I still remember this incident vividly, years later. When I was a teenager I had to take a class in High School called Driver’s Ed, it was required to get a driver’s license at 16, and on one of the classroom tests they asked Test Question: On a car, what is the difference between the rocker arm…

One of the definitions for the word rocker is: The amount of curvature in the longitudinal contour of a boat or surfboard. Curved panel/rocker panel. Tester

Interesting … hmmmm … So are car’s rocker panels curved then? Or do you mean since the term “rocker” applies to the sides of a boat, it would apply to the sides of a car too? I don’t recall them having much curve on my Corolla. They seem more or less straight, front to back. Maybe the width var…

George, They’ve been called rocker panels since cars have been built with them. Their actual shape no longer matters. Tester

Not having looked it up and being a boat person, I vote for @tester and his explanation.

I think Tester is correct. A little off topic but I remember just out of school and having to take the tests for the Army, I was trying to do as well as I could to avoid getting sent to infantry, and one of the questions was what a lathe dog was. I had absolutely no idea what it was. I now know …

Although I have no idea about the origins of the rocker panels, I do know where ‘dashboard’ came from. Back in the days on carriages, they placed a board in front of the seats with a bar on it to put your feet on when the horses were dashing, and kicking up a lot of dirt and mud. As they moved to ho…

Most recently, the term applies to panels set up how to find which hard rockers will qualify for Obamacare. Those with pre existing conditions including hearing loss, eye make up and excessive tatoos can no longer be denied coverage. “Rocker Panels” are " not death panels for hard rockers " as pr…

Ok, looks like @dagosa 's snark generator is going into overload :).

It was good snark though. Gave me a good kaugh

Why are they called "Rocker Panels"?

Maintenance/Repairs

Barkydog January 3, 2014, 6:10am 2

I would guess something to avoid damage by rocks flying up, Drivers ed, oh the memories, more important part of the post, G D I have a kid that stops for birds in the road, (drivers ed teacher) or don’t worry about that stop sign, the kid blows through the stop sign and fails, luckily I was pre warned.

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Why are they called "Rocker Panels"?

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