How it all began

Josh: Welcome to the DPV Podcast Episode 1.

I’m Josh, I’m a pharmacist, I’m a wannabe YouTuber, and we actually run a YouTube channel called Days of Pain and Victory.

Alex: I’m Alex, I’m an instrument tech, and I like wrenching on rigs and just doing stupid stuff. And this YouTube has given me an opportunity to do a little bit of that

Josh: Yeah, so in this episode we just want to give you a background on our history, because it’s pretty spectacular. And, you know, the whole reason why we started Days of Pain and Victory to begin with.

And then in this podcast specifically, we just want to inspire you guys to get out there, have some adventures, build some cool cars, and maybe have a few tech tips along the way.

Yeah, so, Days of Pain and Victory, do we want to start there, or do you want to start with our friendship?

Alex: Let’s give a little history on ourselves.

Josh: Okay, so we’ve been friends a long time,

Alex: like, since I was in the fourth grade, and I’m 38, I think, yeah.

Josh: So it’s been a while.

Alex: Yeah, it’s been a while.

Josh: First time I came over, I’m not gonna lie, I thought you were a little weird.

Alex: Yeah, I have that effect on people.

Josh: You know, me, you know, with my frosted tips.

Alex: And you had no weirdness at all about yourself.

Josh: Frosted tips, jorts, and a wife beater, I was a badass. I was definitely badass.

Alex: Hardcore.

Josh: But, Alex, we had a common bond with vehicles and wrenching.

Alex: Do you remember the first vehicle we wrenched on?

Josh: Oh yeah, it was In Pieces. He had this I don’t remember the year, but it was…

Alex: 1885.

Josh: Isuzu Trooper 2

Alex: Isuzu Trooper 2, two door, it was an awesome rig, and how I acquired the vehicle was the, when I turned 16, my dad told me that I could have any non-running vehicle we already owned, and he would help me fix it up and get it running. I chose a 1985 Isuzu Trooper 2. We got a motor out of Portland, and really all I did was the disassembly portion of basically getting the motor out, and then my old man and his buddy did the install. But that was really like the first time Josh and I really like wrenched on a rig together. And there were some crazy things that… While wrenching on that Isuzu Trooper, there wasn’t a lot of straightforward things that you had to do for an engine removal that you would think on a normal car. But yeah, we powered through and started a lifelong friendship.

Josh: Yeah, none of the parts or bolts that came off of that in the disassembly process went in any organized bins or…

Alex: Absolutely not! Coffee cans for days! Just throw that in a pile. So I’m not sure all the bolts made it back in, or all the right bolts. Here’s the thing though, my old man could just look at it and be like, oh yeah, we need this bolt here, this bolt here, this bolt here. So I wasn’t really worried about it taking it apart, but yeah, I have learned quite a few things since then, and I take a lot more pictures now.

Josh: And we went wheeling quite a bit in that thing too. I mean, we thought we were hardcore with the 28s. We did some creek crossings.

Alex: Although I thought I knew what I was doing on that Isuzu Trooper, we sold it to a family friend of mine, and he asked me about it. He’s like, did you ever check the gear oil in that transmission? I was like, no, I don’t think so. He’s like, there wasn’t a drop in it. So we wheeled that thing, drove it all over the place without any oil in it, but like the assembly lube.

Josh: That might explain why I had to hold that thing in the third for you.

Alex: All the time, yeah. That was probably one of the reasons. Oh man.

Josh: So fast forward into post high school, Alex actually had an apartment in the back of the shop we’re in right now, his dad’s shop. And when I turned 18, I moved in with him because I was going to a local community college, made sense, and I kind of had a thing for his sister.

Alex: Well, he still has a thing for my sister. But yeah, our apartment was, what is it, 40 by 20-ish?

Josh: Yeah.

Alex: Yeah, a little 800 square feet, little, it was a studio apartment that two dudes lived in. Josh lived in the closet. It was pretty sweet. It was the best of times. It really was.

Josh: It was. We consumed a lot of Mountain Dew, so much so that the entire 40-foot wall was covered with all different flavors of Mountain Dew cans.

Alex: Yeah, it was fun.

Josh: What’s your favorite memory in the apartment?

Alex: I like the stadium seating couches. So having double-decker couches, one in front of the other, that was always pretty fun. That was good.

Josh: Yeah. I hate to say it, because I’m a little embarrassed, but one of my favorite memories is when your mom beat the hell out of us with drumsticks.

