How I Turned A Rotten Australian Ute Into A Decent Daily-Driver

When I last checked in, I had just replaced the bonnet (hood) hinges on Project Cactus following a good old fashioned stuff-up on my part and was brainstorming solutions for a secondary latch so that this situation wouldn’t happen again. I considered electromagnets or even switchable magnets like those used for holding dial indicators in machining, but there was a problem. Would Cactus’ bonnet have enough good metal to make a secure hold, and if so, would the bonnet panel/reinforcement be strong enough to hold up to highway speed with a powerful magnet?

With these questions, and the price tag of such devices I decided to look for an easier solution. I found a bonnet latch on Ebay for the prior year’s model, the VE Valiant. The original bonnet hook had been cut off some time in the past. So I scrounged the original bonnet catch panel and support from the donor ute (the ute that David had originally bought, only to give up on that steaming pile in favor of the parts car, Project Cactus) and fitted them up, but we had two problems: The bonnet catch, being for a different model, had a different mounting bracket. The catch, even with a correct bracket, would not line up with the bonnet catch plate.

[Ed Note: This story involves heavy use of the Australian language, so be forewarned. -DT]. 

After staring at the affected areas for a while, testing some ideas and downing a coupla Green Ants, I came up with a solution:

Yes, it’s on backwards. Yes, it looks like it was welded by a cheap stick welder because, well, it was. Yes, it means you need to push on the hook itself to release the catch, and the original ‘paddle’ is useless now.

This is Project Cactus, where we do the right things the wrong way!

I can lift the whole front of this dodgy Dodge near off the ground with my hands by the bonnet with this catch, so I’d say it should do the job and prevent a repeat should I ever forget the bonnet pins again which seems impossible now that a vertical bonnet at speed is seared into my memory!

With that sorted, it was time to address another problem which has plagued this charismatic crapcan: drainage for the tray (bed).

The Bed Drainage Problem

Originally, the trays in these utes had two small drain holes near the rear window that went down behind the seat that were maybe 5/16” or 8mm and easily become clogged with mud, rocks, spiders, biscuit crumbs and the like which then precipitates rusting of the tray and the resulting swiss-cheese we had with both utes which we slammed together into Cactus.

Since we had used the rear section of the donor ute to replace the rusted-out front area of Cactus, there were no drain holes. With no time to resolve this ahead of the ‘Deni’ trip, we just bedlined the whole area and called it good enough and were lucky it didn’t rain during the trip at all since the preceding month was one of the wettest Septembers ever.

This lack of drainage became very apparent during the Brisbane roadtrip the following year, where it rained non-stop. With no directed course for the rainwater, once the water reached a level it would then find ways through the removable side panels or slowly worm its way through the silicone and bedliner combination to follow the gravitational imperative.

I decided against repeating the mistakes from the factory; we want that water to fall out of there like it owed us rent! This is Project Cactus, not Project Concourse!

I went to the land of sausage sangers and picked up some ½” or 12.7mm copper pipe which in combination with the vehicle I drove in I am sure probably had some of the other punters thinking I was maintaining some kind of moonshine setup in a national park.

You can see the pipe on the floorboard of this video by the exceptionally friendly Todd of Toxic Garage, just prior to my fixing of the bonnet catch. If you’re keen to see some fantastic low-buck repairs and projects his channel is worth a watch:

Passenger (left) side has the pipe hug the C pillar as much as possible to allow for easy manipulation of the spare tyre, Driver’s (right) side has the drain run through some old garden hose to the rear wheel arch to allow easier access to the toolbox and plastic tub I store there with things like extra ignition components and other electrical spares. It also reminded me of this bizarre filter setup that had been installed sometime in this vehicle’s mysterious past:

Testing with a bucket of water, you could hear the drains gurgle like a kitchen sink!

It’s A Junker, But The Radio Has To Work

While Dave might be content to listen to road noise and the dull roar of the 245ci Hemi six, I need some tunes!

For the past 2.5 years I had been using a Ryobi 18V Radio/Bluetooth speaker, but since I am using this ute constantly I decided it was time for a dedicated audio system.

I had a spare ‘Gravelrash’ Bluetooth module, so I ordered some speakers and mounted it up under the dash in the factory location. I’ve run a setup like this in my 1970 ‘VG’ Valiant Wayfarer Ute, ‘Lenny’ for years and it works well even at highway speed with the windows down.

