Hot Rod terms that are no longer in common usage

Yea on the tire thing me and a buddy had a '59 belair for a while when i was in highschool. We put some fat dirt track tires on it and radiused the quarters for cleanance. I had dated a gal whose dad was a sign painter so I pulled it up to his shop and he lettered "The Big Meats" over the tires on both sides.

It ended up causing us some problems with the local constabulary (what didn't), something about obscenity or the like and we ended up selling the car.

We used to say an old sick woman off a bed pan or wouldn't pull the hat off your head.

How about ya wanna hook 'em up? I say that to people now days and they look at me like a cow lookin' at a new gate.

 

And the there was "Let's blow this Popsicle stand"

"Hey man, give me four bits worth of Go Go Juice"

 

Hit the hooks throw out the anchor = step on the brakes

 

My car club in the fifties was the Trompers.

 

'Gettin the traction, ridin' the clutch , my pressure plates burnin' and a' she's too much
Sometimes terms evolve - like LSD ...

Have Fun

 

Enshrined in movie history is Robert Mitchum's remark to the effect of "I bought the car for the mill...". Thunder Road from 1958.

 

Nicely done!

 

I have never understood the whole 3/4 cam nomenclature ?????????????

 

How about-Haulin"A" or Churped-meaning a little tire spin noise after banging a gear ​

 

It had to do with how radical the cam was a full race cam was pretty basically not streetable where as a 3/4 cam was just pretty stout.

I have an Engle 153 296 duration .500 lift it was probably considered to be a 3/4 race cam.

I'm guessing that it was easier than explaining the lift, duration, overlap, lobe separation etc to someone to whom none of that made any difference.

Its like trying to explain Chanuka to a Baptist.

 

How about "a leg out of bed" to describe an engine block with a hole in the side and a rod poking out?
I still have some older customers, mostly ladies from south of the state line, who refer to the throttle as the foot feeder - I am told to differentiate from a hand throttle as on T. They also use the term gas hand for the fuel gauge and every noise a car makes is a pop - doesn't matter what sort of noise it's a pop.

 

What does it mean to "re-work" the suspension? At what point is your suspension "re-worked"? I heard that said of that Gary Howard/Jimmy Vaughn 54' Ford.

 

"Wont pull a fat girl off a tricycle"

 

that sounds like S Carolina.

The wife and I went for a drive when she got home from work, and she used one I haven't heard in ages. I was bitching about not being able to see out of the little econobox we were in and she said, " It isn't any worse than that Hammered coupe we had when we were kids."

hammered=chopped

 

Thanks Don....I'm loving origins.......

 

How about "pedal to the metal".
Some cars don't even have metal any more, and the throttle is a sensor???

 

"flippin a bitch" doing a tire burning cookie.

"slammin iron" hitting the mechanical brakes hard (i know some of you had mechanical brakes).

"yankin a brody" pulling the emergency brake hard when slammin iron isn't doing the job.

 

If you wanted a "fine short" it had to be nosed, decked and shaved, dumped front and rear, runnin' twice pipes with dummie spots and four bars. Then you ready to cruise and listen to the Wolfman...

 

Oh stewardess, I speak jive.

 

The body is cherry.

 

Skirts
Connie kits
Wolf whistles

 

Its a personal favorite...

 

"gimme 2 bucks worth of ethyl" - what you used to asked for at the gas station. Which now will get you a dumb look and enough unleaded gas (that you pump yourself) to get you to the end of the block.

 

Pagina and Gow job seem to be a match.............

 

Wide Ovals (tires), Flop Tops(convertibles), Bubble Skirts, and Scavenger Pipes

 

You are very tough man.

 

at the gas station... "a couple of dollars of Ethyl please"
i guess if i would've read all 11 pages, i would've seen that bill already said that...

 

How about the Bermuda bell

 

nosed; chrome removed from hood
decked; chrome removed from trunk
shaved; chrome removed from sides
Thanks 1stGrumpy, I thought I had lost it!

 

headaches = headers, as thats what we always got trying to fit them in
put a deuce in the tank = $2 worth of gas (try that today)
may pops = bald tires that may pop at any time