Alex: HAHAHAHA! Oh yeah, there is video of that, and there is a quote of Josh of, “all I want to do is take a shower.” That was a good time.

Josh: I was cowering.

Alex: Yeah. She wasn’t holding back, though, either.

Josh: No, she wasn’t!

Alex: She was swinging for the fences.

Josh: So yeah, and I eventually married a sister, and I had friends at work that said, “dude, you’re going to ruin your relationship with your best friend,” but I think it’s really turned out well. Now every single family get together.

Alex: My best friends at my family events. It’s awesome.

Josh: Yeah, it’s so cool. So, Days of Pain and Victory. How did that start?

Alex: Well, basically Days of Pain and Victory, it’s kind of evolved from where it started. Where it started, we were basically jackass with cars instead of skateboards. We did stupid stunts and tricks that you do when you’re in high school. Throwing TVs off of motor homes. We did a 40 foot rubber band that ended up hitting me square the junk. That was not fun. Just beating each other up out of love, but it was a good time.

Josh: Alex broke a watermelon on my back.

Alex: Yeah.

Josh: The river jumping, that was awesome.

Alex: Yeah, yeah. We had a ramp that we jumped our bicycles off the dock. It was pretty fun.

Josh: Quite a bit of wheeling, which was cool.

Alex: Quite a bit of wrenching. Kind of started our life long of buying junk cars and doing stupid stuff to them.

Josh: Yeah, and we were filming all this on like an 8mm camera with the little tapes. Remember that one time we borrowed my dad’s camera?

Alex: The Rose bushes.

Josh: I don’t know why we got this idea, but Alex zoomed straight in on my nipple. I forgot about it and my dad’s camcorder ended up back at the house. He’s rewatching it, trying to find some family videos. He’s like, what is that?

Alex: What was I recording? Oh, it must have been the Rose bushes or something. Then it zooms out and there’s Josh with just a stupid grin on his face, the frosted tips. Oh, it was a sight to see.

Josh: Good times. So we did all this recording and had hours and hours and hours of footage.

Alex: And did nothing with it for years. Like six, seven years we filmed without ever doing it. All we did was, oh, it’s for the video. And you could get each other to do some of the stupidest things. Like, dude, it’s for the video. Oh yeah, this fictional video that we never we did make a movie. Eventually that’s never going to see the light of day. But yeah, it was good time.

Josh: Yeah, but this movie is what inspired me to start the channel eventually. So eventually Alex, I think he was turning 30 (33) and I’m like, I gotta get the video done. And so I snuck into his house. I grabbed all of the old cassettes and I spent hours in the Eastern Washington University Library borrowing their final cut, or Premiere Pro, whatever it was. And I made the movie.

Alex: And it turned out pretty good.

Josh: Yeah. You’re not going to see it. Sorry.

Alex: I mean probably we’re saving you a little bit, but yeah.

Josh: So after making that video and doing all the editing, I was like, you know what? I really like this editing thing. And so I started putting out a few videos and I actually moved to Boise that year from my residency and started Days of Pain and Victory on YouTube. So that’s kind of the backstory on Days of Pain and Victory. And now we’ve decided to start this podcast because we want to kind of relive and reshare some of our adventures.

Alex: Obviously we’re going to talk about our upcoming projects and events that we’re going to be doing. We’re going to be talking about builds. We’re going to
have a segment every episode called Fantasy Build where it’s going to be some form of showing each other blindly a project and giving a set budget and how would you build this car for this budget?

Josh: Do you want to see your car?

Alex: Yeah. Are we going to do that right now?

Josh: Yeah, let’s do it.

Alex: Let’s do it right now. So this part of the podcast is called Fantasy Build. Today’s requirements were you had, it was a $5,000 build. We wanted to kind of keep it economical, keep it for the everyday guy. What you would do, so we have $2,500 to buy the car and $2,500 for parts and accessorize. I really am thinking like $2,450 in Little Tree air fresheners. So I’m going to have like $50 to work with after my air fresheners.

Josh: I think it’ll still be cool.

Alex: Okay, let’s see what I got. It’s in Kelowna. Where’s Kelowna? Where would we have to go to get this fantasy here, rig?

Josh: I don’t know, it was in, It was in like recently viewed or like other suggested areas. So it’s within like a few hundred miles of Portland.

