Thread: What's A RatRod

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My name is Len. I live in Oakland, CA and am Restomoding a 65 Mustang but am constantly looking at ratrods for the next vehicle. I have 3 requirements:

1. It must go into Parking Garages
2. I can put my Scooter in the back for car shows
3. It needs to have enough leg room. I am 6'1".

The next issue becomes "what makes a vehicle a rat rod?"

1. Is a rat rod just a "ratty-rod"?
2. Does painting it flat black make it a rat rod?
3. Does taking off fenders make it a rat rod?
4. Mexican Blanket?
5. Low to the ground?
6. Shoddy workmanship?
7. Low budget, unfinished?
8. Primer and rust?
9. Swirly Paint?


After doing some research I found 3 sites of interest:

1. http://honolulustreetsmagazine.com/autoshop.html
2. http://wikipedia.org/
3. http://www.billetproof.com
4. http://www.turlockswapmeet.com/

After going to high dollar car shows such as Goodguys, Hot August Nights and Cherries Jubilee to low budget car shows -- Billetproof, Turlock SwapMeet, etc and everything in between, I think that the best definition for Rat Rod can be found in the Honolulu Streets Magazine above.

It is generally a pre-49 vehicle that probably was pieced together with a lot of dismantler parts probably from a lot of different vehicles with great ingenuity. As street machines indicates a lot of the people into those vehicles did not have much money and pieced the vehicle together with whatever they could find. More Power to them!!!

The vehicle may not have door panels and is generally in an unfinished state - permanently. It was probably done LOW BUDGET

I can show you a 29 Ford pickup bought for $5K with $5K put into it.....Total moded vehicle. It looks like a "Rat Rod"

I can also quote from Craigslist and Traderonline and EBAY --- "Would make great ratrod project!"....The bottom line is that the term "Ratrod" is frequently misused...It has developed mostly with the last 6 to 7 years to mean whatever you want.

Is the Honolu Streets Magazine a fair definition for ratrod?

Len Trimlett -- www.smogrfg.com

Follow up. After going to judged shows where people are putting $100K to $200K into their vehicles to compete for awards, I am getting turned off by that.

I find I enjoy the free shows where people come in their driveable rides, come and listen to the music, have dinner, see what everyone else is doing and then head home. These shows(no awards) are a lot more interesting and I enjoy them more.

While being a total modified, I will put my money into driveability and forget about cosmetics.
No --- It will not be a show car.

Len -- www.smogrfg.com

thus is what makes me mad about people who use the term "rat rod"
a real rat rod isnt something people pullout of a barn that barely runs and is rusty and sell for 15000 and lable it rat rod

A TRUE RAT ROD or you could just say hotrod IS!
hillbilly couldnt afford parts back in the day in sted they would use chevy frames with a ford body or something powerd by any thing worth having in the junk yard, they would use beer bottles for overflo tanks and hand paint there cars, i mean they werent much to look at back then but by time they got done with it i was pretty mean
a rat rod bacially means a hot rod thats been hillbillied haha
like my ride i have a 1927 T bucket on a 33 chevy frame, powerd by a 440
and it just so happens i'm a hillbilly ..so it works out

CHEERS
Jimmy

Originally Posted by Pinup Jimmy

thus is what makes me mad about people who use the term "rat rod"
a real rat rod isnt something people pullout of a barn that barely runs and is rusty and sell for 15000 and lable it rat rod

A TRUE RAT ROD or you could just say hotrod IS!
hillbilly couldnt afford parts back in the day in sted they would use chevy frames with a ford body or something powerd by any thing worth having in the junk yard, they would use beer bottles for overflo tanks and hand paint there cars, i mean they werent much to look at back then but by time they got done with it i was pretty mean
a rat rod bacially means a hot rod thats been hillbillied haha
like my ride i have a 1927 T bucket on a 33 chevy frame, powerd by a 440
and it just so happens i'm a hillbilly ..so it works out

CHEERS
Jimmy

I've got to ask two questions:

1. Just exactly when was "back in the day"?
2. Do you really think that's how ALL cars were built?

. . . instead they would use Chevy frames with a Ford body or something powerd by anything worth having in the junk yard. They would use beer bottles for overflow tanks and hand paint their cars. I mean they weren't much to look at back then but by time they got done with it was pretty mean

Man, I don't know where you were "back then," but what you describe is so far off base it's scary. For example, it would have been VERY (make that VERY, VERY) unusual to put a Ford body on a Chevy frame. Most hot rods "back in the day" were built on stock or reinforced stock frames. One might put an A-bone on '32 rails, but that's about it. Beer bottles for overflow tanks? There weren't any overflow tanks - just a hose dumping it on the ground. Sure, we used "donor" motors, but anything worth having? Hardly. "Back then," people chose motors just like they do today - power, fit, convenience, coolness. Finally, the statement that they "weren't much to look at" is WAY off base. 99% of the hot rodders took pride in their cars, they took care of them, and made them as presentable as they could.

The junk rod was an exception back then. Now, everyone thinks the rat rod of today is what we did "back then." In most cases, it's just baloney. And you know what they say about baloney . . . no matter how thin you slice it, it's still baloney. Here's the real difference: today, they make them look junky on purpose. "Back then," that virtually never happened.

Henry Rifle , you have hit the nail.

