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Finally Clear! Rat Rod and Ratty Rod!!!!

9K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  tfeverfred 
#1 ·
Hey guys!
This past weekend at a large car show I came to a Revelation my wife bless her heart goes along and tries her best to learn and she was having a difficult time with rat rods so I finally broke it down like this if it is put together good and safe and looks reminiscent of the 50's 60's hot rod :pimp: it is a Rat Rod, but if it is a bunch of mismatched crap poorly welded/wired together looking like it is ready to disintegrate at any minute it is a Ratty Rod! :pain: I think we have finally found a term for those crap cars out there! :thumbup: Hey to each his own but everything needs a name of its own :eek:
 
#2 ·
Not A T 25 said:
Hey guys!
This past weekend at a large car show I came to a Revelation my wife bless her heart goes along and tries her best to learn and she was having a difficult time with rat rods so I finally broke it down like this if it is put together good and safe and looks reminiscent of the 50's 60's hot rod :pimp: it is a Rat Rod, but if it is a bunch of mismatched crap poorly welded/wired together looking like it is ready to disintegrate at any minute it is a Ratty Rod! :pain: I think we have finally found a term for those crap cars out there! :thumbup: Hey to each his own but everything needs a name of its own :eek:
:D Good definition! I'll have to tell my wife that one also :thumbup:
 
#3 ·
I know a lot of people are offended by the tern Rat Rod but its just a term a lot of younger people are using. Take the term tight for example, it now also means cool, which also means low temperature. The meanings of words are ever changing. It just seems the Rat Rod term really offends some people.

I prefer to call old junky rust buckets what they are... a POS :)

Jordon
 
#4 ·
Oh and I know we are going to get told it is a form of art or expression but at least when Barris and the others made something radical it didn't look like it came from the trash pile, well except for the Beverly Hillbillies car :thumbup: The other crime is that they are destroying some really good steel! :spank:
 
#5 ·
If it's built to look like rods from the '50s/'60s, they tend to prefer the term "traditional". A rat rod is a POS, plain and simple. I pop into the HAMB every so often and for a while, the rat rods were accepted there. Now, they are ridiculed and exiled. Riding in a rust bucket with no regard for safety is not cool, even to the people who kinda understood what they were trying to do.
 
#7 ·
The other crime is that they are destroying some really good steel!
Well in some cases, maybe

I used to hear that about rodders in general 35 years ago at Hershey, but I think rodders over the years have saved way more old cars (or major pieces of cars) than restores did. That's because rodding was around before restoring. There are so many old, once forgotten rod bodies popping on the market now with the prices people are willing to spend. I'm doing an old 32 Ford that may have had 50 owners in the last 75 years, if not for rodders, it would have been crushed during the WW2 scrap drives. Yes it is a mess after years of owners, but at least it is still here.

I get your point though, in some cases. But I also see some incredible "saves" of bodies that almost nobody would think could be fixed. There was a post on HAMB of a 32 Ford 2 dr sedan body that must have been pushed over a cliff....after it was hit by a dozer :) The passenger door was nearly cut in half by an axe, and the back body had quarters pointing in opposite directions. Some of these guys have some real talent...but I do know some don't.
 
#8 ·
My interpretation is that the younger generation uses the "Rat Rod" term the way we use the term "Hot Rod".................

Problem is, there are people out there who take advantage of this and build crap in order to make a quick buck off of it......................

I think the truth is finally coming out about these shysters......due to sites like ours and the HAMB.................hope so anyways.
 
#9 ·
tfeverfred said:
If it's built to look like rods from the '50s/'60s, they tend to prefer the term "traditional". A rat rod is a POS, plain and simple. I pop into the HAMB every so often and for a while, the rat rods were accepted there. Now, they are ridiculed and exiled. Riding in a rust bucket with no regard for safety is not cool, even to the people who kinda understood what they were trying to do.
I think the original term Rat Rod referred to Bid Daddy Ed Roths cartoons where the car was chopped and cut so radically that the creature sat thru the top of the car :mwink: But those were cartoons not real :eek:
 
#10 ·
F&J said:
Well in some cases, maybe

I used to hear that about rodders in general 35 years ago at Hershey, but I think rodders over the years have saved way more old cars (or major pieces of cars) than restores did. That's because rodding was around before restoring. There are so many old, once forgotten rod bodies popping on the market now with the prices people are willing to spend. I'm doing an old 32 Ford that may have had 50 owners in the last 75 years, if not for rodders, it would have been crushed during the WW2 scrap drives. Yes it is a mess after years of owners, but at least it is still here.

I get your point though, in some cases. But I also see some incredible "saves" of bodies that almost nobody would think could be fixed. There was a post on HAMB of a 32 Ford 2 dr sedan body that must have been pushed over a cliff....after it was hit by a dozer :) The passenger door was nearly cut in half by an axe, and the back body had quarters pointing in opposite directions. Some of these guys have some real talent...but I do know some don't.
I agree with your initial statement there are still those purist who thing street rodders destroy good steel but I am not referring to the lost causes I am referring to good solid steel cut down to the point it can never be put back for example I saw a two door sedan at Good Guys Indy a couple of years ago with windows only 3" tall the hood came to they guys shoulders that was good steel trashed. :evil:
 
#11 ·
rats mice and other rodents

Since I have been quiet for a while about everything the post mentioning Hershey made me think.I had the only ever hot rod shop in Hershey.Ilived there ,went to school there and had a shop ,I dragged a57 Buick .Got a 64 GTO and opened the shop when I got home from a full time gig at a body shop.Rat rods never existed man ,let me tell you guys we allways wanted to make em better,faster ,cooler on both coasts.I was in so cal in the air foce in the 50s.Rats ratty ,whatever,Check the old rags ask a grey or bald guy next time your out. Who cares what they call em ,long as they keep em comin and nobody gets hurt because some people are just plain stupid or greedy or want to fit in.I been a hot rodder 57 years and I swear my heart allways skips a beat when I see one comin ,goin or sittin.I dont care what any one clls em.SO THERE...
 