Alex: My Fantasy Build vehicle, which Josh will put up here on the somewhere, is a 1960 four door Dodge Polara.

Josh: Is it four door? It is.

Alex: That’s a four door. I like four doors. Yeah. I mean once you have kids, four doors, and they’re cheaper to buy. Still have the same cool lines. I dig it though. This has some sweet lines. I’m digging that big fin. I think I don’t know. I see like flat black, Cragars. Kind of looks like a Batmobile car.

Josh: It does say make offer. So your budget is adjustable.

Alex: I like it. I really do. This is, yeah. Flat black, Cragars.

Josh: Flat black, Cragars.

Alex: Drop it in the grass a little bit. Doesn’t need a ton of power. Needs the right sound.

Josh: Yeah, paint would be a couple hundred bucks. Cragars are going to be $400 plus tires.

Alex: Plus tires, some white walls. Definitely need some white walls on this thing. I mean if we had unlimited budget, Hemi, but no.

Josh: Hellcat.

Alex: Unlimited, limited budget Hellcat. Next unlimited budget, Hemi to be period correct. But even just like a 440 out of a motorhome.

Josh: Yeah, that’s perfect.

Alex: With a 727 torque fight behind it?

Josh: Heck yeah. That would, yeah now I want to buy it. This is going to get dangerous!

Alex: Big blocks are fun. Alright, you want to see what you got? I went a completely different direction. This is not what you get. Your vehicle is more designed for the dirt.

Josh: Okay.

Alex: But I think it’s like, I kind of feel your rig was cooler. Like on the cool factor, but this is alright.

Josh: Alright, so I got a two door S10 Blazer.

Alex: With the 4.3.

Josh: With the 4.3?

Alex: Yeah. Okay. I mean you were already starting with, I gave you like a heads up, a little bit.

Josh: Yeah, I’m pretty sure the 4.3 is like a decent motor as is. I could get some little power adders. I don’t remember what bolt pattern this has. Oh, it’s six lug. Okay. Wagoneer front axle, it’d have to be driver’s drop because I’m pretty sure it’s a driver’s drop T-case, leaf springs front and rear. Yeah, that is clean!

Alex: I know! That was the thing, like it is

Josh: yeah. Wagoneer front axle for sure, leaf springs, keep it simple. And like 33’s.

Alex: Oh yeah.

Josh: I think I could get a set of 33’s used and then most of my money is going to be in gears and lockers.

Alex: Yeah. I mean we went in completely different directions on that but.

Josh: That’s what makes this fun! I’m excited.

Alex: No idea what car you’re going to be doing. And going forward with this feature, when we do have a guest on, they will also be participating in the Blind Fantasy build where we will show them a car and they will get to see their personal spin on what they would do with it.

Josh: Yeah, that would be really cool. And after a few episodes doing this, we will be taking submissions also. If you want to email us a cool Craigslist find and have us build it in our heads.

Alex: Pencil it out there in paper, yeah.

Josh: In addition to talking about our adventures and trips and that kind of stuff, we also want to have a few tech episodes where we’re just talking about how to build a four wheel drive a certain way or the best things to look for in a car to revive. Those types of things.

Alex: Maybe some tips and tricks on when you’re looking at a project. What to look out for, what to be wary about.

Josh: The thing that I’m most excited for to talk about on this podcast is our adventures that we’ve had. We’ve gone on some pretty awesome road trips and even some different camping trips that were pretty wild, and you just can’t capture all of it on video.

Alex: Yeah, there’s a lot of story time whether it be the Alaska trip, racing in the Baja 1000, mini biking across southeastern Washington. Yeah, there’s some stuff that the video just does not capture that we feel that a little bit of story time would be good. There’s some good stories that came out of those trips that we’d like to share with you.

Josh: And there’s some that we don’t have video on like Operation Double D.

Alex: Yeah, obviously.

Josh: So anyway, I hope that you guys are as excited about it as we are. I’ve been thinking about this podcast thing for a while now.

Alex: Yeah, I think it’s going to be a good time.

Josh: Yeah, it’s going to be fun. And I’m especially excited for our guests that are going to be coming up in this next year as well. Anyway, you can find us on YouTube podcasts. You can find us on Apple, Spotify, wherever you can find podcasts. We’ll be there. If you’re liking it, give us a five star review. Wheel it, wreck it, wrench it, repeat. Until next time, see ya.