Hot Rods Car words you learned from your dad or others.

I’m in the garage tonight, family is asleep, and working on my latest project. Bought this car without looking at it up close, but the car doesn’t matter in this story. As I looked closer I thought of my dad, who passed about 6 years ago. Noticed the car was sitting crooked, leaning to one side. His professional term for this was ketty-wampus. He loved that word and it always made me laugh when I was young, still does. Loved to say “pay attention and I will learn you something “. My dad was well educated and this was his way of disconnecting from his work life and this was the true him. He taught me about everything, plumbing, electrical, whatever. I never saw a repairman work on anything at our house or any of our cars, it was all dad. The man who taught me a lot about cars was a neighbor, extremely smart man but couldn’t say oxygen to save his life. Sounded like auctiongen. Did you learn any new words from your mentor that have stuck with you all these years?


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When I was growing up any time my dad would do something that worked out well he would always say “I learned how to do that in the Bahamas”.

He was never in the Bahamas.

 

Not any words,,,but a lot of ideas,,and techniques .
We had heavy equipment,,,and Daddy always repaired it himself .
Dozers and loaders,,,,,scrapers .
We had several dump trucks back then,,,if I remember the Fords had Y blocks in them .
Of course,,we had a Mack truck as well .
He still has that old B Mack,,,runs great !
The main thing he taught me was to pay attention and think it out,,,,I guess,,,sometimes it is better to stay silent .
He’s 91 and still the toughest man I know,,,,strong constitution,,,intellect,,,,you know what I mean ? Body is getting weak,,,but not the mind !

Tommy

 

My Dad said ketty wampus also.
He was a chevy man through and through and he liked to have fun, his favorite saying was that he kept a genuine ford starter behind the seat of his chevy( a 20' long chain) he used that phrase a lot.

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That won't work.

He said it, and it was correct.

Hard heads in my corner?

 

My dad called brakes binders, as in getting on the binders to slow down. Never heard it anywhere else.

Devin

 

Deuce. First time I heard it was “He’s playing in the Deuce” when my mom would be looking for me. We lived in rural South Dakota and the Deuce (my avatar) was parked in the Machine Shed. So when dad was working on tractors or whatever he would put me in the Deuce to keep me busy.

 

F U D G E !

 

Whenever we would look at a car to buy, he'd follow it to see if it would "crab" down the road. Cars that were hit hard enough to bend the frame would track where the wheels wouldn't line up back to front.

 

Had a mentor who taught me frame work and his favorite saying was " it's the same same number 10 water buffalo" when 2 things were alike like measurements.

Never heard it before or since, like to know where it come from, sadly never got the chance to ask.

 

My old man had a temper and probably not suited to working on cars,
the first thing I would do before I went near the shed was look for hammers ,spanners or other random things flying through the air. If it was safe to enter the shed some of the phrases he would vent through gritted teeth were, ''fuck'' , '' jeezus fucking christ ''and ''your not beating me you bitch''(normally when in the process of stuffing something up completely)
so for me these are car words passed on by dad

 

Dog-tracking...

 

I lernt words my mother didn’t like.

 

Titty pink, and asshole gray...

 

Quite a few.BUT,none that would pass muster here without getting me in trouble with the Boss(Ryan).
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

My old man worked with words, first he worked for newspapers then a Congressman the back to a newspaper then at 58 tought 3rd grade for ten years. As far as fixing things I have a memory of him sitting on the floor in front of the kitchen sink with his butt hanging out beating the hell out of the pipes under the sink swearing up a storm. We would have my grandfather fix things when they came for a visit, he could fix anything.
My passion for Fords came from dad though.

 

A common expression where I grew up in the Okanagan Valley in Central BC.
The name, sometimes even affectionately used to refer to any International truck as a Cornbinder, is the one that I found interesting. International was far better known as a manufacturer of trucks and tracked bulldozers, than for agricultural machinery.
Bob

 

"Make sure it's plum", "ain't my first rodeo", "it'll work", just to name a few. I could fill a book with Dad's short quips!! Oh yeah, another "katty wampus" guy.

 

My dad worked in a Ford store in sales and management so I grew up around cars and to the old man any car that didn’t work right for whatever reason was designated as a “poop”.

 

Same same = the same as. #10 = the worst, Water bufflao = mean
You huckin # 10 GI meant you were a lowlife

 

New paint was, "shiny as a diamond in a pig's ass".

 

You must have been a Vietnam vet to understand the lingo. Me love you long time, GI.

 

I can't drive this the gauges don't work. was the main thing I heard from my dad when I would want him to drive my truck or my 51 Merc somewhere. On a road trip to Texas back Bonneville and then back home he didn't drive a mile because the 51 didn't have a working speedometer or working gauges. He flat couldn't deal with a car that didn't have working gauges and the only thing that worked in the Merc was an under dash oil pressure gauge.
I don't remember one car term that I picked up from him though and he was a car guy from the get go.

 

"What are you going to do with that Bucket of Bolts ?" a statement my father usually made referring to the latest purchase either me or my friends had made. Or if I asked him if he had seen a tool or something I had misplaced he would usually say "You'd lose your balls if they weren't in a bag"

 

Trucks.....Fruitliners, Kwobblers , Corn Binders, pile drivers, Chivolays, my dad could fix anything, BUT, he also said....if you can't fix it, fuck it.

 

"Deuce & a Quarter" ( Electra 225) Dad taught me that one when I was little and stuck with me some 40 years. Probably only heard it twice ever from anybody else.

 

My Dad raced ,worked on cars his whole life, started in his uncles garage. Any of my cars or friends cars need someone to fix them, he would do so without fail. Never criticizing what we screwed up. Just a smile and a question “why did you do that”. His favorite terms were “rowbonder”-international truck, nazi footlocker- German cars , Dodge and Plymouth cars were “tin cans” . Miss him every day .

 

My Step-Dad had a welding shop on the farm and fixed things for others that couldn't. When he'd get something going his way on a job, he'd say, "That's slicker than greased snot on a glass door knob!"

 

When I was a kid in the Army Reserve, we called the 2 1/2 ton stake trucks deuce & a quarter.
Bob