Thread: What's A RatRod

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mine is not a ratrod its a poormans hotrod built with what i can afford not what you want me to build it has billet no paint yet and it has chevy ford buick and dodge parts but i built it how i wanted

You know I've wondered what is a Rat Rod myself a time or two. I was born in 1947 and was around for a lot of this. I have always been a Hot Rod guy or maybe just a car guy. I bought my first car in Mt Pleasant Texas at a tote the note car lot. It was a 1940 Ford coupe and I payed $295.00 for it a hundred down and 5 bucks a week. I was 13 years old and the proud owner of a Hard Ship drivers licsense which you could then get in Texas if you were rural and needed to drive to support the farm. It wasn't a Hot Rod per se it was just an old car. I drove the piss outta that old Ford and when I joined the Corps in 1965 left it parked in front of the Marine Corps recruiters office in Dallas. I have always wondered what happened to it, hell they probably crushed it within a week. But maybe just maybe some dude in Dallas or Fort Worth is driving around in it with suede paint and chrome reverse rims, thats the best I can ever hope for that old 40 Ford.

I absolutly "USED" to cringe when I heard the term Rat Rod. I hated the term, but it is after all just a term. Dreamed up by some guy like all of us on this board, a car guy!! Thats cool with me and I learned a long time ago that I am not bound by some one else's terms.

If you like em in the suede or shiny thats cool and I personally don't like looking at every car being the same. Man there is room for both---Isn't there?
Or have "WE" become so structured that labels are needed to define what classifacation "WE" all neatly fit into?

Me I don't need no labels. And I pretty much like em all. Billet is even cool with me, Aluminum is really easy to work with hand tools and it doesn't wear out my blades nearly as quick, so I say Billet is a good thing. Shiny paint is cool with me too, and I probably prefer it on most cars and I own both suede and shiny. And I'm not embarrassed to drive either.

Roland

The term "rat rod" seems to have become a catch phrase for any rod that is not finished. At first I didnt mind the term, but the more I see cars like the one pictured here, the more Im coming to hate the name!......I generally think of an unsafe car when I hear the term rat rod......I dont want something as unsafe as this (and this is mild compared to some) on the road with me!!!.....JMHO....

Well, I'll be. I had a Rat Rod and didn't even know it except it was a '59 Austin Healy I bought for $100 in High School...no grille/flat black paint/fibergalss patches etc but ran well. Looked like that because I was broke...traded it for a 40' Ford Sedan shiny (almost) and stock except for the 283/hurst slapped in there.
Maybe that early suede paint job makes me like my suede 27 Rod.

I've been painting anything and everything for 30+ years. and that includes bikes.

Before the "rat rod" fad, the bikers were doing a similar style...and they were called them "rat bikes".

Many motorheads are involved in both hobbies.

I suspect that early in the rod version of the trend, somebody adapted the style... the name... or both, to their rod project, and "Rat Rod" was born.

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

I've been painting anything and everything for 30+ years. and that includes bikes.

Before the "rat rod" fad, the bikers were doing a similar style...and they were called them "rat bikes".

Many motorheads are involved in both hobbies.

I suspect that early in the rod version of the trend, somebody adapted the style... the name... or both, to their rod project, and "Rat Rod" was born.

Yup. ratbikes were around for al least a couple decades before anyone ever heard of a ratrod. I built one myself back in 79. It had a 34 VLD engine and frame.

i grew up in L.A. in the 60's and i dont EVER remember seeing unpainted ,slapped together cars.
i asked my uncles about it.
they claim is wasnt cool to drive a P.O.S.

i do remember a bunch of ghetto guys stealing those concrete parking bars and throwing them in the trunk to make a lowrider......

If it looks like crap and is falling apart sitting still,.....and you're proud of that.... yours might be a rat rod!

Who knows. Beauty or Rat is in the eye of the beholder. Rebellion perhaps. Although Even if you don't like the "rat rod" you have to give them credit for thinking outside the box. I saw a build on this site, a 53 chevy pu (i think), fenderless. I thought the concept very cool. I know where I could get one and it made me want to do the same thing. This build is very well engineered and put together from what I can tell, and well above what I could come up with on my own. The truck is by no means "ratty". But if you had built that truck fenderless 30 years ago alot of people would have called it a "crap rod". But I love it. Junk is junk, weather it's a 31 model a, a 49 merc, or a honda. Unsafe is unsafe. But I like the rat rod style, at least some of it. But then I grew up on Roth (RAT FINK), Barris (the crazy show rods), and Tom Daniels (crazy show rod models) most of which were just that models. When my friend and I had no model kits to build we would get our parts boxes out and a broken model or two and just make some kind of hot rod out of it. If they were real cars now, they would probably be called rat rods. No I personally don't care for the ones that look like they magnatized (spelling) a frame then drove it thru the scrap yard and then welded everything to it that stuck, but then it ain't my car. So long as its safe and those decorations don't fly off and kill me or somone else then great. I would rather look at some of them than some "tuner car" (had to phrase it that way to be p.c.). And I have seen more kid's (anyone under 30) interested in hot rods and rat rods, than 20 years ago. I am not technically an old fart yet, but what happens when we all die. Someone has to carry it on. To some it will be just a fad, like punk, but others will get a little older and have more resources and they will build that next cherry 32 5 window, with a flattie or olds engine, that alot of us would kill for now. I know I would.

Why can't we all just get along.............

This is my definition of a Rat Rod!





I like all styles of cars, Stock, Muscle, Traditional, Custom, Sports,......

Originally Posted by dmw56

This is my definition of a Rat Rod!





I like all styles of cars, Stock, Muscle, Traditional, Custom, Sports,......

This truck also has "eyeball". See the relationship of how the radiator shell is mounted to the body line? See how the top rail of the bed is parallel with the beltline of the body? EYEBALL!

Originally Posted by techinspector1

This truck also has "eyeball". See the relationship of how the radiator shell is mounted to the body line? See how the top rail of the bed is parallel with the beltline of the body? EYEBALL!

Ahhhhhhhhh. I see. You said mine had "eyeball" didn't exactly know how you ment that, i took it as a compliment, but I understand now Exactly. I like this truck as well. Looks ballanced. Not all cockeyed, like you see some. Although I have seen a few coupe's with that raked modified drag look that are very cool though. But you got to cary that theme throughout the vehicle. Would look broken on a full fendered street rod type or one more traditional 50's with skinny tires and so forth.

Originally Posted by dlotraf33

i took it as a compliment

I meant it as a compliment. Your truck is very pleasing to the eye.