I have been listening to this song lately on Sixties on Six on Sirius. One of the great Beach Boys hits from the early sixties.
This song is so loaded with California hipster jargon, it is almost a foreign language. I am trying to figure it out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g1HtpTonJI
Beach Boys singing Little Deuce Coupe live in concert, 1963.

Do y'all know what a "Little Deuce Coupe" is? I just found out, it is a Model A Ford manufactured in 1932. The "Deuce" refers to the year of manufacture.






Little deuce Coupe
You don't know what I got
Little deuce Coupe
You don't know what I got

Well I'm not braggin' babe so don't put me down
But I've got the fastest set of wheels in town
When something comes up to me he don't even try
Cause if I had a set of wings man I know she could fly
She's my little deuce coupe
You don't know what I got
(My little deuce coupe)
(You don't know what I got)

Just a little deuce coupe with a flat head mill
But she'll walk a Thunderbird like it's standin' still
She's ported and relieved and she's stroked and bored.
She'll do a hundred and forty with the top end floored
She's my little deuce coupe
You don't know what I got
(My little deuce coupe)
(You don't know what I got)

She's got a competition clutch with the four on the floor
And she purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar
And if that ain't enough to make you flip your lid
There's one more thing, I got the pink slip daddy
And comin' off the line when the light turns green
Well she blows 'em outta the water like you never seen
I get pushed out of shape and it's hard to steer
When I get rubber in all four gear


"Walk a Thunderbird." Can't find this one on line exactly, I guess it means the Deuce Coupe is faster than a Thunderbird.

"Ported and relieved and stroked and bored" Refers to engine modifications. I can't find what "relieved" means.

"Purrs like a kitten till the lake pipes roar" Lake pipes are chromed exhaust pipes that run on the outside of the car next to the running board and are quite visible
The Deuce Coupe in the photo does not have lake pipes


"There's one more thing, I got the pink slip daddy" In 1963, the title of a car in California was printed on a pink piece of paper.
Challenging someone to a drag, if someone said "I got the pink slip" it meant he was betting the ownership of his car on the outcome of the race.

I believe the "deuce" was a Model B.......IIRC 1931 was the last year of the Model A.

relieved i think is refering to exhaust modifications.

A Deuce Coup is a two seater.

I always thought a “deuce coupe” was a 32 Ford 3-window coupe. Much like that 5-window above. That 5-window above is a beauty, for sure

Deuce 32. First year of the v-8

They're still pink.

Walk away from a T-bird.

Heads are relieved around the valves for airflow.

It's really not California jargon.
Drag racing was big in Cali. So...

It's just gearhead/drag racing jargon.

Perhaps, but not the explanation I head about 45 years ago:

Lots of hot rod donors from the 30's and 40's might have been resurrected from the wreckers or found essentially abandoned - so not so quick to get a title. Hot rodders, being mostly kids would concentrate on hopping the thing up before dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s when it came to registration. Later it would be easy enough to fall afoul of the law and lose the car. In this case the singer's stating that in this case, it's owned outright and legally.

Great song, one of my favorite beach boy songs!

Speaking of 3-Window Coupes

Very underappreciated group.

Notice how the girls in the audience are going wild. Jumping out of their seats.
The boys look like they wish they were somewhere else.

he deuce coupes pictured above are really nice - looking a lot like the originals. But, many of them in the 50s and 60s, when "rodded," were cut-gown and without some of the original aspects - like fenders - and eventually could be seen in all sorts of reduced/altered configurations. Probably can find a ton of such examples on the picture net.

In the case of those with some jingle to toss, the flat head V8s were replaced with later year OHV Ford and other OHV engines. Lincoln Zephyr gears, bigger headers, dual quad carb setups, radical cams, etc. etc. Lots of jargon did accompany that scene. Porting was opening/smoothing the fuel intake pat, relieving was doing about the same for the exhaust. Do you recall "chopped and channeled" - and "shackles"?
Good old times.

exhaust ports on the heads.

and early Hemis in the 50s 392

Us older folks know more about them old wrecks than we care to admit.

Maybe should be us old wrecks know more about them old cars than we care to admit.

Got a 32 Ford... A tank full of gas...A mouth full of puussy and a hand full of azz...And I'm movin on...

stroked and bored.... using a crank with a longer throw and different length rod and piston, bored mill out the cylinder a few thousand, all to get more cubic inches, all the 440s I built were stroked out to 498 cubic inch.

Are you guys talking about chopped and channeled? Be Well, Rustyzipper.

A California "pink slip" was a title for a car that was paid for. One with a lien on it was printed on a white piece of paper, and the car couldn't be sold without the lienholder releasing interest in the car. Having a Pink Slip meant the car was paid for.

