Here’s How ‘Project Cactus,’ Formerly The Most Hopeless Car In Australia, Is Doing Six Months After Achieving The Impossible

It’s hard to believe it has been six months since Project Cactus was kicked off, with our favourite rust enthusiast David Tracy flying Down Under with a shaky plan and a bag over-filled with parts, tools and his trusty head-torch. What followed was an endurance-testing 23 days on the spanners, grinders, welders, paint-guns and even a paint-broom to turn a nearly-bare shell of a vehicle that was originally built over a half-century ago by a perpetually third-place manufacturer that hasn’t produced anything in Australia for over forty years. The highs and crushing lows of the build process have been documented on here and Youtube, so I won’t recap the journey of putting together Project Cactus and the trip to Deni Ute Muster. What I am here to tell you is how Cactus has held up these past few months since my Christmas update, and how I am preparing for another road trip that is shaping up to be even bigger than the Deni tour.

First, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the incredible tale of “Project Cactus,” watch the video below and/or read this.

Since that crazy adventure shown above, Cactus has been here with me near Dubbo, New South Wales. It’s been handy for doing “Ute stuff’” (like going to “the tip,” which is what we call the landfill) and giving “Lenny,” my 1970 Valiant Ute a break. I have finally moved all my panels and parts over to my shed from mum’s farm, so the place looks a bit less bare than it did in the Youtube series. There is still much organising and arranging to do, but having my parts-stach in one place at long last and in my own shed is a great feeling.

In case you missed it back in January on DT’s Instagram Stories, Cactus is now digitized as a livery in both Forza Horizon 4 and 5 for the Chevrolet El Camino so you can now have a virtual Project Cactus of your very own!

It took some late nights fiddling with the in-game livery designer, but I am quite pleased with the results. The Share Code on FH4 is 129 847 440 (old version 1.0 FH4 code is 659 497 423) and 150 100 349 is the code on FH5. 

[Editor’s Note: Holy crap that’s incredibly accurate! Laurence, how’d you get the lichen on the hood right? And the faded paint on the door! And the A on the hood! It’s amazing! And the paint job on the quarter panel! Amazing! -DT]. 

I always laugh during the loading screens on Horizon 5, seeing such a busted-looking ute on a stage with cheering fans has me chuckling every time.

I have managed to attend Dubbo Cars and Coffee twice this year, and both times people remain dumbfounded that this ute runs and remains running. The 245 ‘Hemi’ six just keeps on keeping on with plenty of power. Re-tuning the ignition timing has made a big difference, and feels like we’ve gained an extra cylinder [Editor’s Note: That’s amazing, because I found it rather powerful as it was! -DT]. Shed-skids are almost too easy now (*allegedly*).

The replacement steering box is a huge improvement over what DT “drove” to Deni, which resembled an over-acted movie scene to stay on the road at 100km/h (62mph). The replacement box is also quite worn, and the ute is still not quite as stable at highway speeds as Lenny, but I am hoping a fresh alignment at a highly-recommended shop in town will further improve matters and make long-distance driving a little less of a chore.

via GIPHY

After fixing up the shifting mechanism and replacing the steering box, things were going well, and then the shift linkage decided to act up again, so First gear and Reverse up and left suddenly. Turns out the problem was the rubber bushing on the gearbox shift-lever for 1st-Reverse decided to finally retire, and the excess slop was large enough to make shifting into those gears impossible. I have replaced the bushing with some rubber hose for now, and will investigate possible urethane or soft-Delrin solutions as new rubber bushings seem to be non-existent.

Here’s Lenny so you can see what this should look like:

Here’s Project Cactus:

I have added a pair of mechanical gauges, one for coolant temperature and another for oil pressure. Currently none of Cactus’ factory gauges work, but it is nice to know that the big-block V8 radiator is doing a good job keeping the inline-six cool, barely rising over 185F on this Bosch unit.

Oil pressure is a nice 45 or so psi at cold idle, and about the same at highway speeds (approx. 2500rpm at 100km/h or 62mph). Hot idle is mildly concerning, with pressure dropping on the gauge to 15psi or so. I will keep monitoring this, as oil pumps can be a weakness in the Hemi-six. 

 

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I also bought a cheap GPS-speedo online, because New South Wales Highway Patrol doesn’t muck around and mobile speed cameras are becoming more frequent on major roads around here so guessing the speed could become an expensive hobby.

The Next Big Roadtrip

This latest round of improvements has been in preparation for Cactus’ next big roadtrip. On Thursday 16th March I am heading down with a few Valiant friends from Dubbo to the New South Wales-Victorian border for the biggest Chrysler show in Australia, if not the Southern Hemisphere, “Chryslers on the Murray,” which is held in the border cities of Albury-Wodonga.

If you are nearby, it is well worth a visit on Saturday or Sunday morning. If you come up and say g’day I might even give you a sticker!

I have been going to this event on-and-off since 2008, and it has been the place where I have met and made many friends in the Aussie Chrysler scene, purchased parts to restore my Charger and keep my other Valiants running.

There are just-under 1000 vehicles usually entered in the show, from early Dodge Brothers products to imported (and RHD-converted) Hellcat Challengers. 

I know that’s not even half of the likes of the American Carlisle Chrysler Nationals, but with one-twelfth the population it’s a significant event and brings in cars from all over the country and occasionally vehicles from New Zealand have made the trek over.

The event also welcomes AMC vehicles, most of which were built as CKD (Complete Knock-Down) kits by Australian Motor Industries (AMI) which I must write about sometime as there are some Australian-only oddities dictated by the distance from Kenosha HQ as well as Australian government regulations of the time period.

I hope to have a report on the trip down and the show (and after-show activities) down the line for you all.

From there I am headed to Sydney for Monday night as Bek is going to  see My Chemical Romance with a friend like it’s 2006 again, so keep an eye on the Autopian socials should I end up planning a meet, likely somewhere near Homebush but ideally not involving Sydney’s worst roundabout!

All up this road trip will roughly equal the Deni Ute Muster adventure, at around 1,500km or a little over 900 miles.

With the biggest issues either sorted or improved since we went to the Ute Muster, I am pretty confident that Project Cactus should do well on this road trip. Who knows, maybe I will find something down at Chryslers on the Murray to take this project to the next stage. I have been keen to try forced induction on an old Hemi six!

Dave still plans to come back for another road trip sometime, but I know he has a lot on his plate right now so I will just keep on making improvements to Cactus and keep on doing ‘ute things’ with this machine that narrowly survived the fate of so many others.

Maybe we could recreate the  i3’s “Giga-World” interior; isn’t the timber in there Eucalyptus? My brother just took up timber milling as a hobby…