A little help with terminology for the FNG...Please

Hey don't get to pissed, but sometimes I am pretty clueless on what everyone is saying on here most of the time(details anyhow)...
I've been in Japan since I was 17, and my family wasn't into cars when I was growing up. So I've had to learn everything on my own. I consider myself a gearhead but it is definatley not in my genes.
Anyhow, if someone could just do a little rundown on some of the terms for me...I know these are simple things you all know, and probably can't understand why I can't figure it out...but here it goes...channeling, bobbing, section, rpu, and there is a few more. I'm pretty sure I know what most of them are, just not 100% sure...A little help please, and the bashing to a minimum...thanks...

 

channeling is when you cut "channels" in the floor for your frame to sit up in. so u get that lower look with out having to loose suspension travel. rpu is rodster pick-up a truck with out a top in lamens terms. ill let some of the other guys take over since i suck at typing.and i cant spell my own name half the time. "highschool drop out" = me a little added term for ya haha

Bryan

 

Channel means to lower the body over the frame.

bobbing means to shorten something. Usually fenders.

sectioning is removing a middle part of the body. Like a horizontal section of the body down the side. Does that make sense?

RPU is a roadster pick up.

Let us know if you have more.

 

WFO= wide freakin' open
WTF= what the frick
FUBAR= fouled up beyond all recognition
squirrel piss= WD-40

what was the one for a distributor agian??
that was a good one.

 

Check these out. I almost bought the dictionary the other night just to put on the shelf. The SOB is FULL of every term ever used in automotive modification.

These should get any newbie off to a good start.

JH

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0760318239/qid=1090120748/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9215734-0932902?v=glance&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0760309000/qid=1090121046/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-9215734-0932902?v=glance&s=books

 

Thanks...I appreciate it...Dave

 

Here's something I did for a magazine...

It's a little tongue in cheek but it pretty much covers most of the more "traditional" Hot Rod terms.

***A-Model – Arguably the most popular basis for a Hot Rod, the A-Model or Model A was manufactured by Ford between 1928 and 1931. Also referred to as an A-Bone.

ARDUN – An overhead valve conversion for the sidevalve Ford V8 originally designed by the Arkus-Duntov brothers (yes, the Corvette guy) to improve the performance of Ford trucks. Hot Rodders very quickly discovered its advantages and soon started setting records on the dry lakes and drag strips.

Banjo Wheel – A type of steering wheel quite often retro fitted to earlier model cars. The most popular source being the ’39 Ford.

Beehive filter – A cast alloy finned oil filter, cylindrical in shape with rounded ends, kind of like a beehive.

***Belly Tank – Originally used as auxiliary fuel tanks for WW2 fighter craft, it wasn’t long before Hot Rodders figured out that were probably the most aerodynamic thing around. With some very clever engineering, a chassis, engine and driveline were stuffed inside the old fuel tank, a set of wheels were stuck on the side and it was time to go racing.

Bigs and Littles – Big wheels and tyres go on the back. Little wheels and tyres go on the front.

***Blue Dots – A small blue jewel that is fitted to brake and tail lights to give the light a more crimson colour. Trust me, they look cool.

Carson Top – Originally a lift off padded roof made by the Carson Top Shop and fitted to convertible cars. Now a generic term for any padded top fitted to a custom car.

Channelling – The process of hacking the floor out of your Hot Rod and lowering the body over the chassis rails. You then have to figure out how to put the floor back in.

Chassis – The skeleton of the Hot Rod. The part that all of the driveline and suspension bits bolt to and stop your body from dragging along the road.

Chopping – Pretty obvious really, but just in case, the process of lowering the roof height of the vehicle. Originally done to cheat the wind on the dry lakes, but now quite often done just because it looks tough.

Cowl – The part of the body between the firewall and the leading edge of the door. Primary use is as a suitable place to mount stickers.

Custom – A car modified more for looks than performance. Ideally the modifications improve on the original design, but this is sometimes not the case.

Decking – Removing the handles, badges and other shiny stuff from the boot of a vehicle for a smoother look (and so the polish rag doesn’t get caught).

Deuce – What people in the know call a 1932 Ford.

Dickie Seat – Fold up seat fitted to the rear of coupes instead of a boot. Great for freezing small children on long road trips.

***Digger – Another name for a dragster with a front mounted engine.

Dirt Trackers – Big, fat, block tread tyres usually seen on speedway cars, but equally at home on the back of a Hot Rod.

Dual Quads – Two four barrel carburettors.

Dummy Spots – Non functioning spotlights mounted to the windscreen pillar as a custom car accessory. Why? I don’t know.

Duvall Screen – Laid back two piece windscreen designed by George Duvall to emulate the look of much more expensive cars. Also looked much better than the upright original versions.

