Just wondering exactly what someone is refuring to when they call a model A an A Bone and where did the term come from The first time I heard the term I thought it was refuting to a bone stock A but now I am not sure Any help understanding this term Thanks
Used it for almost 60 years since one of my buddies would drive his A Bone roadster down his families driveway and park it and ride the bus to school when we were 13.
Tuff to find out why they call it that but perhaps it may have meant 'A-Bone' referred to a bone stock Model A as you said...then it got fun to say the Ole A Bone...Hey @roder1935 you have one... A-Bone: slang for the Model A Ford, which was produced between 1928 and 1931. http://www.onallcylinders.com/2013/02/01/hot-rod-a-z-the-ultimate-hot-rod-glossary-we-think/
We get it around here its very Traditional like apple pie......I call mine the Ole Jalopy...The Fordbarn says they called stripped down 'T's T bones...so A bone was a transition from that?...Maybe it had something to do with accidents like a T bone accident. Theres many old timers here lets see what they drum up. One thing for sure if you were anywhere but amongst the Hamb Crowd and were talkin about A bone's or A Boner's and Hot Rod's people might look at you funny...
I could not think of any where else to ask a question like this I have only heard the saying A Bone from guys older than myself and I am 55 years young thanks for your input
Great question lots of definitions of that it is a Model A Ford but origin...why would one want to know that... Bangers and Abones Theres a few Hambers who may know right @a boner and @flamedabone ...whats your fellas thoughts other than it is in fact a Model A Ford?
I'm not old enough to know, always though that it referred to a A or T that had been stripped to the bare bones to make it faster, cheapest speed parts ditch anything that's dead weight. The fenders & running boards are the first to go leaving the wishbones exposed???
A bone , A bomb , gow job. Jalopy or Hot rod call em what ever you like just gota love them Model A's
I always assumed it was a follow on from the dog bone gizmo that sat with the radiator cap on the early model A's was the source of this term. I was also of the opinion that split radius rods were called bones. I think some junkyards in the old days were called bone yards as well....
Lots of the origins of sayings you hear like that are lost to the ages. Whoever first said them are long dead and gone, so we'll never know.
I first heard the term "A-bone" when I was about 11 or 12 yers old and that would have been around 1957 or 1958. I had stopped by on my bike, at my last-year's teacher's house in the Summer. Her son had a Model A in the driveway and I was asking questions about it. He refered to it as an A-bone and for some reason, I never forgot him telling me that. I thought it was pretty cool......
Eh...Bon A pe T to... I am surprised...but not that a somewhat popular slang term for a favourite Hotrod base has recognition but no defined origin. Kind of like some of the past Hotrods and Customs there is one or two pics, its gone and no trail to follow. Lifes like that...I still am interested in the continued responses. It could very well have been the a splitting of the wishbone of a Model A and then they become bones but could correctly be called A-bones and then transtioned through some pleasant beveraged discussion to just calling the whole kit and kaboodle an A-bone.
A good question to post on fordbarn where the posters are older. I would like to know the answer also. I have been into Model A's since 1962 and the expression seems to have always been around. Charlie Stephens
It was posted Charlie and there are similar references one being it was more a Hotrodder thing...see link below https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12805&highlight=A-bone
I was driving a v8 A-bone to school in 1959 so the term was common then. I always thought it was just a continuation of the T-Bone moniker given to model T's. I also thought the T'Bone name was just something someone thought up relating to T bone steak which was very popular in those days.
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