The "Deuce Coupe" all the hotrodders wanted was the 3-window with the suicide doors. There was also a 5-window model like the one in the picture above.

Made me bust a gut, Grizz !!

And I’m moving on .

"Flathead" Ford engines had the valves in the block, not the cylinder heads. "Relieving" the surface of the block between the valves and the edge of the cylinder by grinding away a little metal increased gas flow. So did "porting and polishing"- - - -grinding the intake and exhaust ports bigger and polishing the surface of the cast iron to make it slicker and reduce turbulence. I did all of that to my first car, a 1947 Mercury convertible with a bored and stroked and ported and relieved flathead V8 engine with tubular steel headers and Offenhauser finned aluminum cylinder heads.

Sometimes complimented by milling the heads a few thou to increase compression.

Yup

It should be remembered that Big John Milner died on New Year's Eve in 1964 when he was hit by a drunk driver.

The "Model B" in 1932 was the 4 cylinder. That distinguished it from the "Ford V-8" which was the first 8 cylinder car produced that ordinary citizens instead of the filthy rich might be able to afford.

A most excellent way to travel!!

Yes, the flathead (side valve) V8 breathed very poorly in stock form, so the intake and exhaust ports would be opened up and the path smoothed by judicious removal of metal, and polishing to assist the air to flow with less turbulence - a "port and polish". The top of the block would be milled to remove metal between where the valves emerged and the cylinder, again to give more space and a smoother path for intake and exhaust - "relieving". Typically the heads would be modded or replaced too, to give more compression and better airflow, and that might include relieving above the valves as well as the relieving to the block. Bigger carbs, cam, headers and big pipes (such as lake pipes - named after the salt lakes) also helped breathing. Boring and stroking's already been covered. In a light car that could add up to something pretty quick - and 140 at the top end's pretty impressive.

Of course you could also bin the sidevalve, and put in a small block. A much more efficient design to start with, and with the same level of modification a much more powerful option.

Would the hot rodders of that period been stress relieving cranks and rods?

he got it right.

Yep, this topic brought the previous movie to my mind as well.

Don't know. Maybe some guys with knowledge of metallurgy who were big into competition and had the cash to "do it right" - but most of the guys I rodded with were big into creating stress with little concern for relief. We did use magnaflux to find problems/weaknesses.

Had a 1940 ford coupe on my lift at the school where I taught auto. Mike and George Borazon owned it. They put in a corvette engine and drive train. The kids got a big kick out of seeing something so different. Sadly Mike, who taught at that school, and George, a newscaster are both deceased.

Used to play that song to the students to explain that there was a great deal of terminology in the field of automotives and slang versions of same.



The other Beach Boys song that was great was Shut Down.

Tach it up, tach it up
Buddy going to shut you down

[Verse 1]
It happened on the strip where the road is wide
Two cool shorts standing side by side
Yeah, my fuel injected Stingray and a four-thirteen
Revving up our engines and it sounds real mean

(Verse 2)
Declining numbers at an even rate
(At the count of one we both accelerate
My Stingray is light the slicks are starting to spin
But the four-thirteen's really digging in
Got to be cool now, power shift - here we go

Superstock Dart is winding out in low
But my fuel injected Stingray's really starting to go
To get the traction I'm riding the clutch
My pressure plate's burning that machine's too much

(Verse 3)

Pedal's to the floor hear the dual quads drink
And now the four-thirteen's lead is starting to shrink
He's hot with ram induction but it's understood
I got a fuel injected engine sitting under my hood

Shut it off, shut it off buddy now I shut you down
repeat repeat

Way-cool mechanical details aside, here’s Brian Wilson doing his thing.....



...a pity the guy has been so troubled in life.

That’s back when you could understand the words and the singer wasn’t shrieking in pain.

Amen!

easier to beat the driver than the car. people who could get these to hook up and go straight were the winners. flex frames and not much suspension! don't forget the skinny tires!

Lake pipes had caps on the end of them to quiet them down, then they could be rotated open to "let her breathe".

No one mentioned a line out of Springsteen's song Ram Rod...

Gotta Road Runner Motor in a 32 Ford....

thinking about a 426 Hemi.. or a 392 Hemi in a 32 Ford... that'd be kinda cool...

I could see that be kinda hard to steer....too much power and too little traction, along with being nose heavy as hell...

also kinda liked those old 413s, they were still using those as boat motors up into the mid 80s

Every time I hear the Beach Boys doing "Little Deuce Coupe" I can't help but recall sitting at the breakfast table one morning before school back in 1963 with my sisters and brother. We had a table radio on; that song came on, and my mother, who was over by the kitchen sink thought they were singing " Little Miss Kook".....

