes $250 bucks)

Gonna use the V6 and 4L60 tranny and coax these goodies to turn tracks instead of tires

I am about 30 miles south of Portland, Oregon near Newberg.

Still in the gathering phase as of now.

By summer I hope to be able to start fabricating the cat frame.


I will be in and out.

Snowy

Re: Hello troops

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:49 pm
by Nobody
Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to following this project. Please keep us posted!

Re: Hello troops

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 5:06 pm
by Scoobienorth
Looking forward to progress on this.

Re: Hello troops

Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2017 8:57 am
by Snowy Rivers
Thanks guys

Still in the gathering stages.

I had run cats years ago and always wanted to own a Spryte.

A buddy sent me a piccy of an Astro van on a Thiokol 3700 I think it was.

That set the stage for this build.

As soon as I can scare up an OC12 REAR DIFFY and some tracks we are off to the rodeo

The van was the big part and with the low initial cost life is good.

Re: Hello troops

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2017 7:16 pm
by macelius
This is going to be awesome.

Re: Hello troops

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2017 4:43 pm
by Snowy Rivers
Let us hope so.

Scared up an S1O frame with a dead engine and good tranny.

Going top use the engine cradle from the S10 frame and just adapt it to the custom cat frame.

Got a solid lead on a set of 3 foot tracks from a Spryte

Will be spring before we can get those (UNDER 13 FEET OF SNOW)

The big item is gonna be the rear axle (C4 or OC12... will see what shakes out.

With the Safari chassis complete and fully functional it will be a real snap to get things up and running once the frame is built and the engine/trans is installed.

Most custom builds/restorations require a lot of sheet metal work, upholstery, wiring etc etc.

This will be an easy shot me thinks.

Far less work than a restoration of a cat that's been thrashed and neglected..

More to come.