So with the bonnet sorted, drainage sorted and tunes sorted, it was time to address storage.

Making A Glovebox

Sick of having to put things on the seat or risk them rolling on the floorboard to then disappear under the seats, I decided to finally sort out a glovebox. The originals are made out of a compressed fibre, the first things to fall apart when the front windscreen seal fails and lets water enter the cabin.

Sure, you can buy reproduction gloveboxes, but what’s the fun in that! The joy of shitboxes is innovating your own repairs. You may as well be the architect of your own consequences!

With that in mind, I grabbed some corrugated plastic (aka ‘corflute’), JB Weld, Loctite 406 and some duct tape and made this, which is a little bigger than original:

I Apparently Have No Idea How To Make A Fan Shroud

Before you think I know all there is to know about these old cars, there was a misstep. I tried using the remaining corflute to fabricate a radiator fan shroud. The other 70’s shrouds I have here look pretty basic, how hard can it be?

Turns out there’s a bit more to it than just forcing the air through the fan, the shroud boosted temperatures in all conditions by a good 30F! Needless to say, I promptly uninstalled this contraption!

Homemade Cupholders

Lastly, since I drive this charismatic crapcan more than any of my other non-work vehicles, it was time for some cupholders. Once again, why get a ready-made solution when you can get creative?:

A magnetic parts tray, strong magnets, and recycled pineapple cans do the job nicely! Sure, if this was a corner-carving implement of precision said pineapple containers would be at risk of being flung out on corners. Not really a problem here on this old hay-hauler; we don’t even have a front swaybar!

Quality of life improvements made, it was time to head down to Australia’s biggest Chrysler show once again, Chryslers on the Murray.

Road-Tripping The ‘Feral Ute’

My Partner Bek and I left Dubbo on the Friday morning solo, meeting up with the former owner of Cactus, a man named “Fingers,” at a pub in Wagga Wagga for and his 1969 ‘VF’ Valiant sedan for a late lunch.

The run down went smoothly, and with time to kill we decided to go the more scenic route via Mangoplah, Morven and Gerogery instead of the more direct route via Henty and Culcairn. Whilst the miles-per-gallon of the cars was pretty good, our miles-per-schooner was plummeting with the nice old pubs along the way too tempting to pass up and the time/distance equation completely out the window:

After Gerogery we finally got a bit of a move on and made a beeline for our accommodation in North Albury. Catching up with fellow Chrysler mates, we had dinner and a few more ‘schooies’ since we were parked up for the night.

The next morning I got on the road early, eager to take in the swap meet and see what I could get for Cactus and my other three Chryslers including the rare ‘CM’ Regal SE that I am hoping to get some progress on over Easter. Not only was I shopping for myself, some new friends in Dubbo had also recently got into the world of Valiants and had some items they were keen to find.

A husband and wife team were after parts for the wife’s two plus parts-car 1971-73 ‘VH’ Hardtops which are rare as hen’s teeth, considering they made less than one thousand of them!
This added a new dimension to the show for me after 15-odd years, poring over the fine detail of assembled Hardtops present and spotting differences, modifications and upgrades.

Another friend, a retired farmer, had just purchased a 1977 ‘CL’ Charger, also quite low-production (around 1,800 built). Hunting for parts with other people footing the bill was a novel and enjoyable experience!

This was a great change of pace considering I rarely spend much time walking all the rows of the 900-odd entered cars after attending so many times. Seeing the show through fresh eyes was restorative.

Another Chrysler mate, John, had brought down a disc brake setup for Cactus. Whilst the front drum brakes work, keeping them adjusted so that they brake in a straight line is getting tediousm, and the extra usage of this Aussie battler means some more effective stoppers for repeated use would be welcome. The prior owner of these must have been a bit of a boy-racer, can’t say I’d ever seen cross-drilled non-ventilated rotors before!

I have a few other bits to obtain to make the swap happen, once it does I’m planning on measuring the difference in stopping distance and ability to handle heat between the two systems.

Running across this rescued CL sedan known as ‘SLER’ and supremely friendly owner, Michael, we found out it had ran in a Shitbox Rally last year from Adelaide to Perth after the car was pulled out of a paddock and some prep work completed.

A few days into the rally, the carburetor choked on dust, ignition timing went whacko and the battery was kaput. Cleaning the carby out and chucking in the biggest battery they could find and kept on going, making it to Perth on a crook head gasket and then limping back home to Canberra in the same condition was a damn fine effort.