#12 ·
Not A T 25 said:
I agree with your initial statement there are still those purist who thing street rodders destroy good steel but I am not referring to the lost causes I am referring to good solid steel cut down to the point it can never be put back for example I saw a two door sedan at Good Guys Indy a couple of years ago with windows only 3" tall the hood came to they guys shoulders that was good steel trashed. :evil:
some cars chopped alot have a place



Not A T's definition is pretty accurate though
Shane
 
#13 ·
Not A T 25 said:
I think the original term Rat Rod referred to Bid Daddy Ed Roths cartoons where the car was chopped and cut so radically that the creature sat thru the top of the car :mwink: But those were cartoons not real :eek:
...and I have said that in the past. It was a joke that some people took for a real, new building style. If anything, it goes against human nature to want to have the crapiest looking of ANYTHING.

Would you purposely trash your house? Would you buy a house that was trashed out and leave it that way? Everyone, no matter what level of society, works to have nice things. Nice being, clean, kept up and PLEASING to the eye. I don't care who you are, no one can convince me that they woke up and thoght it would be cool to drive around in a rusted car with crap screwed to it. I ain't buying it. Early rat rodders just need to tell the truth. They thought the joke that rolled into the Nationals that year was real and went out and built one. They didn't get it. The newer breed of rat rodder needs to admit that they thought hot rods were cool and didn't have the bucks and/or skill level to get into it, so they thought that a rat rod could be done cheap and the worst it was done, the cooler they would be. Both groups failed. They will always be a curiosity and will gather a crowd. Mostly people trying to figure out why someone would do that to a car.

As for Roth, he was an artist way before he was a hot rodder. In fact, if you look at his early work, that is not car related, he would be considered an abstract artist. He saw a hot new thing going on in SoCal and did what he did best. He built his artistic INTERPITATION of it. Abstract roof chops, way out paint jobs and bodies. He was giving the world a rolling statement of his view of hot rodding. They actually weren't meant to be driven and few actually could!

Now, if a rat rod is done to make a statement, I'd sure as hell like to know what it is. The response, "If I have to tell you, you'd never understand." is a cop out. Just tell the truth, go home and add a couple inches to the roof, fix the scrubline, put a floor and firewall in it, patch the rusted panels and please.... put some front brakes on the damn thing.

The sad thing about the "industry" getting into it is that they don't care what happens after the buyer buys their product. Most are out to just feed the trend and reap the financial rewards. The fact that rat rods are being promoted by SEMA ( an organization that basicly sets and judges the higher standard) should tell you that they are feeding a youth market to get all the money they can. As soon as they found out people were trying to build a cheap POS, they figured out a way to sell them a cheap (but marked up) POS.

Rat rodders can and will build what they want, but are they doing it for the love of the hobby or because they always wanted to fit in and a rat rod is the cheapest way to do it.
 
#14 ·
lowgirl said:
Since I have been quiet for a while about everything the post mentioning Hershey made me think.I had the only ever hot rod shop in Hershey.Ilived there ,went to school there and had a shop ,I dragged a57 Buick .Got a 64 GTO and opened the shop when I got home from a full time gig at a body shop.Rat rods never existed man ,let me tell you guys we allways wanted to make em better,faster ,cooler on both coasts.I was in so cal in the air foce in the 50s.Rats ratty ,whatever,Check the old rags ask a grey or bald guy next time your out. Who cares what they call em ,long as they keep em comin and nobody gets hurt because some people are just plain stupid or greedy or want to fit in.I been a hot rodder 57 years and I swear my heart allways skips a beat when I see one comin ,goin or sittin.I dont care what any one clls em.SO THERE...
Well said. Trying to fit in is going to get someone killed on the highway one day and the legislatures who need fuel for the anti-hot rodding fire are going to eat it up. Everyone talks about the tree lovers wanting to get cars off the rod. Well guess what, a hot rod will be the first target and when they start killing people, they will be an easy target. Political officials and cops are cracking down on street racers which seem to be newer cars, wait till a rat rod (mistaken for a hot rod) kills someone. How hard do you think it will be to legislate away a 50 year old car, once they have proof people are being injured or killed?
 
#16 ·
When it comes to old style hot rods as far as I'm concerned there are four basic types.

1. Traditional - A rod built in the same style as early 40's or 50's rods. These cars are usually well done, well researched, and are a faithful reproduction including early speed equipment.

2. Rat Rod - A rod built purposely to look like what the owner "thinks" traditional rods used to look like, even though he has no personal knowledge of what a traditional rod really was.

3. Crap Rods - Any hot rod that fails to meet common sense safety requirements, ie; front brakes, floors, glass, lights etc. This isn't limited to rat rods, any type of rod can fall into this category if it lacks safety equipment.

4. POS - Any hot rod that falls into category #2 and category #3. When a Rat Rod fails to meet common safety requirements it is a POS, no two ways about it. This usually happens because the builder isn't qualified to put together an erector set. Crap Rods don't fall into this category by themselves simply because some are pro-built and are at least constructed using decent workmanship.
 
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