Back to the Beach Boys!

"My fuel injected Sting Ray is a 'starting to spin
And the 413s really digging in
Tach it up, tach it up, Buddy, gonna shut you down...."

Thanks - knew George a bit - drove that coupe one time - nice with the Chevy mill.

Somebody should take me out and kick my ass for all the great cars i ruined in my youth. One in particular was a really nice 5 window 32 coup. Thought I get a little more HP out of the 283 by not running a air cleaner. It had too much cam and carb and backfired though the carb catching fire. I tried to shut it down but the electric fuel pump just kept running, burnt to the ground. Dumb ass. wish I had it today. BTY broke my heart when they canceled Hot August Nights here in Reno due too the Coronavirus. Lots of stunning cars at the event but most are pro built costing $100,000 or more. Not like the old days!

[quote=Old_Toot][quote=Hotrod_Lincoln]"Flathead" Ford engines had the valves in the block, not the cylinder heads. "Relieving" the surface of the block between the valves and the edge of the cylinder by grinding away a little metal increased gas flow. So did "porting and polishing"- - - -grinding the intake and exhaust ports bigger and polishing the surface of the cast iron to make it slicker and reduce turbulence. I did all of that to my first car, a 1947 Mercury convertible with a bored and stroked and ported and relieved flathead V8 engine with tubular steel headers and Offenhauser finned aluminum cylinder heads.
[

Flat heads are way coo!!

My family had a car on the first race track in Nashville Tennessee in 1948- - - - -a 34 Ford 3-window coupe with a flathead V8 running on a mixture of alcohol and Hydrogen Peroxide. The 47 Merc I built in the early 1960's was running a bunch of Dad's leftover dirt track parts after he got out of the racing business and decided raising a family was more important than following some of his peers to Daytona and elsewhere when Bill France started NASCAR. Our driver chased Coo Coo Marlin under the grandstands at Columbia Tennessee one night and threatened to cut his throat with a big hawkbill knife because he had spun our car out in the main event that night. That was in 1954, Coo Coo's rookie year.

I am telling my age with this one. Has anyone else ever seen or heard of the Arkun conversion that made the flathead valve in block engines into an overhead valve engine? I have only seen one in an actual auto and that was many years ago, it was a neat idea and it worked out fairly well.
It was designed and made by Arkus Duntov - yep, the same Duntov of Corvette engine fame.

Here is a link to a short read and some pictures of it.
https://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/ardunohvconversion.html

drover

My first car was a 1953 ford. About 110 hp stock. You could add a lot of extras and still not have the hp of a 283 Chev.
Hasbeen

A 4" + stroker in a flathead could still out-torque a 265 or a 283, especially with a little extra compression.

The Ardun conversion had the same lower end problems as the flatheads- - - -only three main bearings. It was not uncommon to twist a crankshaft in two at the center main bearing, especially with a 4 1/4" welded stroker" from "Crankshaft Company" that a lot of the racers ran.

Anyone else remember a three carb set up on Ford flatheads? Stromberg 97s,

One of my hillbilly cousins ran that in a modified 34 Ford two door sedan body. Short dirt track ovals, early 1950s. When the SB Chevy motors became popular in the mid 50s, most of the flat heads were replaced.

Sometime in the mid to late 60s, a local lad fetched a Simca back from overseas, when he came home from the service. We had it on the farm for a jalopy, after he got rid ot it. Fugger had an aluminum flat head V8 in it.

Dad had a '55 chevy 1500 Big window, 283 and the 3 speed with overdrive transmission. About 1965 he rebuilt the 283 adding a 30-30 Duntov solid lifter cam. With the exhaust he was running, I could hear him pulling a small hill before coming down our street, and if I was in the house would tell mom "dad's almost home" and she would put dinner on the table before he walked in the front door.I used to help him,starting at age 6 , holding the feeler gauge as he adjusted the valves. Mufflers had to be glasspacks, later Cherry bombs when I was of hotrod age, lol. Had the period Corvette finned valve covers also.

Manual linkage tri-power carbs ( pontiac) or Sixpacks for us Mopar folks, are a bear to set up, but once done right, sure sound and feel good. My 440 Cuda came with a 1974- STR intake with 70-AAR sixpack setup, got it to perform properly once and it hooked, surprised the hell out of me and my son. Switched to a Nyutten 930 Holly, bolt it on and go. The STR is a cool, long runner intake that fits well in the space under the hood of the Cuda without having to add a scoop or cut the hood.

I used to work with a bloke who had two '46 Fords, a Coupe and a Coupe Utility (Australian production). The one had a worked flathead V8, the other a 351 Windsor with a similar level of work. There really was no comparison in the performance.