This is a great reason why frame chops don't always work.... Spends a ton and never gets completed...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1955-Ford-F-100-/281239801676?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276

 

17K and another 5 or 6K to get it on the street with no paint or interior

 

It says at the bottom that it is a 55 F100 frame. I can't really figure out what he did to it, looks like the Vette front end and entire rear section. What a cut up mess it looks like...

 

I feel for people that jump into a project and go so far to the point it becomes unclear what was done. In December, I checked out a F100 someone tried putting on a dodge 4x4 chassis. He had over 3 years and $20,000 into the setup and was no where near a road-worthy truck. My grandfather use to say "throwing money at a vehicle doesn't make it valuable or driveable". He should know, he had a lot of cobbled up crap.

 

What he did makes sense, in a way... the newer Vettes use a torque tube drive from the flywheel to the transaxle. Changing the length of the TT would be megabucks. But it makes for a funny looking truck, especially without a chop-top.

 

It'll look a lot like those 55-57 Chevy 4 door wagons you used to see running around where the guy cut the back door section out of the body and put it back together.

 

I just wonder why people jump so deep into a project with time/money and then dump the project. It would be cool to see the truck completed but his asking price and the amount of money/time left to make it a roadworthy truck again boggles my mind. Around my area so many idiots have butchered up the older trucks and giving up on the project long before it is finished. They would have been better leaving it stock. Now my pain meds are kicking in again...

 

It is really a shame to see someone invest so much time and effort into a project like this only to find out that they were WAY over their head and now left with only a pile of rubble. I have some experience with C5 Corvette chassis and suspensions and I can tell you that this is not a job that one should tackle without doing a lot of homework. Here are a few pics of a stock chassis and a custom fabrication done to a Gen 1 Camaro to install the suspension/driveline into it...mucho work and $$$$$

 

VERY nice work Charlie....

 

Wow, nice work Charlie!

About the other guy. Something always bugs me about a project like this. Why spend huge money on rims and tires so early in the project? That is a ton of coin sitting there and they are such a personal choice. If you are doing something that major, you have to have an idea if the cost and effort involved.....crazy.

 

I live about 20 minutes from him and asked if I could look at the truck. I think there is a bigger reason why it is up. For sale.

 

Chris, let me know if you check it out. I opened my big mouth and a car club friend thinks it's the cats you know what. I totally understand personal things come up that prevent builds from happening, if that's the case the guy needs to put that out there IMHO because from the listing it just looks like he cut it up and is now moving on.

 

I ll keep you informed

 

Some people start off with a vision of what they want to accomplish but it's above their skill set and their pocket books, they just don't realize all of the ancillary parts like fittings, bushings, hardware, etc that they will need and how fast it all adds. I think it's pretty common.
As a point of reference, I just totalled my build cost (parts for my truck) and the grand total (including the original truck purchase) came in a hair over $16K. Not cheap but not bad either considering how much we got done. The real savings was the labor cost since we didn't really spend anything except our own time.
I use these examples (like the ebay truck) to convince my wife I didn't spend too much ours... too bad she doesn't believe me.

Wally

more pics of the build here

 

Nice lookin truck Wally!