Thread: What the ???

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Art is a good word and very cool art too but I wouldn't want it in my living room! I have had dull and rustic and now I have had shinny and new and I will take shinny and new anyday.

Originally Posted by 41willys

Can anybody tell me what the appeal is in that thing?

So is it a piece of art?

confused by it all...
John

Well, IMO it's a piece of something---I wouldn't say "art" would be the word I chose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tough question to answer, not sure there is one simple explanation. But here is my take on it. I think there are two kinds of rat rods. The first is a lowbuck, homebuilt rod built by an average guy who just wants to get into rodding and realizes that he will have to sacrifice some of the glitz and polish to accomplish his goal. I can relate to him because we all started right there, doing the best we could with limited funds, equipment, and knowhow.

The second rat rodder is doing it as a statement, and sees it as an extension of a lifestyle. He wants to shock and p*** people off, not maliciously perhaps, but just as an anti-establishment sort of thing. His rat rod is designed to be as far out there as humanly possible, with little regard to comfort or drivability.

I'm not condemning either type, but that is just my opinion of the state of the art. I do see rat rods evolving into more civilized, safe cars, and I think the days of seeing ones like you have pictured are numbered. The one good thing that has come out of this movement is that kids who might have been more interested in ricers are now looking for old American bodies to build into their dream car. That's cool. I am personally glad to see the hobby getting a second wind.

Don

Well said, Don. If the guy was just looking for attention for his car, I think he accomplished that goal. There's two pages of it right here alone.

Originally Posted by falconvan

Well said, Don. If the guy was just looking for attention for his car, I think he accomplished that goal. There's two pages of it right here alone.

Very true, but as I've said before a big old car wreck draws a lot of attention, too!!!

I guess anything that generates interest in Hot Rodding can't be all bad.. At least the guys who were coming around saying "That's the way it was" are realizing that it never was that way and that rats are a new thing. Interest in them does appear to be waning. Maybe now we can move on to something more practical, like vans with psychedelic paint jobs!!!!! Anybody seen where I left my Econoline????

You could build one in short order, if you dragged a big magnet on a rope through a wrecking yard. Ta-da, rat rod.

Originally Posted by Sniper

You could build one in short order, if you dragged a big magnet on a rope through a wrecking yard. Ta-da, rat rod.

I really don't have anything against rat rods, some of them are really unique and the stuff done to them is interesting to look at. However, I have to admit the hair on the back of my neck stands up a little when some non car person walks up to my open shop door and says "oh, you guys building some RAT RODS in here?" My first inclination is to educate them on the difference between a rat rod and a hot rod, and that some hot rodders really take offense to the term being applied to their car, but usually I just let it pass.

For the life of me I still can't figure out how people who are totally out of the car loop heard this term...........even Moms dropping off their Daughters at the ballet school down a few shops have said it. How did "rat rod" come to replace "hot rod" in so many people's vocabulary???

Don

That car from the front of this post is...well I just don't know what to call it really, but a good description would be rat rod. With that said I do know what a "traditional" hotrod is too. Heres a nice hotrod that I saw last weekend down here. It was very well done.

The 32 in my avatar isn't much different than the A coupe that you posted Corvette64, and when I'm out in it, people call it a rat rod all the time. It doesn't bother me. I think that in general, the masses call any old car in primer a rat rod.

For the life of me I still can't figure out how people who are totally out of the car loop heard this term...........even Moms dropping off their Daughters at the ballet school down a few shops have said it. How did "rat rod" come to replace "hot rod" in so many people's vocabulary???

Don,

Television and magazines. Lately, "Rat Rod" is up in neon lights everywhere. Most rats look old to the uneducated, so any early rod automatically becomes a rat rod.

I love the comments like "My rat rod drew twice the crowd." I agree. The only problem is that 80% of the crowd is saying "WTF?" - not "I want one of those."

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Seems ludicrous to me to build any car for the sole purpose of pushing or driving it only onto a show field to display, be it rat rod or show rod.

Don

i feel the exact same way when i go to some of these shows and its like pffffffffffff.....................

I built a dang near duplicate to that thing in the 1960s except that it was done in 1/25th scale out of a bunch of left over kit parts.....about what this schmoo did.....