# Terminology....



## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Kit-bashing usually refers to creating a prototype from multiple kits, so generally it's mostly new parts.

Scratch-building usually refers to starting with raw stock of metal, wood, or plastic, then cutting and gluing to create a prototype. Again, all new material.

What form of building would involve assembling a car from parts from a group of identical cars? In other words, the shell from one 663 car, the trucks from another, frame plate from a third, and so on. The end product is hardly a prototype, since it's an accurate duplicate of existing cars. I don't know if there is an accepted term for that or not. I'd just make one up, but Bob would call me out on it!


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Reckers said:


> Kit-bashing usually refers to creating a prototype from multiple kits, so generally it's mostly new parts.
> 
> Scratch-building usually refers to starting with raw stock of metal, wood, or plastic, then cutting and gluing to create a prototype. Again, all new material.
> 
> What form of building would involve assembling a car from parts from a group of identical cars? In other words, the shell from one 663 car, the trucks from another, frame plate from a third, and so on. The end product is hardly a prototype, since it's an accurate duplicate of existing cars. I don't know if there is an accepted term for that or not. I'd just make one up, but Bob would call me out on it!



PIECE BASHING?


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

Recycling. Sounds like my last Oldsmobile.


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## imatt88 (Jan 31, 2010)

I would argue its still kitbashing. 

Just like when I take parts from multiple jet aircraft kits of the same type (i.e. F-4 Phantom) and combine them to make the version that I want....


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Okay, so there's no established term. How does Restoration-Bashing sound? What I'm after is a term that distinguishes the process. I agree it falls under each of the labels each of you offered, but that's the point: I'm trying to separate the process of restoring older cars from other assembly processes. In other words, kit-bashing, piece-bashing, and recycling all seem to suggest taking a collection of parts and creating a prototype: something that did not previously exist, as a model. In contrast, this is restoration work, since my aim is to return a car to it's previous state. However, there is a degree of honesty that has to be observed: to a collector, replacing a missing door or truck is restoring the car. Recreating a car out of pieces of 3 or 4 cars, though, sort of muddies the water. So does adding repro parts. Here's an example of how seriously that's taken. For old AF cars that are lighted, there is a light socket that screws into the bottom of the car. A new, reproduction piece sells for $3.50; on ebay, a recent auction resulted in someone paying $43.99 plus shipping for 3 'original' light sockets. Crazy, huh? So perhaps the distinction would be important if I ever wanted to sell the cars, or just describe them accurately. Would anyone have a problem with Restoration-Bashing as the accepted term for that kind of work?


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

How about junkyard engineering??


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Nope, it won't fit. There's no bright green paint involved in it!


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Reckers said:


> Okay, so there's no established term. How does Restoration-Bashing sound? What I'm after is a term that distinguishes the process. I agree it falls under each of the labels each of you offered, but that's the point: I'm trying to separate the process of restoring older cars from other assembly processes. In other words, kit-bashing, piece-bashing, and recycling all seem to suggest taking a collection of parts and creating a prototype: something that did not previously exist, as a model. In contrast, this is restoration work, since my aim is to return a car to it's previous state. However, there is a degree of honesty that has to be observed: to a collector, replacing a missing door or truck is restoring the car. Recreating a car out of pieces of 3 or 4 cars, though, sort of muddies the water. So does adding repro parts. Here's an example of how seriously that's taken. For old AF cars that are lighted, there is a light socket that screws into the bottom of the car. A new, reproduction piece sells for $3.50; on ebay, a recent auction resulted in someone paying $43.99 plus shipping for 3 'original' light sockets. Crazy, huh? So perhaps the distinction would be important if I ever wanted to sell the cars, or just describe them accurately. Would anyone have a problem with Restoration-Bashing as the accepted term for that kind of work?


You think to much!:laugh::laugh:


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

You're probably right, Ed. *L*


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Ha ha ... just reading this. Your question reminds me of my friend Sam. For years, he huffed and puffed, moaned and groaned about how much time and money he spent fixing the family car, trying to keep it running. His wife asked, "Sam, why can't we just get a new car?" His reply: "We are, dear ... we're just doing it one piece at a time!"


