The Cal-look Lounge

do you date yourself when you're talking VW stuff? I think it's funny when talking to somebody that was into VW's during a different era than me. A lot of times a guy will be talking about something, and by his terminology, I don't have a clue what the heck they are talking about. I'm stuck in my ways... I know... I just think it's funny.... you'll talk to a kid that's relatively new in the VW scene (maybe last 5-10years) and you'll hear terms like "Fuchs" or "airbagged", "fat chick" there you go, I don't know any new "VW lingo" really...I don't know what any of this means.... I'm stuck in the 80's and 90's.... still saying stuff like

"alloys"
"baby Dells"
"09"
"Claude's"
"quiet packs"
"chromies"
"nipple caps"

I guess it goes beyond what you call parts too.... it goes as far as what you know how to fix. If somebody brought me a CB fuel injection kit I would probably plug it into a wall socket in my house and burn it up. Same thing with a Zenith carb.... I'd stare blankly at the thing, but give me a Weber IDF or a Dell and I could probably make it run. When I got into VW's the big thing was wiring up amps and 12" speakers, but I was never well versed in that field either. My friends and I were too engrossed in trying to port heads with electric drills and bolt stingers on to piss off old people. 

hahaha see....? "CR" means "compression" to me and "Web" means cams.  ;D

how about "'vert", "duals", "slammed", "merged", "041's", "super cool tins", "Procars", "baby turbos"

See I thought CR's were old girlfriends of Carlos or Carlos Rejects ;) Shows what I know.

obviously not much..... those were guys

Did ya notice with the new lingo how fast it spreads on the internet?  Someone says something stupid and all of a sudden it is everywhere.  I mean, OMFG LOLZ!!!

 :D

Jim, if you knew how to tune Claude's injection, I'd probably punch you in the skull.

"patina" that's my favorite....hahahaha   translated it means "why bother waxing/polishing/painting this car?"

better suited to Antique Roadshow

you said nipple,hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can barely spell it.

You should slam it on earlies !


 :D

Nope, earliers are early alloy's. The ones with the little dimple by the valve stem, better known as hearts.

And I'm an old guy.

-jeffrey

I'm getting to the age where that is starting to sound pretty good to me -- -- of course it still better haul ass

nos   ;)

--louis

Now: Slammed... Then: Dumped, De-cambered or both.

To me a Vert is a Vert, bug a Ragtop is an early sunroof car... go figure.

~DR.

When this kid I was talking to in Vegas last year referred to a fat chick", I thought he was talking about my mom...

Ragtop is an old term for a vert. Probably from the 20's or 30's. Volks folk at some time modified it to mean a cloth sunroof.... go figure...

What eludes me is when early buses became "split windows". WTF? A Split Window VW is and has always been a pre-53 Beetle to me. I even had a '66 and I never referred to is as a "splitty"

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/566650.jpg)

(http://images.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/566656.jpg)

-jeffrey

I hate hearing that term. I hate '67 and earlier buses even more.

maybe "patina" comes fron Italian...
is an Italian word...(and has the same means...)

ouch!

-jeffrey

But I guess everybody understands that, except newbies or people outside the VW scene:

82x94, 044, 11,5:1, 44x37,5, 1:1,25, FK87, 1 3/4

I remember a cartoon from an old VW Trends mag.
Two guys were taking to each other, one said something like the above.
A third guy besides them had question marks over his had ans thought: "Line dancing?"

UK-based term, or actually "split screen".

Guess you need to differentiate "patina", like solid one-colour original paint, from "hood riddance"  ;)

The one of the most confusing term for me has been the "alloys", like why the hell Fuchs were called alloys and repro EMPIs called EMPI (instead of American Eagle which they mostly were) in magazines :)

The funny thing about the "alloys/Fuchs" debate, with everyone calling them "Fuchs " these days, I was able to snag a few low buck deals on e-bay.

Recently I was looking to put together a set of early 5.5" and 6" heart wheels for my '69. When I searched "fuchs" alot came up and bidding would often rise to where they were out of my price range [$300+] however when they were listed as Porsche "alloys", although there were fewer listings, I found the bidding wasn't as fierce and picked up a set of five between $150-250 each.

So in this case, I'm glad some of these new terms are flying around so much.

-jeffrey

That's clever.  Similarly, when I was looking for wheels for my car, I did an eBay search deliberately mispelling "Porsche."  There was actually a set of flat-6's that came up under "Porch wheels."  Sadly, I was outbid.  Guess someone had the same idea.

