Final teardown is FINISHED!

[chevynut]

Finished up the exhaust hanger fabrication and the frame is down to bare nothing. It's nekked. Looks just like it did a few years ago....LOL!

The body has nothing in it except the seats, door panels, and console. I plan to continue working on the interior for a while, as well as the firewall.

The frame is on the rotisserie and I need to do a little welding, more filling, and more priming and sanding. Then it's going for paint....hopefully in a week or two.

20150401_001.jpg 20150401_002.jpg

[carls 56 (RIP 11/24/2021)]

just when I think I will see this done. hope I live long enough to see this on the road.

[chevynut]

Yeah Carl, it's a lot easier to buy a finished car, isn't it?

The building of this car has been the fun part for me. I know some guys just want to drive them, and they should probably buy a finished car or open their wallets and have someone build one for them they way they want it. But IMO it's not their creation.

It's taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to get this far. In the process, I've bought welders, plasma cutter, lathe, grinders, sheetmetal equipment and lots of other tools. I also built a shop addition so I could finish it. The original shop was built so I could work on it but my C4 frame business made that impossible. What I've spent on tools alone could have gone a long ways toward having someone else build it for me. I could have bought a really nice finished car for what I paid to build the shop.

And along with this build I held a full-time job until 2 1/2 years ago when I retired, and built 54 C4 conversion projects in parallel with the Nomad build. I did almost all of the work on my shop addition myself with some help from a friend, and built the original shop myself too. I also have a hunting hobby that takes up weeks of my time from August to December, and sometimes in the spring. Plus the car "evolved" as I built it and got more and more complex as I added features. My original intention was a simple C4 frame and a pretty much stock build. It ended up a lot different under the hood, inside, and with all the added features. All of this extended the timeline way too much.

And yes, I want to drive it......and I can see light at the end of the tunnel. I hope to make it to Goodguys in the summer of 2016 if I leave enough time for my interior guy.

The journey is more important than the destination to me. Once this car is finished, I have another 56 project ready to go unless I change my mind and build something else. If all I had to do is polish and drive my car it would not be nearly as fun for me.

[WagonCrazy]

The journey is more important than the destination to me.

Pretty much sums it up for nearly all of us on this forum Laszlo.

Been great to track your progress all along. We all learn from each other. More of us need to get off our keyboard and get on with our builds, documenting and posting as we go.

[Rick_L]

When are you going to start making your own tires?

[chevynut]

When are you going to start making your own tires?

LOL! Like you have room to talk Rick. I think you've been working on your 55 as long or longer than I have. And how long until it's finished?

I think i've only built a few things that I could have bought. One example is my fuel tank pump unit, which in retrospect I should have bought. But mine is nicer.

[567chevys]

Laszlo ,

Look's very nice , you do great work .
It amazes me how much you get done considering how much you have on your plate , Hunting,Building shops, making C4 conversions. Do you ever slept ??????