Thread: Rat rod debate

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The thing that got me back into Hot Rodding was a Rat Rod. I was driving my motorcycle and down the road comes this Model A roadster, I followed it all over Owatonna MN until it stopped. It was Cool.

I picked up a 26 T coupe body and I wanted to make it a Rat Rod. Started collecting parts, doing a lot of trading back and forth, until I could get started building it. I wanted to have it full fendered and all the sheetmetal RUST. The running gear: engine and tranny came from my Dad, rearend and radiator from the junkyard, I had the wheels but reversed them myself, the Pro Stock frame from another guy that changed his mind on his build and the I modified it. The dropped axle and four-bar new from Speedway, spindles an even-up trade for a T cowl. I did all the fabricating and tacked every thing in place and then had my Brother-in-law who is a certified welder do most of the welding.

That is when I found this site and did some bartering with Dave Severson and got all the bodywork done. He turned my Rat Rod into a Hot Rod. The Rust repair is the only thing different from what my Rat Rod was going to be.

The Rusted picture is close to what I wanted the car to look like and the "Finished" look is somewhat like it will end up after getting "Severson-ized"

Hey Tom F, Wow, cool car, I like both versions but unless one lives in the middle of the dessert it would be impossible to stop the rust.

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Hey Tom F, Wow, cool car, I like both versions but unless one lives in the middle of the dessert it would be impossible to stop the rust.

Ya I thought about that too, but I'm 66 years old and I wouldn't be around to worry about it.

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Well Guy's, thanks for your thoughts on this subject. Some very interesting points raised and excellent food for thought. One thing I learnt from this debate (from Dave) is about trailer queens and I now appreciate is, the vast size of your country means that it is easier to trailer your car to and event so that all of your family can travel together comfortably to enjoy a rodding event. Thanks to to Hombre 259, is that what those cars are called, Cartoon cars, I have always referred to them as Ratrods and the other types in the photos as hotrods. Just goes to show,one never stops learning. We down under are still having this same debate in our hobby,so must be world wide. Interesting that nobody has raised the really old debate about .....Restoration v Rodding....

Whiplash....DONT bring up the resto v rodding thing..or you might have to get a whippin from that aussie surgeon you were talkin about in another thread...

Originally Posted by Whiplash23T

Thanks again Hombre259, I personally can not see the attraction in buiding something like those others as they must be damn awkward and uncomfortable to drive. Maybe that they should be referred to as trailer queens.

those things dumbfound me.
i just dont get it.
i guess they are just yard art?
you cant drive em.
personally i dont care what people do or what they call it.
if i had a cool tractor grill.
i would use it.
i call mine a hotrod.
that way i dont have to spend all day trying to define the differences in nomenclature.
happy motoring!

Originally Posted by Hombre259

Corey, It was refused entre because of the Billet Valve Covers and the fact it has an Independant Front Suspension on a open wheeled car. Big No No I guess. But man all I see is COOL!!!

Cartoon Cars Huuuummm. These things are really something there dozens and dozens of them around. I have an opinion on them, But I'll keep that to myself....

And yea Corey he did drive it there.

That first pic is the same truck I saw in Chickasha several years ago. The man drives it all over the country. It is built on a Mazda B-2000 pickup chassis with a Chevy 250 t/h 350.

Hey Lamin8r,that damn Aussie Plastic Witch Doctor cleaned 10,000 dollars out of my bank account and heck,I still don't look like Brad Pitt or any other gorgeous film star. I learnt a lesson there,waste your money on old American cars and make them into Hot Rods. Now seriously, I can appreciate the work that some of those restorers put into their projects to accomplish a better than original motor car. Cartoon cars.... Now this ONLY my personal view..... I pray that they don't pickup a following down under here in NZ,as I can't find anything in them that screams....BUILD ONE.... where as a true barn find type of car that has had it's suspension,brakes and mechanicals upgraded with not to much body work done,really lights my fire.

I WOULD CHROME MY ENTIRE CAR IF I COULD AFFORD IT!
everything except the rubber.

I wonder how many would react if they had a brother who had never gotten involved in the automotive hobby... but went with them to attend their first hot rod event, and was overwhelmed with these unusual and interesting cars.... and wanted to own one!!!