Edelbrock – Vic Edelbrock is a Hot Rodder who pioneered the aftermarket performance industry. Starting with his twin two barrel “Slingshot” manifold for the Ford flathead before WW2, the company has grown into one of the best known in the auto aftermarket world.

Fat Fendered – Term of endearment for cars built between 1935 and 1948.

Flathead – The engine that brought V8 power to the masses. In production from 1932 through to 1953, the flatty has powered many a famous Hot Rod and is once again gaining popularity. Also a term used for any engine with the valves located in the engine block.

***Flippers – Fancy hubcaps usually found on factory cars of the mid to late ‘50s, but quite often “acquired” by the younger generation for fitment to their Hot Rods and Customs. Also called Fiesta or Lancer caps as they were originally fitted to Oldsmobile Fiestas and Dodge Lancers.

Five Window – A coupe body style with five windows. Don’t count the one on the front, that is a windscreen.

Frame – Another name for a chassis.

Four Bars – A method of locating the axle so that it stays where it should be. First used on race cars but became popular on Hot Rods in the late ‘60s.

Frenching – The technique of sinking something into the body of the car. Usually headlights, taillights and antennas receive this treatment.

Gasser – Popular class of drag racing in the ‘60s distinguished by nose high stance and rear tyres sticking well outside the guards.

Graffiti Coupe – The yellow Deuce 5 window coupe that starred in the film “American Graffiti”. Credited with making Hot Rodding popular again in the ‘70s.

Hairpins – Another form of axle location. Designed to replace the original style wishbones and allow more space in the chassis to fit bigger engines and gearboxes.

Hemi – The greatest engine ever. Originally designed to haul around big old Chrysler products in the early ‘50s, the ever vigilant Hot Rodders soon discovered that stuffing one into a light weight body added up to some major fun. Records soon started to tumble and the basic design is still being used today in the fastest and quickest cars in the world.

Hiboy – A car with its fenders removed. This was usually done to remove weight and reduce drag while racing. Now it’s just done because it looks cool.

Hot Rod – A car built to go faster, stop sooner and look better than the factory ever intended. We do prefer it if it was built before 1949 though.

I-Beam axle – Type of solid axle used under most cars until the early ‘30s or in Ford’s case, until 1948. Called and I-beam because that is what it resembles.

Iskenderian – Ed Iskenderian, legendary Hot Rodder and founder of ISKY Racing Cams. Still owns and drives the Hot Rod he built in the early ‘30s.

Jalopy – A term quite often used to describe the cars that raced speedway in the ‘40s and ‘50s but also quite often used to describe Hot Rods that are finished to less than show standards. Think Beverley Hillbillies with less farm animals.

***Jimmy – A term of endearment for the GMC (General Motors Chevrolet) 6 cylinder engine. These big old engines, some were as big as 302 cubic inches, were pulled out of pickups and quite often fitted with up to 5 carbies. More often seen in Customs than Hot Rods, they are rarely seen today.

Juice brakes – Hydraulic brakes, which by the way, were a brand new invention for Ford in 1939. Up until then Henry had always stated that “There’s nothing like the feel of steel from pedal to wheel” or something like that.

K-Member – Part of the chassis shaped like a “K” used for mounting pedals and gearbox. Also assists with strength.

Kick Up – The amount that the chassis rails have been raised to effectively lower the car. e.g “It’s got a 6 inch kick up in the rear.”

Lakes racing – Find a big empty lake, it can be salt or dry clay, mark out a really long straight track, then go as fast as you can. That’s lakes racing. Best place to do it in Australia is Lake Gairdner, but the Mecca is Lake Bonneville in Utah, USA.

Lakes pipes – Exposed pipes that run outside the car along the chassis rails. Originally designed for extra performance while lakes racing, people soon figured out they looked cool too.

Lead Sled – Another name for a custom car. The term refers to the amount of lead used as filler for all of the custom bodywork. Equivalent term today would be Bog Sled or Filler Sled, but they don’t rhyme, so we don’t use them.

Merc – No, that the type of Merc that your Grandad used to drive. The Merc we are talking about is a Mercury, more often than not the ’49-’51 models, although Mercs from just about any era are favourites of customisers.

Moon discs – Spun aluminium full wheel covers originally designed by Dean Moon to assist lakes racers with aerodynamics. Moon also sold the “baby Moon” which was a small, smooth and chromed centre cap designed as an alternative to the factory hub caps.

***Nailhead – Nickname for the Buick V8 engine that was first introduced in 1953 and grew from 322 cubes all the way to 425 (there was a 264, but we won’t count that), it was a favourite amongst Hot Rodders and drag racers. It is quite easy to pick out in a crowd of small block Chevs by its vertical rocker covers.