With the next Shitbox Rally due to start in May in Canberra and head to Townsville, Queensland via mostly Outback dirt tracks and ‘SLER’ appropriately now adopting ‘Still in the Game’ as a tagline I am keen to see the progress of this redeemed rotbox. If you wish to support their efforts in raising funds for cancer research, they can be aided here.

The rest of Chryslers on the Murray 2025 was pretty standard and a grand old time catching up with friends and enjoying the traditional ‘Curry on the Murray’ for Saturday night and ‘Mex on the Murray’ for Sunday night.

Acquaintances and legends at Backyard Builds did a great job of capturing the show, and you can see Cactus just after the 15 minute mark:

Monday morning, we convoyed with Fingers up the same route we travelled on Friday plus a stop at the historic town of Junee for a schooner because we were in no hurry and I love to have a beer with Fingers.

Project Cactus Has Come A Long Way

We then went to Finger’s place just out of Wagga to swap some parts and recreate the photos taken when the deal was struck to purchase and tow home this ‘parts-ute’ which became the main project, almost 3 years ago exactly:

We got home a little late after spinning some more yarns and a good chinwagging session, Cactus running smooth and devouring miles. The mismatched driving lights did a fine job on the final stretch to ensure any roadside Skippy is identified and preparations made should evasive action be necessary.

Two weekends later it was time for an overnight cruise with my local car club.

With the rain and a few other events on that weekend in town our numbers were small, with the organiser Aaron and his family (the brother of Matt with the red Regal from the ‘22 CotM trip) in the brown Cortina, Loges (also from the ‘22 trip in his orange Charger) in a white Chrysler ute, and local mechanic, Larry, in his neat ‘XE’ Falcon ‘S Pack’ as well as myself in Project Cactus. Bek was back on shift with work, so it was just me in that shitbox Dodge.

The destination was Condobolin and the Utes in the Paddock (34:11 in the video below), where DT and myself went on the way to Deni back in ‘21 when Cactus was revived.

Very much a rolling pub crawl, we stopped at the first pub on our more direct route in the small town of Tullamore, population 369:

A neat little town that had a GM/Holden dealer from the 1920s until the early seventies although there isn’t much sign of it, unlike Peak Hill in the above video.

We pressed on, making good time and getting to Utes in the Paddock shortly before lunch. The site has had extensive work undertaken since we were last here including a large bitumen carpark and an information centre/cafe. The light rain today meant we had no risk of water crossings like we had a few years ago. I grabbed a fridge magnet to mark the occasion, a fine addition to the glovebox lid along with a CotM magnet:

Lunch had at ‘Condo’, it was time to head back the way we came. We stopped in at Fifield, area population 287 as of 2011 (town itself more like 27):

The pub had only recently reopened and had renovations ongoing. The neat thing about road-tripping old cars is you get to find out where the other old cars are in small towns like this and we ended up with a few leads for old bangers sitting in yards that I will follow up.

Fifield then lead back to Tullamore for another round, and then we headed to our overnight stop in Albert (population 77), which is within a dozen miles of Tottenham, where I picked up the first of the two ‘VF’ Valiant Utes for David.

And now, just over three years and nearly 10,000 miles later a good 25% of that old bomb was back on its home turf at the Rabbit Trap Hotel:

After regaling the locals with tales of this ute, the crazy American who flew down here to slam it together and the journeys since over a few schooners I retired to my quarters for the night.

The next morning we went to Narromine (population 3,500) for their monthly Cars & Coffee. Around thirty vehicles or so attended, including this sweet Manx-inspired buggy and this absolutely beautiful Ford ute running a Windsor V8:

Project Cactus got plenty of attention and drew plenty of stares, pointed fingers and laughter as always.

With home less than an hour away, I made a beeline and was glad to have a bit of a relax.

It’s still kind of incredible to think that a collection of parts that were languishing in paddocks, yards and sheds have come together to make such an end product. As I said in last anniversary article, Project Cactus is at the stage where you can just hop in and drive to a destination without much concern.

With the cabin now much more comfortable and convenient than it used to be, I don’t see myself using this revived rotbox any less than I am now. With some more upgrades planned, this should enhance that usability factor even more and make it a more approachable vehicle for others to drive as well so that they can share in the fun.

As always, have a good one and get out there and enjoy life!