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

My Uncle Wells called a glove box a Jockey Box. I still use that term on occasion.

 

My mechanic dad would put something together and if it slipped on and went together easily some bystander would always say “is it in “

And he would always say “that’s what the sailor said to his girlfriend “

I worked with him for 20 years and miss him everyday.

 

My dad was an aero-engine mechanics instructor during WWII and could make anything mechanical work like a charm. He was never too fussy about how good it looked however and would often say to me that "a man on a galloping horse will never notice!"

 

My dad is not a car guy. He called a mechanic....
I do remember my grandad, his dad, call it a bat-tree....you know the thing that goes dead when you leave the running lights on

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Can't forget about OL' Dad Gray Baskerville! He was a treasure trove of cool phrases......"Bitchin"


https://goodguysnewsarchives.com/le...y-baskerville-yer-ol-dad-hot-rod-journalists/

 

Looks like hammered owl shit

 

I heard it as “jury rigged”

 

It's good enough for who it's for.

 

Good enough for government work.

 

Might be a local/Wi./Midwest Machine Shop/ Tool & Die/Pattern Shop term, ( My trades) "Rube Goldberg" used describing, weird setups/projects/person/products. I heard this alot from my mentors/coworkers when I was a young man. Look him up on Wikipedia, interesting. Back in the days before all the CNC. CadCam technology, we definitely dreamed up off the wall stuff to produce what was needed to make it happen. It was a compliment when someone said, Don't worry, John will come up with some Rube Goldberg deal to make it happen.

 

Grew up hearing crank case, kittywampuss,bat tree,foot feed and others mentioned above. The one that made me chuckle and still does as my Dad(age 85) still uses is Warsh.
Warsh those parts in kerosene/gasoline/solvent.
Warsh the car.
Warsh your hands before you eat.
Must be a German thing.

 

Harder than the hubs of hell.

 

Don't

 

My father isn’t a mechanic. But all of my uncles are. And one of em. Who is 76 and a old school hot rodder always says “not bad for a couple of assholes, or “not bad for a couple of jerks” and things along those lines.


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"Son of a bitch!"
"This damn piece of shit''.
Gonna call my dad today. He taught me a lot!

 

What a pile of crap ! Won't repeat the others he used...

 

WAMPUS is universal to a variety of situations.

 

SILLYSUMBITCH

 

When I was the truck mechanic's helper, he had a saying when something was low on power. "It wouldn't pull a greasy string out of a sick bull's ass."

Another one used by some in the shop was, "exhilarator pump or pedal".

 

POS, usually followed by the sound of a wrench hitting the back concrete wall of the garage, taught me perseverance though, we were never done till it was fixed the right way. Never let me see me chuckle during the wrench throwing incidents I'll tell you that much.

 

Dad did not often speak badly about anyone but every once in a while he would call someone a "peckerwood". To this day I don't know what it means exactly but I'm sure it's not a good thing. I knew from his tone of voice to steer clear of a peckerwood. Shit fire and save matches was another of his favorites.

 

My Dad would say if something was crooked it was "wumpy-jawed", or "slanch-wise".

 

"Who do you think you are, Barney Oldfield?"

 

My dad was a quiet thinker when he worked on a project. It was often he would stop in mid-task while he thought up a better way to do something. Once in a while, out of the blue, he would say, "On the other hand.....(pause)..... there's a wart!"
He had us 4 boys and he wasn't afraid to use us. It wasn't unusual for him to say something to me like, "It's too dangerous for me to climb up in the rafters. Get on up there and hand me down that 'part' there."

 

My grandfather once made a great comment to my dad when walking by a VW Bug,

"A Volkswagen with dual exhaust? That's about as effective as a fart in a windstorm!"

 

My dad calls my old car the “corn cracker”
I have no idea what it means but i do know he picked it up from a guy he worked with in a Fina station in Quebec in the 70’s.

I learned body work from a little French Canadian guy named Andy while I was working my way through university. He had a lot of French Canadian phrases that should not be repeated and taught me how to measure in C-hairs. It was a high production shop with pretty low standards and he would look at a panel that that was good enough and say “only can do so much”.


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Old fella my dad hung around with would see something about to fall over and say “that’s about to go ass over teakettle”


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"Either fix it or fuck it up so nobody can".

 

Slower than cold tar on a rainy day in February.