Nerf Bars – Bumper bars were also quite often removed to save weight and to clean up appearances. In their place quite often were fabricated tube bumpers or nerfs.

***Newstalgia – A style of Hot Rod that mixes new technology with a nostalgic look. For instance, you might run wide whitewalls and painted steel rims, but under the hood you’re running a fuel injected late model engine with air and power steering.

Niekamp Roadster – The very first winner of the America’s Most Beautiful Roadster (AMBR) award.

NOS – New Old Stock i.e. GOLD! Original factory parts, quite often still in the original wrapper.

Nosing – Don’t like that bird on the bonnet. Sick of getting polish out of the badges. Then nose your car. Get rid of them.

Offenhauser – Very famous engineer that designed one of the greatest speedway and Indy engines and another pioneer of aftermarket speed equipment. Nothing quite says Hot Rod like a set of finned “Offy” heads on your flathead.

Patina – defn : The sheen on any surface, produced by age and use. Well, that just about sums it up. If you’ve got a cool car that’s a little worn out, then it’s got patina baby!

Pinching – To narrow a section of the chassis so that it better fits the body. Usually performed when fitting a ’29 Ford body onto a ’32 Ford chassis.

Pinstriping – Very difficult art form of applying thin lines of paint by hand to accentuate lines and features of car.

Quick change – A two speed diff centre that allowed you to change the final drive ratio to suit drag racing or lakes racing. Plus they look and sound cool.

Rat Fink – Lovable rat like creature designed by Ed Roth. Has adorned thousands of T-shirts since the 1960s.

Rat Rod – Usually a Hot Rod with an excessive amount of patina and some less than ideal engineering principles.

***Repop/Repro – Another name for reproduction parts. These days you can start off with absolutely no original parts and build a complete car using all brand new repro parts.

Roth – Master artist, sculptor and custom car builder that brought such amazing creations as the Beatnik Bandit, Mysterion and Orbitron to the world.

Roadster – Any model of convertible car without side windows. Most also have a fold down windscreen, but not all of them.

Rumble Seat – See Dickie Seat.

Sectioning – A very difficult customising technique that involves removing a horizontal section of the car body effectively narrowing the profile. Make sure you have plenty of cutting discs and welding rod before you start!

Sidevalve – or Sidey. Another name for the Flathead Ford V8.

Solids – A style of wheel first introduced by Ford in 1940 and quickly adopted by Hot Rodders to replace the wire type wheels that were most common at the time. As well as looking more modern, they were also much stronger.

***Stovebolt – Inline 6 cylinder that powered Chevrolet cars from 1929 right up to 1955 when the 265 V8 was introduced. Chevrolet still offered the Stovebolt for many years, but Hot Rodders weren’t really interested any more.

***Suicide – A method of mounting the front axle ahead of the chassis. This gives the benefit of lengthening the wheelbase and allowing the car to sit lower at the front. Most often seen on T-Buckets.

T-Bucket – No, not every Hot Rod you see is a T-Bucket. The “T” is for Model T Ford and the “Bucket” is the body style which consists of the passenger compartment and not much else. So if you see a 1934 Chevy Tourer drive past, it is most definitely not a T-Bucket.

Three Window – Same as the 5 window, but with two less windows. Remember, the windscreen doesn’t count.

Triple deuces – No, it’s not someone lucky enough to own three ’32 Fords. This refers to three two barrel carburettors all in a row. The carbs are usually Stromberg 97s.

Tub – Nickname for a Tourer or Phaeton body style. A four door convertible basically. Open air fun for all the family.

Tube axle – Similar to an I-beam axle but manufactured from hollow tube and quite often chromed (because it looks cool). Became popular in the late ‘60s and are best located by a set of 4 bars.

Tuck and Roll – Very popular style of upholstery pattern involving one or two inch vertical pleats.

Tudor – A two door sedan and yes, you do count all of the doors.

Undercarriage – The stuff you can’t see under the car. Very important to keep it clean and shiny if you want to win trophies.

Von Dutch – No, it’s not a clothing brand that Vin Diesel wore in Fast & Furious. In actual fact, an extremely gifted and eccentric pinstripe artist whose real name was Kenneth Howard. The “Flying Eyeball” is his most recognisable piece and was featured in much of his work.

Wires – Wire spoked wheels popular amongst Hot Rodders in the ‘30s and early ‘40s.

Wishbone – What Henry Ford originally had holding the front and rear axles in place. Sometimes they were split (split ‘bones) to make room and sometimes they were replaced altogether. See Hairpins.

