Hot Rods Why do people call...

I think that the first time I heard wheels called rims it was by low riders, I always thought rims were the circular part of a wheel. As in "Buick rims with Merc centers". Now they seem to call them "bands"
When was the last time anyone called an automatic transmission a "slush box"?

 

Actually I guess MIKE VV started it. Thanks Mike.

 

powerslide, or lunge-o-matic??

 

"What if C-A-T spelled dog"

 

I can't believe I read this whole thread.
I think I need an Aspirin

Or maybe I should say I need an acetysalisilic acid tablet.

 

To digress, I never heard 'chunk' before I was a HAMBer. We always called a drop out rear gear a 'pig'.
Nowadays, I specialize in 'Quickies'.
Take that for what it's worth.

 

Rims is rims. For 100s of years, the outer part of a wheel was called a rim. How can that be a new thing?
What I never fingered out was why a differential is called a 3rd member. I just know some SAE engineer thought that one up, but how many "members" are there? Three, five, ninteen? Duh. Gary

 

The rims are reversed. The entire assembly is a wheel

 

1st member, engine, 2nd member, trans, 3rd member?

 

No doubt , but are you sure they didn't reverse the center of the wheel assembly then? You know ,so they could get at it with a welder? ;-)

 

Really..Never had a problem with that one.

 

Speaking of dick jokes, here's a vintage one.

 

Got a guy a pinion seal today for his 4x4's front rear end..... possibly the same terminology as ones front back glass, my front rear u joint, as I say "everybody's normal till you get to know them".... but I got my dose of crow pie from a 80 + year old mechanic friend while in my 20s when he asked ... "is that your motorcycle (motor sick el) parked out front? I replied no, but didn't you mean my motorcycle & he replied no (motor sick el) ..... he then said you don't ride your bicycle (bi cycle) do ya ? Thought me a lesson. He was done wrenching & running his shop by those years. But never failed to amaze me with his mechanical knowledge & vocabulary skills. Flux

 

Why do most people call a Circular Saw a Skil Saw.?

 

The Ford Engine Company unavailable for comment..

 

Some days I really love this site

...

This is not one of those days Give 'em hell George!

 

50 years or so ago, in Southeastern Ohio, any and all aftermarket wheels were called "Mags". Wheel covers were all called "Hubcaps", and hubcaps that looked like mags were called "Semi Mags". Mags were cool. Semi Mags were not. Anybody else ever heard of Semi Mags? Or was it an Appalachian-only term of derision?

 

Never really thought about it much but in australia, we DO call it a dizzy and a carby but a third member is a diff centre. Also your ansen five slots we call jelly beans because the slot is jelly bean shaped!!!!

 

DAMN IT! I forgot all about Mr. Jinks.

 

A chunk is usually what I drop the day after consuming Mexican food.

 

I work with a guy, a real know it all, hai thinks hot rods, and lead sleds are the same thing.

 

If my dad's recollections are anything to go by there had been an intermediate term, "mag-alloy", referring to the material, at least in this part of the world. For instance, my dad had a "mag-alloy" Abarth sump (oil pan) on his Fiat 600. Thus "mag-alloy wheels" became "mag-alloys" and hence "mags".

Lately, however, the term "mags" has been used here to mean "unspecified wheel decorations used by persons of inferior social status", and takes in everything from BBS honeycombs to Halibrands to OEM or generic plastic wheel covers designed to suggest alloy wheels. The primary association isn't high performance, however, even on the usual optimistic imitation-of-imitation-of-innovation level, but low class. As both a car guy and a social egalitarian I find this usage extremely offensive.

I hate it when people, not knowing their ass from their elbow about a thing, immediately consider the perceived social status of the people involved before any other consideration.

 

I always heard "hog head" , Anyone see why that was probably started?

 

I need 2 Tylenols, I can't take asprin!
I read this whole crazy thing!!
It needs a new slant....

In the Northeast, we drive on Parkways and park on driveways!

 

Mags, wheels, rims... What bugs me is those ads we get here for those new-fangled cars that call wheels "alloys". Or "comes with air". Geez, I hope so, I don't like to wear an aqualung while driving.

 

i always liked the "non", named, conversations. usually enacted by best friends:
"grab the thing." [without pointing] he hands it to you
"i need one of those" [while driving on highway past a construction sight] talk turns to J.D. controls
"hey, thats cool" [walking past full swop meet spot] the person then steps in and picks the piece up.
mag, dizzy, rim, whichamacallit..............as long as it works.

 

"But ya doesn't hafta call me Johnson"

 

There is a wonderful bit in CS Lewis's "That Hideous Strength" where the benevolent sceptic McPhee says that men and women can't successfully collaborate at practical tasks because women seem to function perfectly well speaking a language which does not contain any nouns.

 

Be lucky we still call em mags. Being near Motown the names change a bunch. Dubs, hoops, rollers, skates, boots, rims, Daytons (pretty much any wire wheel), stickies (slicks and such). I'm sure there's more yet I seldom get the memo on changes. A couple weeks ago I mentioned anti-freeze is now "radiator fluid". I always thought the 3rd member thing was the differential being the 3rd of housing, axles, diff. Then there's "firewall" which is really the "dash panel" or carryover from the old "dash board". Dash was a nice reference to horse shit and the panel ahead of your feet was the dash board which kept it from getting kicked into the driver's area. Not hard to figure out why the OEMs don't call it a firewal, or at least not any longer. what we call a dash is called an instrument panel or IP for short, they call a firewall the dash panel. All of the knowledge on these pages, when combined with $1.84, will get you a large coffee at the Speedway gas station. That is if they're still called gas stations...

 

.......................That would be convenience store now.