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David Leaming/Blethen Maine News Service In Waterville on Sunday, Keith Inman clears snow from a snowplow that he built from spare parts and mounted on his Honda Civic. “The only drawback is I can’t hit a snowbank hard or the car airbags could go off,” Inman said.

When the snow flies, Inman, 58, heads outdoors and fires up his 1998 Honda Civic. Mounted on the front of the small sedan is a homemade plow that he uses to clear the large parking lot behind the apartment building where he and his wife, Irene, live. It is a labor of love and Yankee ingenuity.

Inman paid a man $30 for an old scrap snowblower body and attached a pair of $13 wheels that he bought at Marden's. He then screwed aluminum to the inside of the contraption so snow would not stick to the 49-inch, bow-shaped plow.

Using a garden tractor frame, Inman then bolted the rig to the front of his car. Inman said it is easy to remove the plow and reinstall it when it snows. "Two bolts hold it on -- that's it," he said.

The front-wheel-drive car pushes the snow well because the plow wheels take most of the weight, he said. "I push the snow to a bank, back up and the snow falls out."

Inman then backs up for a new row and continues until the lot is free of snow to about 2 inches off the ground.

"This last storm, I finished plowing with my car before the landlord arrived with his plow truck," Inman said.

There is one potential problem with a plow mounted to a car: "I can't hit the snowbank hard, because it could set off the car airbags."

Inman said he could let the landlord clean out the lot, but the seasonal chore is something he looks forward to doing.

"I'm handicapped, so I have to have something to do," he said a day after a nor'easter dumped 10 inches of snow. "I plow often, a little at a time."

"He is supposed to take it easy, but this gives him something to do," said Irene Inman.