If you want some serious customization, visit the Cobo Center this week. Aside from the NAIAS, it’s the other popular auto show in Detroit. Wanna know what Detroit iron means? You gotta be there!
Starting Friday through Sunday at Cobo Center, Autorama will display about 1,000 vehicles with more stunning chrome than the mass-produced cars in 2007. And believe me, these cars are really awesome!
As pretty obvious in the past, commercialization will seize the public eye. Celebrities and customization experts will pull crowds closer. But what will take the center stage is the array of jaw-dropping cars from the gurus who shape sheet metal to stardom.
The vehicles are personal masterpieces. Some are product of enduring hard work and passion. Some are part of buffs’ life-long dreams.
DetNews.com has this nice story:
Denise Sheldon did not name her 1947 Oldsmobile convertible; the editor for the hot rod customization magazine "Rodder's Digest" did. The vehicle, once the project car for the publication, was known affectionately as Project Big Olds.
"The magazine folded and I ended up buying Big Olds in December 2001," Sheldon said. "The drive train was done, but nothing else; it had a front row bench and that was it. No windows, no roof, metal floor, no door inserts, nothing."
But that didn't stop her from driving it. "I've put about 72,000 miles on it over the last six summers," she said. Last year, she drove it out to Bonneville, Utah. Not to race it on the salt flats but to hang out with her friends during Speed Week.
Customization isn’t just a mere tweaking of Nifty Products Cargo-logic Series cargo liner to make it appear unique. There’s more to the tweaking and upgrading that only buffs understand.
To understand them, you might want to learn the lingo...
Autorama Lingo:Blower: A super charger.
Bobbed: Shortened fenders.
Cammer: Nickname for Ford single overhead cam engine.
Channeled: Reduction of car's height by having lowered the body over its frame.
Chopped: Reduction of car's height by cutting out a section of its top.
Decked: Having the emblems and chrome removed from the vehicle's trunk lid.
Dumped: A vehicle that has been drastically lowered in the front.
Frenched: Having molded headlights into fenders and eliminating trim rings and seams.
Hi-boy: A fenderless roadster with the body placed on top of the frame.
Louvers: Slot of vents in body panels to enable hot air to escape.
Lowrider: A vehicle which can be raised and lowered through hydraulics or air suspension systems.
Mouse motor: Any small block Chevrolet V8 engine.
Nosed: Having removed chrome trim from a vehicle's hood.
Rail: A vehicle built specifically for drag racing.
Raked: A vehicle whose front is lower than its rear.
Rat motor: Any big block Chevrolet V8 engine:
Sano: A term for vehicles which are clean, well detailed.
Slammed: Having been lowered at both front and rear.
Sleeper: A vehicle that looks slow, but isn't.
Slug: A vehicle that looks slow, and is.
Squirts: Fuel injectors.
Stocker: An unaltered car.
Street rod: Any pre 1948 modified vehicle.
Weed burners: Exhaust headers that run parallel to the pavement.