 ::) ;D

Longtime no hear of "2.0 Liter alloys" and rarely see them anymore either... they looks awesome on 4-lug cars.

I just realized I'm "OLD"   ::) :-[ :-\ :'(

while I had my oval stashed away for 10 to 15 years I've noticed a few changes since getting back into vw's.
still call em alloys and always will.
same with 2L's
dual qp's or dual cans
yeah, decambered!
67 and earlier busses are early busses.
claudes buggies made crappy stuff,  now CB performance makes the good stuff.
empi made the good stuff, now they make crappy stuff
scat, well enough said.  they haven't changed.
I guess that will do for now, my head hurts.

oh yeah Mark, a guy named Ken White had a 53 in dkk back in 78, but it wasn't finished.  he drove a dark blue 55 with centerlines and I think the plate was fasrnu.
jim

maybe it was spelled different, but he definately had a similar plate.  I'll have to look for pictures of his car.  it also had a 2L w/48's.

Mark, the term "Zwitter" comes from the vintage guys in Germany. I am now 20 years in the VW scene and we always called the splits w/Oval dash "Zwitter". I guess one of the english or american guys picked up the word, maybe because it sounds funny or he just liked it. Suddenly everybody uses that word and thats it.

Good example: The Empi Sprint Stars were actually german wheels, made by a company named "Lemmerz". 15 years ago nobody in Germany was interested in these wheels. They were just steel wheels from Lemmerz. You could have them cheap.... really cheap.  :D Then suddenly some journalist from a certain german VW magazine called the wheels "Empi Sprint Stars", because he learned new things about Empi and the whole US VW industry. It took a while but today nearly everybody in Germany refers to them as "Sprint Stars", even if they are originally from Germany and named "Lemmerz Stahlsportfelge".  And with all the vintage/Cal Look craze they are not cheap anymore....  ;D

I hope you mean "steel" wheels...

;-)
Dirk

Corrected, Master!  ;D

Funny isn't it! Some of the terms I use are ones that some of the older guys (sorry Mark!) don't! I've always called a distributor a dizzy, and I'd not heard of Fuchs being called Alloys until the Deeks came back. Zwitter I've heard of right from when I first got into Beetles nearly 15 years ago, same with pre-'67 buses being called splitties or split buses. Split bugs will always just be splits though!

What I don't like is the gangster crap like OG, slammed on earlies, patina, fat chick, etc. Or am I just getting old too...

 :-X  ::)











 ;D

Um... excuse me, but what is a "Fat Chick" in VW Gangsta terminology?

I'm guessing it's an OG car on earlies, slammed with extra patina sauce 8)

(Sorry, I'm an old guy)

~Dave

mmmm..... patina sauce.....

(http://www.cjvws.com/hosted/homerdrool.jpg)

-jeffrey

"Fat chick" I think started out as Super Beetles, and then eventually came to refer to any later-model aircooled after the big bumpers, etc.  Like 68+ Beetles, Bay Busses, 70+ Type 3's, and so on.

Is patina sauce the stuff you can feel the grit between your teeth?

Dizzy is a pretty stupid term. Is it dizzy cause it spins around a lot ::)

Does anyone have more information on those 356 style empi wheels? Do they have any stampings? Richard Roth are you there.

Zwitter is nothing new in the states.  I can recall referring to them as Zwitters back in the 80's. 
Dont get me started on OG.  Especially now that the big magazine has validated the misuse of the term by allowing it into print.  ::)

 I totally agree... I own a splitwindow... an early bug/beetle... not a box on wheels... call them splitscreen vans or whatever, but not splitwindows!!

Fuch will always be alloys
914 fuch will be 2L alloys
close ratio trans will alway be trick tranny's
and IDA's will forever just be known as 48's

Maybe i'm just old too but I cant bring myself to ever say dizzy either.

When you say Hearts - i think of early tail lights - the dizzy thing makes me dizzy - do we use USA slang or EUROPE slang ? Im too dizzy  ;D

gas burners... its a recently overused term or name... people are calling 4 lugs... gas burners or baby gas burners... I have always known them as mahles or pedrinis not baby gas burners or 4 lug gas burners... especially since there is a repro 4 lug gas burner now...

Anthony / ISP WEST   

Elaborate?  I saw the article on "OG" paint, but how was it misused?

I agree that baby gasburners is a dumb name.

As far as I know, OG stands for nothing but Original Gangster. I suppose people can use slang as they choose, but it not difficult to say original. Oh and saying Original German is redundant because our car are German, thus anything Original to them is german by defalt ;D

I always consider OG standing for Original German, not any of that dumbass rap crap talk.

yeah me too...  hearts are taillights

4-1/2" Fuchs have always been "'67 S alloys" to me

 Me too buddy....