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

*L* good one. Reminds me of that old Johnny Cash song where he was building himself a new car by stealing parts off the assembly line where he worked, building them. What got me thinking about it was I am working up a set of passenger cars, 1950's vintage. If I ever tried to sell them, I'd want to be honest---they aren't original, but are composed of original parts from various cars. That led me to wondering what would correctly describe that process. Ed's suggestion that I think too much was probably accurate.


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Wasn't there a song about an auto worker who took home car parts over twenty years and the chorus was the twenty years in sequence on the year of his new car?????

Yes it was a Johnny Cag song "One piece at a time"


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Dat be de one!


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Well ... I've bashed my first bash ... or whatever it's called ...

As a kid, I had Tyco Santa Fe diesel. I must have throttled-up a bit too quick one day, and she took a dive to the concrete floor. Broke off the back end of the rear drive truck ... the part of the truck where the coupler mounts. The loco ran fine, but I had no way to hook up any cars. I castrated the poor little guy. Bummer. 

And there he sat for 35 or 40 years ...

Flash forward ... I've built the HO layout for my kids, and have been running a few steamers and a cheap Chessie diesel. All good. But the "ghost of Santa Fe past" kept haunting me. Nightmares ... cold sweats ... you name it.

So, how does one passify such demons ???

Well ... I did it ... I bashed. I bought another (identical) Santa Fe on ebay ... cheap, beat up, but perfectly operative. And then, unceremoniously, I cut him open, and pulled out his (intact) rear truck coupler housing. Cleaned that up a bit, and then performed a "rear truckectomy" into my old (gravity haunted) other Santa Fe nemesis.

Happily, the demons have been cast out, and that old Sante Fe now smiles upon me with a renewed sense of friendship. He's running 'round the track, keeping his eye carefully on the lookout for "THE DREADED EDGE", and looking forward to the next 35 years.

All good.

Until, that is, I wake up at some point in the near future having a horrible nightmare about my self-serving butchering of that 2nd Sante Fe. I guess I'll have to be on the lookout for a 3rd ... 4th ... 5th ...

Oh, God ... does it ever end ... does it ever end ???

TJ


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

*LOL* Congratulations, T-Man Junior! Now you'll spend the rest of your life hunting for a Santa Fe that will have the proper damaged parts to perfectly match the carcass you've created!


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## chessie14 (Jun 15, 2009)

Frankenbashing... it sounds green and its a bunch of "body" parts all slaped together.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

*LOL* Frankenbashing it is!


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Love it! Only here's the catch ...

We all need to take a formal pack, and agree (swear!) that the handi-work outcome of any Frankenbashing will have to have a pair of little bolts sticking out sideways on the front of each loco, about an inch or two back from the nose.

Deal?


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Absolutely. I swear on my mother's electrodes.


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## chessie14 (Jun 15, 2009)

x my heart... done.


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## Doneldon (Mar 11, 2010)

Why would you do this?


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

D,

It stemmed out of an earlier discussion about restoring older cars. It sorta went like this: if you want to be honest with a potential buyer, accuracy in terminology is important. It's one thing to clean up a car (antique) and call it original...but, is it still an original car if you do major parts repairs/replacement? For example, if I have a steamer that I assembled from parts of 3 different steamers, a collector would not call that an original. Integrity is important in dealing with one another.

That led to TJCruiser's post about his Santa Fe...he had a dead one, but managed to find another to cannibalize for parts to get his original running. having done so, he had the dilemma of wanting parts to restore the new one, like Dr. Frankenstein assembling body-parts to create a functioning man. He termed this process "Frankenbashing", as in Frankenstein-style kit-bashing. Kit-bashing refers to assembling a new car or structure using one or more kits, raw materials like wood, metal, or plastics, and so on.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Reck,

Perfect summary ... well stated.

One minor correction, though ... it was Chessie14 who coined the "Frankenbashing" phrase ... I'm not creative enough to get credit for that one!

TJ


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## bradimous1 (Mar 3, 2010)

I can't wait to stumble into a show 10 years from now and see a loco for sale that has two bolts sticking out the sides of it... I will think of a Sante Fe looking for the edge


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Thanks, TJ, and Chessie, my apologies!


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