The term Rat Rod in the beguinning evolved from Rat Bikes ! I rode a chopper all over the states and Canada when young and had street rods , And never heard of a rat rod but in the biker circles an unsafe ratty looking motorcycle was called a rat, Then bike shows started having a rat bike class for fun!
A few yrs later the term rat rod started floating around and it was aimed at the rattiest looking cars you would see ( unsafe, ugly , dirty, (bailing wire and duct tape Etc!! Then it caught on and a rockabilly culture took hold of it LOL Now the rat rods are innovative with great creativity, and engineering but never finished or detailed. I even took jobs in my shop to turn a high priced finished street rod into a rat rod in appearance only in this new decade LOL Its funny how quick it went from a ratty unsafe rolling mess to where the rat rod is now:thumbup: The jalopy was a car still on the road that just was old and in disrepair , and still driving around, With dented floppy body parts ,rusty, bad tires, holes in the exhaust, torn wore out seats engines rattling and knocking and back fireing and continually defying logic and still making it down the road (like the Beverly Hillbillys Jalopy truck) !! A jelopy is not a puposly built car its just wore out and in disrepair!!
A Rat Rod was just a Ratty looking un planned botch that was unsafe uggly and when bailing wire or duct tape was used for an emergency repair it remained there and was never ever repaired properly and after many repairs like this it became what we called a RAT, But now rat rods are much closer to resembling unfinished hot rods from yrs gone by, that used to be called hot rods!! I really think rat rod is not what they are any more they are actually what we called a hot rod , Their not really RATTY or unsafe anymore anymore!!:thumbup: The Rat Rod today is purposely built to look like what we called a ratty rod yrs ago before it became a trend! We all can relate to seeing a car with a tin can wrapped over an exhaust hole or a throttle linkage made with bailing wire or a license plate holding a fender or running board on and saying what a ratty or stupid thing to do
Well yrs ago a motorcycle or car that was full of those kind of repairs is what in the beginning was called ratty LOL now its done for looks and not needed, underground welds left on purpose a crooked top chop on purpose, floors made from street signs done on purpose or no floors ETC, not from laziness or inability but for pure effect!
I do not know why Ratty became a trend or a quality someone wanted for their cars but it has become a real culture today, Even to go as far as painting a car to look like patina or using acid to add rust to good clean parts or actually denting and ripping and unfinished welding what were good body parts !
My buddy bought new 34 ford fenders and just ratted em out with acid rust and sledge hammer dents and cut them with nibblers just to weld them with bubble gum welds so they would look ratty on his rat rod he is building
That kind of thing drives me nuts
It used to be: use what you find and make it work :thumbup: Now its buy new stuff but tear em up or ruin a good project car for a restorer or hot rodder that really needs it , instead of them actually using salvageable ratty parts that they could find to actually do a real low buck rat rod build!
The other part of this is rat rods were low buck owner builds in the beginning that was the whole part of the culture:thumbup: Now there are professionals that are building 100,000 dollar and more RAT RODS and TV shows dedicated to it! To me: I do not class those as RATRODS I see those as expensive custom creations like done for Hollywood movies built for the elite class That are trying to fit in or use the custom creation as an attention grabber ! That Custom Creation is no more a rat rod then the custom creations built for "Mad Max: Fury Road"`
Just my thoughts:thumbup::mwink: Being a young boy hanging with my Dad that was a Hot rodder after his time in the Army after the War in the 40s and 50s and seeing the changes over the yrs in what things were actually called and seeing how the uninformed called things the wrong name and that wrong name catching hold and becoming the norm and replacing the actual name and driving guys in the know and in the Hotrod culture crazy . (like HIGH BOY man has that title changed since the 40s)
Jester (Chris)