  I call Fuchs Alloys
  I call 5 lug Gas burners Gas burners
  I call 4 lug burners Mahles
  I call heart Taillights Hearts
  I say split window or split for a bug
  I do say zwitter
  I like words like Sano and Clean
  How bout Honey Combs the taillight not the cereal
  I don't say dizzy
  I call patina Rust
  Ha Ha... how bout Hoodride
  Used to would call single cabs kombi's or parts haulers
  Fat Chicks aren't allowed (haven't you seen the stickers???)
  I have used terms like small window for early cars and big window for '65 and later
  I like 'T' bars, euro blades and full bumpers I even like Buggy Bumpers
  A large displacement engine can be a Lump
  I call IDA's, IDA's
  I like quiet packs single or duel I don't like the term Phat boy
  What the hell is with the swamp coolers???
  Porsche hubcaps are Nipples
  I like trigger shifters
  I remember Rossi's
  I call those german wheels Sprint stars
  I do call early sunroof ragtops
  I say vert for convertables
  How 'bout a poptop or a westy
  I call karmahn Ghias, ghias
  I say Heb for hebmuellars (sp)
 
  Jason
 

N.O.S. and NOS can be confusing. A friend of mine confronted me the other day and mentioned he had some NOS parts for sale; if i would be interested. Found out, it's for laughing gas!
Here's another. Got some tornados mounted on a set of TWM's! OOOhhh Yaaaa!

I'm right with you Jason...

We could have a conversation and actually understand each other :D

~Dave

You guys are probably sick of hearing me preach about this, but it really gets under my skin.

OG is original gangster. OG became a popular slang term and somehow it was adopted by the Samba audience.  The Samba tried to legitimize the term by saying it was "original german"...but it wasn't and isn't.  Besides, half the time people use "OG" to describe BRM's, Empi parts, and other speed parts or old wheels...none of which are German!    If you want to abbreviate "original" you do it like this - "orig." 

Slang is annoying enough on the internet, but one very basic rule of professional writing is that slang should not be used, especially slang that will be unfamiliar to a large portion of your audience.  Often times, slang is specific to a region or culture or age group.  For example the long time debate over "pop" or "soda"  In Ohio, people say pop.  In PA, they say soda.  If you were writing a magazine story, you wouldnt say either because they are both slang.  You could use a name brand like Pepsi, or simply say soft-drink.

When I was in high school, one of my buddies always described cool cars as "tits".  (That 57 chevy is just tits!)  Write a story about that 57 Chevy in a magaizine and use the term "tits" and half or more of your audience would be wondering what that means.  Of course, they could use the context to interpret the meaning, but you shouldnt expect your audience to have to do this. 

Anyway...off my soapbox.  I am in a mood today

Welp, I don't know about all of that, but the only thing I can think to say is pass it along to Hot VWs.
 I really don't know if too many car guys take the formatting of car magazines all that seriously -- I know I don't -- as one of my biggest pet peeves of some of the mags out there is they don't really have a lot of "grassroots appeal" in terms of their layout; I'm thinking in terms of Hot Rod and Car Craft and how different their layout and design is now as opposed to years ago. 
It looks too, I don't know how else to put it, "serious" and fancy pants in terms of its look. Reminds me of the "high tech" look that the "ricer" magazines initialized.
 I prefer magazines that are a little lighter in tone and nature, which is why I don't read publications like Excellence and European Car (actually, that's mainly because I'm not a Porsche guy, but whatever). 
For me, car magazines should be just like the gearheads that read them, simple, lighthearted and not something that a person's going to wear white gloves in order to read.  Which isn't to say that curb appeal isn't a good thing, I just don't like publcations that take themselves too seriously, as we're talking about Volkswagens here, not multimillion dollar Rolls Royce or exotic European luxury models.
But hey, that's just my two cents.  We all have our opinions.

Nahh, not bashing HVW's - thats a running gag between Deano and me...the whole OG thing.  For some reason that specific one just winds me up.  It just seems so made up, thats all. 

If everyone else can obsess about Fuchs/Alloys, I can obsess about OG. 

I loved Hot Rod too.  Now that Freiburger is back, it should get fun again.  With that being said, you can be light-hearted without butchering the english language.     

O.G. Dave...........What's the problem :D

Too much pop I guess. 

hehehe!!!!

I hear ya, Cornpanzer, I often get carried away in my responses... sometimes the mood just takes off with me.

