Friday, July 17, 2020

Common hot rodding terms

3 deuces — arrangement of three 2-barrel (twin-choke) carburetors;
 distinct from Six Pak, Pontiac and Olds Tri-Power (also 3x2 arrangements)
3-window — 2-door coupé; so named for having rear window and one door window on each side
3 on the tree — three-speed manual transmission operated by a steering column mounted shifter.
4 on the floor — four-speed manual transmission operated by a floor mounted shifter.
5-window — 2-door coupé; so named for having rear window plus one door window and one quarter window on each side
97s — Stromberg carburetors
Appletons (sometimes Appleton spots) — spotlights, mounted on the A-pillars, similar to those used by police cars
Ardun — hemi heads for the flathead, designed by Zora ARkus-DUNtov
Baby moons — chrome small smooth convex hubcaps covering the wheel lug area. Full moons covered the entire wheel.
Barn find — newly discovered vehicle typically found in storage, either long forgotten or abandoned, still in its original condition from when it was first stored[citation needed]
Barn fresh — barn find
Big'n'littles - large-diameter rear wheels (or tires), smaller-diameter front ones
Blue oval — Ford product (for the badge)
Blue dots — Any taillight equipped with a blue crystal to give it a "purple-ish" appearance when illuminated. Illegal in many states.
Bondo — brand name for a body filler putty, often used as a generic term for any such product
Bowtie (sometimes Red Bowtie[citation needed]) — Chevrolet product (for the badge; the red bowtie refers Chevrolet Motorsport's logo)
Bugcatcher intake — large scoop intake protruding through hood opening, or on cars with no hood.
Bullnosing — replacing the hood ornament with a "bullnose" chrome strip or filling the mounting hole with lead.
Cabriolet (or cabrio) — vehicle with a removable or retractable cloth top, characterized by integrated door window frames and crank up glass.
Cherry — like new
Channeled or channeling — lowering a vehicle by cutting out the floor and mounting the body lower on the frame rails
Chopped — removing a section, usually of the window posts, to lower the roofline of a vehicle.
Cobra killers — decorative wheel centers that stick out 3–5 in  and have flipper qualities for more visual attraction.[citation needed]
Convertible — retractable top car with no integral door window frames like the cabriolet. Has roll up glass in doors as opposed to roadsters that do not.
C.I.D. (sometimes Cubic Inches or Inches) — cubic inches displacement
Crank — crankshaft[60]
Cutouts — stub exhaust pipes installed behind the front wheels that allow uncapping for noise and power. In the 1950s were home made from gas tank filler necks with gas caps and water pipes with screw on caps.
Dagmars — large front bumper "bullets" named for the actress
Deck — to remove trunklid handle and trim
Decked — trunklid handle and trim removed
Deuce
'32 Ford (most often a roadster); now commonly on A frame rails
rarely, 1932 model of any manufacturer.
Chevy II Nova
DuVall windshield — a v-shaped windshield with a center post, as opposed to the typical stock straight-across type
Elephant — Chrysler 426 Hemi (vs baby hemi)
Fat-fender — 1934-48 (U.S.) car
Flatty — flathead engine (usually refers to a Ford, when specified, the Mercury-built model)
Fordillac ("for di lack") — Ford with transplanted Cadillac V8 engine
Frenched Antenna sunken into the body or fender
Headlight slightly sunken into fender
Tail lights slightly sunken into body or fender
Gennie — genuine
Hairpins — radius rods
Hiboy (or highboy) — fenderless, but not lowered Distinct from gasser.
Hopped up — modified to increase performance
Humpback (or hump) —late 1930s sedans with a prominent trunk
Inches — CID
Indian (also "Tin Indian") — Pontiac (for the grille badge)
Jimmy
(usually) GMC straight 6
any GMC product, such as a compressor used on two-stroke diesel engines used as a supercharger.
Jugs - multiple carburetors (no longer common)
Juice brakes—hydraulic brakes
Lead sled — customized vehicle where lead has been melted and adhered to a metal body to smooth its surface, as filler. (Lead has since been replaced by Bondo.)
Lakes pipes — straight exhaust pipes that run along the lower edge of a rod, typically near the rocker panels, without mufflers. The name comes from their original use on cars used on dry lakes by land speed racers.
Loboy (or low boy, lowboy) — fenderless and lowered
