67newport
Old Man with a Hat
what do you think of these?
Rat Rods
- Thread starter 67newport
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MoPar Maniac
Well-Known Member
Hmm...with all those straight pipes where were the Grafton police? They enforce loud pipe ordinances quite strictly.
BigFury
Well-Known Member
They are great and in some cases pretty well engineered. Creative builders with incredible vision. Would I build or own one? No
When this trend started 10 years ago I thought it was creative, and I've seen some impressive fabrication on a few. Now I think it a waste of good parts. Personally, I'm tired of these "rat rods" and wish the trend would die already.
Darter6
Active Member
Yes and no,I must say when you look close you may think"Huh,never woulda thought of that."
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That is not a rat ride.
Now anything with bad paint, flat paint, or surface rust is considered a rat to most. A few years ago I worked with a wanna-be-bad-*** kid who was so into this look that he sanded the paint off of a perfectly good Jetta and pissed on the bare steel to make it rust faster, then bragged about that. Google "import rat rod" to see where this trend has gone.
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GJS
Senior Member
The aesthetic itself generally makes me puke. I've seen a few that were mechanically interesting but most were just stupid... more and more as the genre persisted..
It seems that with stuff like this, people get that "anyone can do this so I can too" hair across their *** (like with home renovation... don't get me started). Wind up with a bunch of parts pop riveted together into a shitbox that is about as bad off as the vehicles the parts came from... but with red rims and a revolver frame for a shift handle.
*edit* That said; to each his own. Just keep that Ill braking, understeering time bomb well away from my CBody.
It seems that with stuff like this, people get that "anyone can do this so I can too" hair across their *** (like with home renovation... don't get me started). Wind up with a bunch of parts pop riveted together into a shitbox that is about as bad off as the vehicles the parts came from... but with red rims and a revolver frame for a shift handle.
*edit* That said; to each his own. Just keep that Ill braking, understeering time bomb well away from my CBody.
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MoPar Maniac
Well-Known Member
We have an annual Rat Ride that goes through the same town every year. Its basically a TT run. Used to have a gas guess 50/50 drawing. It involve ad old Triumph rat bike-complete with white rat in a cage- where yhey poured some gas in it and you guessed how far the old bike went before it broke or ran out of gas.
It never broke. The owner was a mechanic and it ran like a top.
A rat rod is a style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates (or exaggerates) the early hotrods of the 1940s, 1950s, and early-1960s. ... Most rat rods appear "unfinished", regardless of their status, as only the vehicle's bare essentials are driven.
Rat rod - Wikipedia
Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaRat_rod
Rat rod - Wikipedia
Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaRat_rod
Criticism[edit]
Many traditional hot rodders and restorers loathe the rat rod trend, summing the entire movement up with words like "cheap" and "talentless". In general, the sentiment among "critics" is overwhelmingly dismissive and some times overtly negative.
Hot rodder and freelance journalist Brad Ocock said of the rat rod trend: "There's a huge difference between rat rod and beater. A beater has potential. A rat rod is something someone threw together to make a statement, and usually that statement is, 'I don't know how to weld. I had a bunch of crap lying around and realized there was enough to put together a car but didn't want to put any effort into it.'"[1]
Hot rod journalist and builder Jim Aust put it in his own perspective: "I put the majority of it into two categories—“Young Guy Bad Style” and “Old Guy Bad Style”. The two different camps are separated by those that do not know better and those that should- yet both produce a high volume of style violations. The young guys that generally do not know any better commit their sins in the name of “Why not, it gets a ton of attention at the cars shows”. The problem is a clown on fire gets a lot of attention too, doesn’t make it a good thing either especially if you are the clown. The young violators like to not only produce a car that in its raw form has no flow or style, but on top of that they “decorate” them with such unnecessary items as spikes, bullets, grenades, plastic rats, garden tools, barbed wire, skulls and oversized tools. The young guys into this style are nearly 100-percent new comers that have no knowledge of hot rod and custom car history and generally do not care. Good news many of them discover the history and quickly out grow the offensive style and leave it behind as they build new vehicles with an eye on style rather than creating unappreciated attention." .[6]
However, despite such attitudes in many areas of hot rodding, over the last ten to twelve years rat rods have become more and more accepted at car shows and in the custom car culture in general, with many car shows either including sections for rat rods, or beginning events directly devoted to them and aimed at wider audiences than ever before.[2]
Many traditional hot rodders and restorers loathe the rat rod trend, summing the entire movement up with words like "cheap" and "talentless". In general, the sentiment among "critics" is overwhelmingly dismissive and some times overtly negative.
Hot rodder and freelance journalist Brad Ocock said of the rat rod trend: "There's a huge difference between rat rod and beater. A beater has potential. A rat rod is something someone threw together to make a statement, and usually that statement is, 'I don't know how to weld. I had a bunch of crap lying around and realized there was enough to put together a car but didn't want to put any effort into it.'"[1]
Hot rod journalist and builder Jim Aust put it in his own perspective: "I put the majority of it into two categories—“Young Guy Bad Style” and “Old Guy Bad Style”. The two different camps are separated by those that do not know better and those that should- yet both produce a high volume of style violations. The young guys that generally do not know any better commit their sins in the name of “Why not, it gets a ton of attention at the cars shows”. The problem is a clown on fire gets a lot of attention too, doesn’t make it a good thing either especially if you are the clown. The young violators like to not only produce a car that in its raw form has no flow or style, but on top of that they “decorate” them with such unnecessary items as spikes, bullets, grenades, plastic rats, garden tools, barbed wire, skulls and oversized tools. The young guys into this style are nearly 100-percent new comers that have no knowledge of hot rod and custom car history and generally do not care. Good news many of them discover the history and quickly out grow the offensive style and leave it behind as they build new vehicles with an eye on style rather than creating unappreciated attention." .[6]
However, despite such attitudes in many areas of hot rodding, over the last ten to twelve years rat rods have become more and more accepted at car shows and in the custom car culture in general, with many car shows either including sections for rat rods, or beginning events directly devoted to them and aimed at wider audiences than ever before.[2]
Darter6
Active Member
There ya go,I prefer the term "Beater." Because that is what my old junk is.....
'Bout everyone I've ever seen makez me ask why'd they bother. Champagne ideaz on ah beer budget. Put the hurt on something that could have been done way better but now it'z just ah RAT ROD
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
I make it a point to NEVER drive anywhere near a POS like that. Must be a generation thing.
67Monaco
Go Woke, Go Broke.
No offense but I couldn't wait to get out of MO when we passed through. Every stop we made the locals looked at us like we were there to **** up their gene-pool. They all seemed to have a similar expression, snarling their noses and baring their summer-teeth. By the time we made it out of there we realized they were prolly just attempting to smile.
Prolly. We grew up watching MadMax. We also realized everything stock sucks.
MoPar Maniac
Well-Known Member
Grafton is in IL.
But the STL area is pretty messed up.
I cant wait to retire and get out of here.
But the STL area is pretty messed up.
I cant wait to retire and get out of here.
Which generation? I know more "old guys' that say they like this stuff than people in my age group (late 20s-early 30s)
bluefury361
Old Man with a Hat
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