On my old "phantom" '32 Sedan Delivery, I had considered... DROPPIN' A DEUCE Delivery Dookyville, NY...and with some big # 2's on the doors
I knew a guy with a beater who named it, "Start, you bitch!" The VW in my avatar is Old Green, named by a previous owner years ago, and the name stayed with it. The bodyshop I took it to screwed up and, for some unfathomable reason, decided to paint it black. My 1978 Kubota B7100 is named Roy for the original owner, a friend of the family for years. It wasn't until after he passed away that I found out he worked on the Manhattan Project, so his tractor takes on a special meaning to me.
For me names seem to just happen. Usually it is the personality of the car, they all seem to have one. I don't always set out to name one. I had an old Merc once that everyone called Emily. To this day I have no idea why. It may have happened on a wild substance driven night.
Unless it's a real race car or a real Custom, if a car is named, it is named by others not the owner The car earns it's true name. Back in Highschool there were such cars... Shitty Shitty Bang Bang Soul Glow Blue Haze Stinky Toothless Wonder
When I was one of 5% of people to make it through a life threateneing cardiac issue 7 years ago, the doc called it an Idiosyncrasy. I looked up the definition to see what he was talking about. a distinctive or peculiar feature or characteristic of a place or thing. Since my Henry J has the peculiararity of being made into a unibody on'74 Pontiac Ventura drivetrain and platform and full interior,(previous owner) '56 Dodge tailights, first series corvair front bumper, go-kart steering wheel, Golf cart rear view mirror, ... etc. I decided that what Idiosyncrasy should be it's name intstead of my first thought of Hairy Cherry. So Idiosyncrasy it is. Harry Cherry (henryjcars.com) page 1 Harry Cherry (henryjcars.com) page 2
My dad's knick name in the service was "Link" He and I didn't always see eye to eye in my teen years but we always had our love of cars to link us together, When he passed I was finishing my 30... After the estate was settled there was a little bit left to help me get the car done... It's my link to him... So the car is called "Link" Chappy
LOL I have called most of my bikes bitch at one time or another. I always worked second or third shift when I was younger. I came out from a bar at closing time one night and my bike had "Night Creature" painted on the top of the tank. They have all been called that since. I have lost count so my current bike is called "Night Creature Too" LOL
In order to catch the school bus, we 6th graders had to walk up the the high school to catch the bus. This was in 1960. A great portion of the high schoolers cars were named. Brown 37 chevy coupe had Maverick written in old western lettering. We had 2 '38 Buick sedans...one had Elliot Ness on the front fender, just behind the front wheel and the other one was named Untouchable with a little caricature of a gangster in an overcoat with smoke coming out of his machine gun. A guy with a dark blue 51 Merc lettered Naked Crotch low on his fender. The next time I saw that car the name was primered over. I was thinking of naming my 34 Vera Lynn. She was a British singer during WWII and her signature song was We will meet again, sung to the troops. Naming your car in my little town had nothing to do with racing, it was just a thing we did on our street cars
Saw a red Tesla with the license plate RED PILL. If you are a Matrix fan, you will get the reference!
My daughter named the 48 when she was 2 or 3 after she heard someone call it that little red truck. She ended up calling it little and that has stuck for the past 48 years. We used to have a 1 ton Chevy 4x4 Chevy crew cab that got called Big. in 1969 When I was at Ft Hood Tx some of the other guys started calling my 69 Cutlass the Gray Ghost but that didn't stick after I got out of the army.
I've called my cars lots of names, but never named one. Always seemed kind of lame to me. But if that's what turns your crank go for it.
I call my project "Final Exam". I've never been able to completely build a car from the ground up, even though I've worked on cars for over 55 years. My retirement build will be a culmination of everything I've learned through the years. The car itself won't be named, I don't think, but you never know.....
When I was a kid in the 50's my friend had a great 40 Ford that he named and painted on the side "CC Rider" his girlfriend didn't like it, her name was Carolyn Castoe .
I saw a car with this on the trunk and it has stayed in my mind since the sixties. It is" Veni Vidi Vici" Latin for I came. I saw I conquered
Welll... My '36 five window was giving me fits, tranny just wouldn't go in. Spline was fighting me, and I was calling it names... Matter of fact, my Mom came outside and told me if she heard that WORD again, ("THE word") she was gonna paint it on my car! I acted coy, and challenged her: "What word, Mom?" She hissed, "That...'Obscenity'!" I got it all together, nice 274" flattie, Zephyr 25 tooth gears, it ran great. All done, mechanically. Took it over to my friend Shannon, (the pin striper) and had him write a name on it. Shannon stood in the rumble seat compartment, and lettered the name on the rear of the top, visible for all to see. The name? "OBSCENITY" Yeah, driving up to girls' houses dictated some 'discretion'...
I have named several of my cars/trucks. 1972 Chevy truck "Homer" (he let me down in the Texas panhandle once),1957 LCF truck "Benny", 1959 Impala " Marilyn" see's a real doll, 1977 Chevy truck "Penny" a color thing, 1964 Suburban " Julio" came from east LA.
The widow of the previous owner called this car The B before it ever came to our family. It was originally a Model B (now a V8), so that made sense. We've called it The B ever since. My wife and daughter sometimes think The "B" means something different when she is acting up.
I remember seeing a 1970 Fury beater running around Clark AB when I was stationed there 1985-1988. Painted on both quarter panels was Gumby saying "Surf Ski Swim Naked!". Everyone knew it as The Gumby Car.
The only one I ever had that got named was my black '65 Ford pickup and that came by way of our twin girls when they were playing in the bed and discovered a primer spot in the top of the cab where I had filled in a hole for a Motorola radio antenna. They started call the truck spot and it seemed to stick, even we started talking about spot like it was the family pet, heck even my friends called the truck spot. I haven't named any other cars or trucks but I have called them names! HRP
The Jalopy Journal
