Thread: hot rod history ?

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thanks; i'll give it a visit.

j

The majority of what I see of rat rods would be in magazines,or at car shows. Most are not even close to street legal,so I would assume were trailered to where I saw them. Isn't that in itself kinda going against the theme in which they were built? Wouldn't a better description of a hotrod be a car built for increased driveability and performance and personalization. I think these key elements must be included,or it's just not a hot rod to bgin with. hank

The majority of what I see of rat rods would be in magazines,or at car shows. Most are not even close to street legal,so I would assume were trailered to where I saw them. Isn't that in itself kinda going against the theme in which they were built? Wouldn't a better description of a hotrod be a car built for increased driveability and performance and personalization. I think these key elements must be included,or it's just not a hot rod to bgin with. hank

The majority of what I see of rat rods would be in magazines,or at car shows. Most are not even close to street legal,so I would assume were trailered to where I saw them. Isn't that in itself kinda going against the theme in which they were built? Wouldn't a better description of a hotrod be a car built for increased driveability and performance and personalization. I think these key elements must be included,or it's just not a hot rod to bgin with. hank

The majority of what I see of rat rods would be in magazines,or at car shows. Most are not even close to street legal,so I would assume were trailered to where I saw them. Isn't that in itself kinda going against the theme in which they were built? Wouldn't a better description of a hotrod be a car built for increased driveability and performance and personalization. I think these key elements must be included,or it's just not a hot rod to bgin with. hank

Well alright then. I’ll weigh in on this topic regarding rat rods. I’m guessing that my opinion is as good as anyone else in here so here goes. By the way this is just my viewpoint. If I upset you get over it please.

I grew up in the 60’s and I think that what people call a rat rod, was in my day, really nothing more than some old jalopy that someone had started a restoration or customization on, but needed to drive the car during the project because he didn’t own a daily driver. Be it a 32 Dodge or a 69 Camaro we’ve all seen them going down the road without a hood, with an uncorked exhaust system, and rust poking through a three shade spray bomb primer paint job (I think they call it suede these days). All because the guy ran out of funds, was trying to do the work outside, or the work that had already been done got messed up by driving the car in the rain and snow. This my friends was the root of this movement. The jalopy.

Then some cool West Coast guy in the 80’s with a black Def Lepard T-shirt, a pack of camels rolled up in his shirt sleeve, sporting numerous jailhouse tattoos, a pair of dirty Converse sneakers and purple hair bought one of these old half finished half rusty rods for a couple bills and decided it was cool just the way it was because it was different. Hell they didn’t have the funds to finish it either, so they added some vintage hot rod parts from a swap meet or two just to get it running, laid on a decent pinstripe job just to prove the car was actually done, got a tetanus shot, and started cruisin. All his buddies decided that because Joe Bob found this thing in the condition it was in that that was the way it used to be done-hence-old skool.

Since then some really talented builders started building these cars to look like they weren’t done and to rid themselves of a lifetime of vintage speed parts.