First of all Len, welcome to the forum. Being new, you probably don't realize that this subject has been debated a zillion times on here, generally with the same outcome................the people who love them and the people who hate them get pretty close to coming to blows at the end. No other two words in the history of man has evoked as much emotion as the term "rat rod." And don't even think of going on the HAMB and uttering those words........someone will visit you in the middle of the night!!!

Some folks are tolerant of them, and some are downright offended. I am one of the tolerant ones, but have to admit that just the other day an electrician who was working at my shop walked in and said "Wow, you guys are really building some RAT RODS in here !!" I had to bite my tongue and not educate him that they are not rat rods, but hot rods, due to the fact we spent lots of time building and painting every component. But he was simply using a term that has become very commonplace these days.

However, I hate to inform you that you are coming into the rat rod hobby a little late........the initial craze seems to have waned somewhat, and the cars are starting to evolve. The thrown together, use whatever weird stuff you can find to build em philosophy seems to be gone. It has now been replaced with "build em safe and good, but still somewhat edgy." The new breed really does look a lot more like what we built "back in the day" at least some of the time.

To answer your original question, what makes a rat rod.......there is no one definition. It depends on who you talk to. However, I think it is safe to say that it is a car that is devoid of lots of shiny, expensive parts, constructed by the builder to appear to have been built with limited funds. He was also more concerned about function than cosmetics.

But, like I said, I think you will find the rat rods being built today are different than those that started the fad. But you did nail it when you said you are turned off by the mega buck rods at shows. That is the real basis for rats, and for low buck rods in general. I too am turned off by those, and walk right by them because it is just like stepping onto a new car lot.......tons of nice shiny cars, but no imagination.

Don

I'm thinking that a sedan delivery might be a good project for u. It would certainly go in a parking garage,one from the late forties would be roomy enough for your height, and the scooter could go in the back with a ramp to get it in and out.

Which came first....the "rat rod", or "rat bike"?

I seem to remember seeing the term rat bikes years before hearing the term rat rod, and I am involved with both.

Just to be clear, I have no problem with rat rods - as long as someone else owns them. I have no real interest in them, would never build or own one, and they are not on my stopping list at a car show. Nostalgia or retro-rods are another issue. I like them, and wouldn't mind building one.

I really don't care who builds or owns a rat rod. Discuss 'em, build 'em, drive 'em . . . have fun. Everyone has something that flips their bic. Just don't tell me that was the way they were built "back in the day." By in large, that's just wrong. The percentage of rat rods in the hot rod population is probably a hundred times higher now than it was "back in the day."

I can see where kids get that impression........Its like today ,most have the vision of cleaning up the planet ,...when the reality of it is ....it just did not work out that way.
All the hotrodders had visions of a shiney car one day ,.......that day just never came for most....................
I like to refer to that as distorted reality and perception.
The perception was to do a finished shiney car ....the reality is it just did not happen that often.
So in all reality you guys built unfinshed rides/ratrods....or whatever terminology you want to affix to it.
Soo thats where the perception comes from that all rides were rats/unfinished back then.......they may have been unfinished,but the dream or goal was always to finish the ride nice and shiney,it just did not happen to most of the rides ,therfore giving the perception that most were rats/unfinished ,......which they were
The perception problem comes into play then ,because of that vision of completion one day ,most rodders feel thay were building a finished ride ,even if it never got there, ....meaning they did not build rats/unfinished rides ,but they did


The goal was never reached for most /making most rats/unfinished rides number more than the finished rides ,making the reality or truth that most were really rats and unfinished ,which they were.
This just goes to show no matter whats inside of your head {good intentions}that unless we manifest those into reality by actually doing it ,...it remains little more than a thought or vision and not reality because physically these cars were unfinished ,there was a vision of completness one day,but it rarely got manifested into the reality of a finished car ,...just the vision of a finished car.
Now most are left with the visions and not the actuall unfinished car to remind them that it did not get finished and the rality of the situation{no matter what the intentions were} most did actually build unfinished rides ,it just was not there goal to do ,but yet thats how it usually worked out for most or it took many years to finish and in that time it was driven unfinished giving the impression that there were even more unfinished cars floatin around than there were................
I can only guess as to this being why they think every car was unfinished or a ratrod,..........................I dunno...............

I grew up mostly in the sixites, in a central Illinois town of 50,000, but we must have had highly motivated builders, as I don't remember that many unpainted cars. Maybe 5-10% max. I only remember one, a '55 Pontiac, that was primered black.

HRP i think rat bike started it all. Im staying out of this one, im still sticking to my original theory in my attempt to explain threads.

My own impression about what makes a "rat rod", is an early style ('40s-'60s) unfinished car. The most key elements seem to be early parts and flat paint, or bare metal on top.

I have heard all kinds of opinions, even including the social attitudes of the owners, but they vary so widely that I don't think you will get anyone to agree on how they are defined......unless it is very very loosely.

I dunno.... maybe its because guys were not afraid to customize back then ?Finish the ride ,drive it for a few months and then customize the headlights and tail lights or do larger body mods like chop the roof ,therefore giving the impression that they were never done which leads to everyone believing they were in primer ......if its not finished ,it must be in primer type logic ...... I dunno
It does seem that alot of people have the wrong perception about what was or was not ,back then.
Like I have said before I do not exactly when there talkin ,but I have hotrod mags all the way back to the early sixties that show finished rides,say that some of the pics were readers rides,not big time car builders and listed many many articles on painting your hotrod like a bass boat with lots of metal flake,not metallic like todays paint ,more like giant snow flakes of glitter