Maybe this would be a good time to come up with a slang term for stingers: Bug Boners?   ;D

Ha!  I can get on board with that one!  ;D

because of Michael Jackson? The OG soul kid?

sorry... had to.

bye Dave,
JR

so you got time to fuck around on the lounge but you don't have time to reply to my emails???? you biatch............. >:( >:( >:(

Ok..... Back to topic............sorry guys!!!  sometimes you got to slap someone around.........carry on.......

Dave, you may hate this, but...
Before "OG" stood (or not) for "Original Gangsta" or "Original German", it stood for "Original Guard".
Original Guard has been used with the lowrider community for a long time.

who are you?

Hmmm learn something new every day - what did Original Guard mean?

Old Guard... In opposition with the new(er) style of lowriders, such as Honda Civics with gold rims, etc.
The Old Guard would be the owners of traditional lowriders, known as Bombs. Cars packed with vintage accessories... German Folks Klub sytle!
 :)
Mainly pre-1955 Chevy four-doors, without hydraulics - at least most of them.

I am not very familar with a lot of the newer terms (probably because I was raised traditionally...Oops, I mean "oldskool" ::)) and I didn't have internet access until a few years ago (when I was already into my 20's-I still don't have a cell phone! ;)). One of the things that has confused me beyond belief, is the fact that all of the hip-hop and "new" generation people (ppl  ???) drive cars that are referred to as "sic", yet they ALWAYS  have 4 doors and 90% of the time they have an automatic transmission (they can't even drive a "stick")! :o I won't even mention the fact that they take extreme pride in driving a car that they don't own, can't work on, don't know how to drive (check out auto accident statistics), and don't even take care of! In my book, you're a slob that should be embarrassed and instead they think it's "badass (fool)." And don't get me started on the cars having TV's and huge stereos (I mean "boomboxes-how silly of me! :-[) and peely window tint, rims that cost more than the car (and look ridiculous in the process!), and the sound of a China-made stainless muffler on a knocking/smoking 4 cylinder that has 200,000 miles on it and has been "chipped" (high performance computer chip) etc.

As for VW's I always picked up on terms I used from the magazines, friends, or going to swap meets. I never thought about it much, but "they" have been slowly adding terms that "we" are accepting and using on a regular basis. I like to think I can converse with just about any (but the most extreme) VW enthusiast and  we can hold a conversion. I always like talking to someone who was a part of the early VW "scene" and hearing terms like "Variant", "fiberglass-bodied dune buggy", "tuned exhuast", "2-liter" or how about "Weber-motor"? Some guys are way out of my league though, when it comes to VW lingo. It seems even the term Cal-look and "resto-custom" are sometimes used interchangeably, while other guys think Cal-look means having a stinger and color-matched bumpers, or an emblem that says "Cal-look." I don't know...And frankly, I don't wanna! ;) Stepping down now, more confused than ever  ;D....

-Andy

how about "ploarizing" generators? How's that for OLD?

Yep, that's old... you could "tweak" the voltage regulator too ;D

~DR.

Yep. Used to get many people asking about that when I worked at the various VW garages/dealers/parts shops. You were around in the late '70s? Methinks you're lying about your age, old man.

 ;D

OG is Original Gangsta, taken from "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka". Funny flick!!

Has anyone noticed all of the "Mafias" as of late? It started a few years back with "The Barndoor Mafia", which I could get on board with. But now it has spread like wildfire... FCM (Fat Chick Mafia), 58-59 Mafia, 13 Window Mafia, etc. Seems like everyone is in or wants to be in a Mafia. So at the Classic weekend when I was drinking heavily I decided to compound the problem. For 3 solid days everything became Mafias to me, 100mm Mafia ('55 and earlier VW's with the massive fuel caps), '67 Mafia, Super Beetle Mafia, and I know there were many that weren't even remotely related to VW's, but the beer seemed to erase those memories. All I can remember is that my gut hurt from laughing so hard! ;D ;D

no I started screwing up VW's in 1986, but was a disciple of John Muir book....many a generator run like motors on the garage floor.  ;D

Have you seen the latest Mafia?

(http://www.cjvws.com/hosted/mafia.jpg)

I gotta git one of them t-shirts fur sure!

-jeffrey

ALL of that samba, mafia stuff is pretty lame. Legends in their own mind.

Hahaha!! That's great!!!

(http://www.cjvws.com/hosted/mafia.jpg)

Jeffrey, you're a hoot!  You need to move back to So Cal... I miss your cleverness!