Would they:

Tell him that he is not allowed to buy a finished car...

Tell him that if he doesn't build it himself, he cannot get involved...

or tell him that he has to give up his career, so he has time to learn every skill involved, and then build the car, performing every type of work involved? ...but don't do any of them too well, or you will be labeled a "gold chainer", and told you don't understand real hot rods!

I wonder if these experts build their own houses? A "real man" would live in a log cabin that he built with a pocketknife! :-)~

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

I wonder how many would react if they had a brother who had never gotten involved in the automotive hobby... but went with them to attend their first hot rod event, and was overwhelmed with these unusual and interesting cars.... and wanted to own one!!!

Would they:

Tell him that he is not allowed to buy a finished car...

Tell him that if he doesn't build it himself, he cannot get involved...

or tell him that he has to give up his career, so he has time to learn every skill involved, and then build the car, performing every type of work involved? ...but don't do any of them too well, or you will be labeled a "gold chainer", and told you don't understand real hot rods!

I wonder if these experts build their own houses? A "real man" would live in a log cabin that he built with a pocketknife! :-)~











struck by the bug to own a beaytiful rod.

i'm poor and i am not a mechanic.
i am hiring my buddy to build me a car.
does that make me a tin-chainer?

Originally Posted by billy zz

i'm poor and i am not a mechanic.
i am hiring my buddy to build me a car.
does that make me a tin-chainer?

I don't make the names up....but it seems logical. :-)

I think of them all as hot rods. Some have the parts and look I like, some don't, but I don't have an issue with how a guy builds his car. What I might have an issue with, is a guy who tells others how they should build theirs.

I haven't seen this happen in the hobby before. The worst backlash was the heavy billet rods, but the nastiness was not nearly as bad then, as the behavior of the last five years.

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

I don't make the names up....but it seems logical. :-)

I think of them all as hot rods. Some have the parts and look I like, some don't, but I don't have an issue with how a guy builds his car. What I might have an issue with, is a guy who tells others how they should build theirs.

I haven't seen this happen in the hobby before. The worst backlash was the heavy billet rods, but the nastiness was not nearly as bad then, as the behavior of the last five years.

i am supposed to be helping him
but really all i do is follow him around and hand him stuff.
i am learning a TON.

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

I don't make the names up....but it seems logical. :-)

I think of them all as hot rods. Some have the parts and look I like, some don't, but I don't have an issue with how a guy builds his car. What I might have an issue with, is a guy who tells others how they should build theirs.

I haven't seen this happen in the hobby before. The worst backlash was the heavy billet rods, but the nastiness was not nearly as bad then, as the behavior of the last five years.

i am brand new to the hot/rat rod scene.
and i dont think i like it much.
recently i joined here to learn how to build rods.
i can do without the shows/scenesters/tats/hairdoos and fake rockabilly.
not to mention the bickering/infighting.
but dont get me wrong.
there are some real nice folks here.
thanks!

I got away from hot rod for a number of years, I kinda gave up on the idea I could actually afford to build anything but a crap rod. So the whole rat rod thing started when I wasnt really paying attention. When I first heard the term I though of somthing entirely different. See I grew up with the Rat Fink, Ed Roth's crazy customs, Barris Customs, (not the early Merc's and such) and those Tom Daniel's models, Tijuana Taxi, Red Baron, Beer Wagon and so on. So I thought Rat refered to THE RAT (as in R.F.). Those out of proportion, overpowerd, hot rods, with monsters or the rat himself driving. And I don't recall any models or t-shirts with any rust on them......lol. But they (the rats) gave me the idea that I could do what I did and not be riddiculed or called a p.o.s. I have seen some really cool rats, (although most I thought would be really bitchen with some paint and some tuck n roll.). Oh well live and learn.

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If you don't get It. I Can't Explain IT!

I know I've said this in other threads, but a few years before the rat rod fad, they were building bikes, using the same style, which were called "rat bikes". This is too much of a coincidence. I have to believe that since the hobbies overlap, someone adapted the term to a car project, and it caught on.