Mag magnesium wheel, or steel or aluminum copy resembling one
magneto
Mill — any internal combustion engine on such a vehicle
Moons (or Moon discs; incorrectly, moon discs) — plain flat chrome or aluminum hubcaps, originally adopted by land speed racers. Smaller examples are "baby moons". Named for Dean Moon.
Mouse — small-block Chevy
Nailhead — Early Buick V8, named for relatively small diameter valves
Nerf bars — bumper horns
NOS — New Old Stock: original-manufactured part, never installed, often in original packaging.
Nosed — hood trim removed
Phaeton — 4 dr roadster; also called a touring
Phantom — body style or trim never built by the original manufacturer
Pinched rails — Deuce frame rails narrowed under a Model A (which has a narrower front body)
Pot — carburetor (commonly used for two-barrels)
QJ — Quadrajet (Rochester 4-barrel)
Q-jet — Quadrajet
Ragtop - convertible or roadster
Rake job — car with suspension modified to lower the front end
Rat —Chevrolet Big-block
Repop — reproduction (not NOS)
Resto — restoration, or restored
Roadster — two door with removable or retracting top, and no roll up side glass
Rockcrusher — Muncie M22 4-speed transmission
Rocket — Oldsmobile, in particular their early V8s. A reference to the marque's logo.
Sabrinas (Britain) — bumper bullets, similar to Dagmars. Named for British actress Norma Sykes ("Sabrina")
SBC — Chevrolet small-block engine
SBF — Small-block Ford, usually one of the Ford Windsor engines
Sectioning — removing an entire horizontal section of the body or top to bottom. Not to be confused with "chopping".
Shaved - Removing at least the door handle, possibly other side trim.
Shoebox — '49-'54 Ford or 1955-57 Chevrolet (for the slab-sided appearance)
Skirts — Covers installed on the openings on rear fenders
Slantback — sedan with forward-angled but straight rear window and sheetmetal. Also referred to as slick back, slicky, smoothback, smoothy. Distinct from straightback. Also see humpback.
Smoothies — chrome steel wheels with no brake vent holes. Usually with baby moons or spiders.
Sombreros — '47-'51 Cadillac hubcaps[90]
Souped (souped up) — hopped up, performance improved (more common in 1940s and 1950s)
Spiders — decrotive chrome insert covering the bearing grease cover and lugs nuts.
Spinner knob — egg-sized knob mounted on the steering wheel to assist rapid turning;[citation needed] also "suicide knob"
Steelies — stock steel rims
Stock — original equipment
Stone stock — all-original (usually referring to a project's starting condition); unmodified ("'53 Merc with a stone stock 350").
Stovebolt — Chevy straight 6
Straightback — sedan with vertical rear window and sheetmetal. (Known as squareback in the VW community.)
Street rod — A modified car licensed for use on streets and highways.
Studillac ("stewed i lack") — Studebaker with transplanted Cadillac V8 engine
Taildragger — lowered more in the rear than front. Often seen on leadsleds. Often a regionalized trend.
Tin Indian — Pontiac (for the grille badge)
Tire Lettering - A tire modification that allows you to put letters and writing or colors like red, yellow, or blue in the place of the white strip on traditional Whitewall tires.
Toploader — Ford 4-speed manual transmission
Touring — phaeton
Track T — Model T roadster built in the style of a dirt track race car
Trailer queen — pejorative term for pure show cars which are never driven
Tri-Five — 1955, 1956, or 1957 Chevrolet
Tuck-and-roll — upholstery technique creating a "pleated" look
Tunneled — deeply sunken into fender
V-butted (or vee-butted) — with windshield center post deleted, original panes meeting in the middle[97] (distinct from fitting a one-piece windshield), or to make such a change ("the windshield was vee-butted", "he vee-butted the windshield")
Vicky — Victoria body style
Wide whites — wide-stripe whitewall tires, typical of the 1950s, as opposed to modern ones.
Woodie — Typically a station wagon manufactured by most of the major manufacturers where much of the body behind the firewall was replaced with wood construction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custom_car#Paint

1 comment:

  1. Excellent list! Pretty comprehensive. The only nit to pick is the Buick nailhead description which is only partial. The "nailhead" appellation refers to the vertical valve stems as well as the small size.

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