cars – Oddball Update

Air, Fuel and Spark: Olden Days Auto Troubleshooting

November 10, 2019November 18, 2019 Chief Oddball

Texas is a strange place for a classic car aficionado. Growing up in Detroit, I was always well-acquainted with the biannual rituals practiced by my father and most other gearheads: warm up the hot rod in the springtime, then put it away for the winter. Down here, it's more like a quarterly ritual: we still drive in the springtime and put away in the fall, but there's another whole pseudo-hibernation event that takes places during the summer months, when it's too hot to even contemplate exposing your precious wheels to the scorching Texas sun. This year was no different for me and my 1979 Trans Am Special Edition. But unlike previous years, this time the usual November reawakening didn't go as planned.

Heritage R/T Badge for 2011-12 Dodge Charger

March 17, 2013March 18, 2013 Chief Oddball 8 Comments

I live for small details, the finishing touches we put on things after everything else is just so. Like the cherry on the top of a masterfully-engineered ice cream sundae, our new Dodge Charger needed an equally polished -- and equally red -- finishing touch. I found just the thing...

The Hunt Concludes: Charger Three Joins Our Family

February 3, 2013February 3, 2013 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

For the three days preceding January 30th, I didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. and was barely able to concentrate on anything except Car Matters. So when that day finally dawned and I got up ready to spend the entire day car shopping, I was bound and determined to get a right proper deal for the perfect car. All I had to do was select that car. In the end, that car was Charger Three.

The Great Dodge Hunt: Money In Hand

January 28, 2013January 28, 2013 Chief Oddball

Today I completed what has to have been the easiest vehicle sale I have ever undergone. Okay, okay: let me temper that by admitting that it’s only the second car that I’ve ever sold on the private market. But you could hardly ask for a more ideal situation: a buyer who dropped virtually into my lap, paid close to my asking price and was great to work with throughout the entire transaction.

Welcome to Chief Oddball’s Great Dodge Hunt

January 27, 2013January 27, 2013 Chief Oddball 1 Comment

Well, that came together sooner than I expected. Just days after posting that we might have a buyer for Mrs. Oddball’s Mazda6, I now have a verbal agreement and will probably have the money in hand come Monday. As I mentioned in my last post, the buyer is a coworker of mine who recently moved here from outside the U.S.

The Catch-Up Brain Dump

January 23, 2013January 23, 2013 Chief Oddball

This entry doesn’t have a central topic. It doesn’t even have a featured image, as you probably noticed. It’s simply a big, massive wall of text onto which I spew everything that’s been clogging up my mind for the past month while I haven’t been posting here.

Dodge Is The New Pontiac

October 21, 2012March 25, 2013 Chief Oddball

Nobody is reviving the American muscle car better than Dodge, who has apparently gone all-in with the idea of producing unapologetically aggressive stuff. With “in your face” styling borrowed from Pontiac’s operating manual, plus not one but three big-engined sports/muscle machines on offer, Dodge since 2009 has swiftly stepped in to fill the “driving excitement” void left by Pontiac.

The Big Save

June 30, 2012June 30, 2012 Chief Oddball 2 Comments

There have been an unusual number of changes around here lately. Some of them even affect situations that have remained static for so long that I’d begun to doubt their ability to change at all. They’ve all brought with them a scent of opportunity on the wind, a feeling that now is the time to be bold and to make a grab for something that always seemed just out of reach.

My Kingdom for a Visor

February 16, 2012March 2, 2012 Chief Oddball 1 Comment

Oh, faithful GTO. For what do your initials stand? Ay; for thou would have me believe your name is “Gran Turismo Omologato”, I suspect truly that thy moniker be “Gets Troubled Often.” Or perhaps it is I to whom that nomenclature refers?

A No-Drill Front Plate Solution for SAP GTOs

January 9, 2012September 25, 2012 Chief Oddball 1 Comment

This quick how-to demonstrates how I used a mid-'90s Ford Explorer license plate bracket (of all things) to quickly and painlessly mount a front plate on my GTO's Sport Appearance Package front fascia extension.

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