Monday, folks. I’m spending all weekend writing the second-to-last Project Cactus update, because it’s a long one, complete with a 50 minute video! That’s a lot of minutes — and if you’re an Autopian member you can watch a rough-cut (draft) of that video right now before we clean it up and publish it (along with my article) on Monday for ALL to view. Whew, here we go. If you’re not a member, you can sign up here. If you don’t want to sign up, that’s totally cool; I’m excited to show you what happened in Australia — Monday!
If you’re a member, you can see the draft video below. If not, you’ll see the final, polished video in my article on Monday!
I was just thinking about David actually getting this thing to run, and driving it to the Ute festival. My mental picture is he’s driving down the road, a cloud of rust flakes behind him, until he pulls into the festival parking lot with half the car missing. I also picture David looking like that character from the Charlie Brown comics, “Pig Pen”. Except he’s not shedding dirt but rust.
He will attain hero status among those folks if he pulls it off,
43:07: It’s just a huge list. (the angst on his face)
“I don’t need you to tell me I look like shit”
Those need to make it.
Ok, I joined up just to watch this update, too. Had to. I gotta tell you, you didn’t need Nostradamus to tell you how this would go. I’m happy that people with some real skills pitched in to help you with this.
David, never try to top this effort with any other project. I think you reached down below the seventh circle of hell on this one. Two junk utes, better suited to a quick trip to the crusher than rebuild. All on a ridiculously short schedule, and in Oz of all places. I’m certain that you just couldn’t make your deadline, but I will watch your final report on Christmas anyway. I hope you have no more insanity like this in your future. Leave some David for the future.
Awesome stuff David! The long format and rough cut are actually much appreciated. Keep at it guys, you’re doing great!
I’ve been waiting so long for this update, I joined the Vinyl crew just to watch it (also, you guys are awesome and deserver a few Canadian bucks). David – One day you’ll just get a flamethrower rig full of PB Blaster, and wear that everywhere you go. Your catchphrase can be “So anyway, I started blasting….”.
Thank you Slowcarsarebetter!
I love me some PB!
Looks like going to Australia really changed you. You look like an entirely different man.
Well I know what I’ll be doing instead of working this morning. Haha
The local paper writing an article about me would be cool, but them getting my photo wrong would be awesome!
I see you are still not a fan of brake lines and the flaring tool…
I’m not a big video guy (unless I need to know how to do a clutch job on a Miata in my garage) but I do dabble in photography and I agree that the shot of you standing in the bed of the Valiant in particular is an excellent environmental portrait of you. You look like an absolute badass who’s having the time of his life. You look like the kind of person I’d have on my crew any day—engaged, resolute, and here to get shit done. Good photo, whoever took that.
…that’s not me.
The caption begs to differ.
Why I oughta!
Awesome video DT… the tension comes through. I was so tempted to ask about the trip while we were sitting in an Airstream in a Walmart parking lot, but I knew better. Can’t wait for Christmas Day!
You got a lot farther than I expected – looking forward to our Christmas Present of the final video! I appreciate you pointing out how things work as you put them together for those of us not well-versed in a lot of stuff (I used to be able to do minor stuff but even those days are long behind me now – only very minor maintenance now, the paid mechanics do the rest).
Just finished watching it and I cannot wait until the finale! Even as a “rough draft” this video was awesome, and the cliffhanger was perfectly set up. I really have no idea how it’s going to go. It was a real pleasure watching you and Laurance and Hud and everyone else working away on that Valiant. That’s what friendship looks like. However it turns out, you can’t say it wasn’t a Valiant effort!
That preview is AMAZING and by itself is worth far more than the cost of membership! Everyone who hasn’t yet joined should throw all of their money at you immediately and… Wait, I’m not getting a discount for saying any of this, am I?
It appears that the comments are also only visible to members, so I’m definitely not getting that discount.
We still love you for it!