I ran across a December 1952 Popular Science the other day. A bunch of cool articles. I scanned the best of them and I'll post some of them. To start with here's a 1952 dictionary of hot rod terms. To save bandwidth here I've uploaded them to my site. Here's the link: http://www.creativeoutlet.info/hotroddictionary.html
Cool! Thanks for sharing! Interesting that (even as the article suggests) our language has evolved so much.
We referred to sectioning as the cutting out of a strip, from front to back of the body, from the area between the bottom of the door window opening and the the rocker. We used the term rail to refer to a dragster. That might have been a local thing, but I don't think so. Bob
...and he uses the "gook wagon" in the context of seeing a "rat-rod" with stupid stickers/skulls/maltese crosses/flaming exhaust/squashed tooo fucking low stance/tractor grills/dice.....uhhh, and whatever else hanging off of them. I've become a hot rod snob.
The earliest rear Z'd frames were done during Model T days. The period T modification articles describe various ways to Z a frame. The earliest front and back Z'd frame that I know of was done in 1932. That car was shown on a episode of Dennis Gage's MCC. He called it "the first street rod", and I guess he was right in calling it a "street rod". It fit the definition shown for "street job". I don't know that it was the first, though. BTW, the earliest use of the term "street rod" that I've come across was in a 1955 magazine, describing a '36 Ford coupe that was both customized and hot rodded with a modified engine.
If you look at some of the Jeeps and Buses that drove around Korea during that war you'd understand "Gook Wagon".
Absolutely outstanding. I have always been intrigued with hot rod slang. I worked on a dictionary of terms many years ago - since vanished. I am going to start using gook wagon and stick a foot in the pot. Mike
This is from an old magazine called Car Exchange from about the 1980's or so. I hope everyone can open these.
The Jalopy Journal