Woody – A station wagon body style where everything from the windscreen back is made of wood. Popular amongst surfers in the ‘50s and ‘60s before Kombis were invented.

X-Member – aka Crossmember. A structure designed to strengthen and stiffen a chassis.

Y-Block -- The Ford engine that replaced the flathead in 1954. Very popular amongst Aussie Hot Rodders in the '60s until it was too replaced by the Windsor. Gaining some popularity again as Hot Rodders try to differentiate themselves from the run of the mill small block Chev.

Yellow – Great colour to paint your Deuce Coupe, especially if you can find the code for “Piss Yellow”.

Z-ing – Technique used to raise a section of the chassis to effectively lower the car.

Zoomies – Individual pipes that exit straight from the exhaust ports with no mufflers or baffles, just like a Top Fuel dragster. Quite often frowned upon by the constabulary and passing pedestrians.

 

ck out.WWW.roddingroundtable.com, on top row there is a "tech" section scroll down to Machine type info, lots of stuff

 

someone posted this here the other day

 

I went to the book store today and they had a book of hot rodding terms that I think was done by motorbooks...I cracked up and thought of this post right away. I did not buy it though.

 

Don't forget to fill him in on "Orcabetty"
PBR=Pabst Blue Ribbon
Coors=Rocky Mountain Goat Piss
Poser=Wannabe
The Salt=Bonneville
The Beach=Lions Dragstrip
The Patch=Bakersfield/Famoso
Drag City=Pomona (Several raceways have been called Drag City over the years but in the early 60's Pomona was it).

 

wheres the post germ did a looong time ago with all his words?tm

 

fng= i know more than you do
newbie=yeah i think i know what i'm doin
grenade inspecter= is that really where that goes
senior member=i better ask the fng

 

If the definitions tools eludes you as well, here's a less than helpful but amusing thread.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=898192#post898192

 

The Aussies call it 'the dizzy'

 

old school hamber: (no fuckin K here)

fur biscuit: close relative of bald headed cat

jalopy: vehicle that is operated by a jalopy'r (pronounced: "zha-lhap-ier" or how ever the hell he spelled it)

go job: (gow job) hot version of jalopy

guiness: mothers milk

 

Well if you do get a gearhead in your jeans I hope its someone of the opposite gender. There are some really good ones to choose from on this board. I kinda partial to Grim... Never mind he's married.

Most of the terms are self explanitory, and I don't doubt that someone has already answered them for you on this post, yea I'm too lazy to read the whole thing and don't feel like gettin' into a pissin match with someone who grew up at a different time and in a different part of the country today.

But here's one that got me when I was a little guy, and I'll just about bet that there is someone else if they were honset would say the same thing.

I think I was 5 or 6 when my dad got me my own subscription to R&C. Long story, but just for Jim's sake I still like R&C and I don't think he has hurt it a damned bit.

Anyway there used to be lots of mention of Lightening holes, but in my little mind I couldn't make the distinction between lightening and lightning. So for years I thought that a lightening hole should look like a thunder bolt.

I never could find them in the pictures. And I was too shy to ask.

So if you see something with a little thunderbolt shaped hole cut in it somewhere, it was probably me that done that and its a "lightning hole".

Not to be confused with a lightening hole.

 

Thanks for the link, JH. I bought the dictrionary just for kicks, it was only $3 on Amazon.

 

Nah - "Nosing" is badge/trim removal. "Peaking" is adding the raised feature/ridge down the center of a hood, trunk, roof, fender top, headlight ring, etc.

 

Hey KopyKat, Great thread and great question, and I'm glad you were man enough to admit you didn't know these things. It's kinda funny the things old timers take for granted and common lingo and assume everyone knows what the hell they are talking about. It's never too late to learn and I glad no one busted your chops for asking the hard questions. If you never ask, You'll never know. yruhot

 

What were you searching for that you "dug up" a 6 year old thread??

 

Funny you say that.
In New Zealand getting pissed means getting drunk.
Each country has it's own quirky sayings and words aye...

 

LIFESTYLZ, so help a guy out, is getting pissed off still better than getting pissed on?

 

HaHa. Yeah mate..

 

I always thought this meant eye candy, but slow as molasses. maybe it's just a regional thing.

 

(Hiboy – A car with its fenders removed. This was usually done to remove weight and reduce drag while racing. Now it’s just done because it looks cool.)

Nothin to do with be channeled vs un-channeled?

 

Post count?

 

This is great.

 

Well not car related, but thanks to a fellow HAMBER (Raunchy), he opened my eyes to a whole new world of crime I never noticed before.....a good eye opener for you while you are soaing all of this info in. When you see a camel toe you automatically assume its a...well you know. Actually they are low key members of a ring of yo yo smugglers. Sneaky sneaky!