Hot Rod Forum banner

Hot Rod or Rat Rod

8K views 20 replies 15 participants last post by  Decho 
#1 ·
Can somenone tell me what a Rat Rod is? I have heard that term used in description for items on ebay and I don't know what a Rat Rod is. Help
Parrot428
 
#2 ·
There are all kinds of definitions now days and many arguments about it. The old time rodders like myself call anything that is safe and road worthy...but is still in primer and usually no interior except the seats..a rat rod others have different descriptions......but to me its basically a unfinished, no frills hot rod.
 
#4 ·
Thanks Henry Highrise, I like your defination. I guess what I want is a Hot Rod sorta like the one I had back in the late 50's and 60's. The body basically what it started out to be, but different and bigger engine. The wife is making a noise like she want to do the interior of my 46 in Roll and Pleted likie the 60's. I have a 350 CU Pontiac engine and a tubo 400 trans and a Pontiac OE tri-power setup for it.
I bought a Munci 4 speed that I had planned to used, but after driving the 3 on the tree for a while, I began to remember all the bad things about straight shifts(mainly a big dummy missing gears and stripping them) so I have decided on the tubo 400. Haven't even thought about painting. I do want to remain a Hot Rod not a Street Rod if there is any difference between them. All I want is a rod to have fun with. After 40 years under pressure and working, now I am ready for fun with no one to tell me what to do, well maybe the wife does a little.
Parrot
 
#6 ·
Henry Highrise said:
There are all kinds of definitions now days and many arguments about it. The old time rodders like myself call anything that is safe and road worthy...but is still in primer and usually no interior except the seats..a rat rod others have different descriptions......but to me its basically a unfinished, no frills hot rod.
Maybe I will learn how to use this board. I forgot to say in my reply to your defination that we are pretty close to each other..I live in Moscow, TN just outside of Colliverville, TN. Thanks for the def.
Parrot
 
#7 ·
Wikipedia
rat rod;
Rat rod is a newly developed name for the original hot rod style of the early 1950s. A rat rod is usually a vehicle that has had many of its non-critical parts removed. They are usually finished in primer-like paints and are often period correct. They are very often the conglomeration of parts and pieces of different makes and models.

for more info go here www.answers.com & type in "rat rod"

R :thumbup:
 
#8 ·
I agree with Henry about the Rat Rod def but for myself, I call an no-frills hot rod a old time hot rod. But I call those thrown together, wacky rods that sit 1 inch off the ground as just a big piece of junk!
It's funny, though, that those guys with the tattoos, greasy hair, cigarettes hanging from their lips, leaning against a Rat Rod just as big of a snob as those fat cats with the 100K + Coddington rods!!
Crazy hobbie we're in!!
 
#9 · (Edited)
Good basic explanations of a Rat Rod, except remember one very important thing, please.

'Rat Rod' is a term endearded to some and detested by others, both of whom share the same passion of the same symbol of the origins of hot rodding.

There is also a scale of 'rat rods' or period correctness in authentic Hot Rods of the golden age of hot rodding. The scale for some cars is off the charts in effort to re-create the authentic Hot Rod. These creations are referred to as Rat Rods that can emulate a 1/2 a$$ed old car, when in actuality, these super, period-correct rods are master pieces in automotive art and history.
There can be just as much time, money and effort into building one of these original appearing and period correct cars as one who wins the Ridler award. REALLY!
 
#11 ·
It is just a buzz word like "old school" that people throw around. It used to mean a car built with resources at hand and not a catalog menu of parts. Now Boyd Coddington puts flat primer paint on one of his cars and calls it a ratrod. There are actually techniques to make a car built with all new parts look old. Then people with money can buy coolness that they would never have been able to obtain any other way.
 
#14 ·
Cmon

Parrot said:
Thanks Henry Highrise, I like your defination. I guess what I want is a Hot Rod sorta like the one I had back in the late 50's and 60's. The body basically what it started out to be, but different and bigger engine. The wife is making a noise like she want to do the interior of my 46 in Roll and Pleted likie the 60's. I have a 350 CU Pontiac engine and a tubo 400 trans and a Pontiac OE tri-power setup for it.
I bought a Munci 4 speed that I had planned to used, but after driving the 3 on the tree for a while, I began to remember all the bad things about straight shifts(mainly a big dummy missing gears and stripping them) so I have decided on the tubo 400. Haven't even thought about painting. I do want to remain a Hot Rod not a Street Rod if there is any difference between them. All I want is a rod to have fun with. After 40 years under pressure and working, now I am ready for fun with no one to tell me what to do, well maybe the wife does a little.
Parrot

Ok...your making a hot rod, with a sb chevy motor. Some people will disagree w/ me, but nothing special. Nothing unique bout it. There are so many roadsters, coupes, with sb chevy motors in them. If i was you, i would put something else in it. Maybe a nailhead like me.
 
#15 ·
Yep! Or a old Rocket Oldsmobile engine or a old Desoto Hemi. Its just a money thing with the SBC ( thats what I put in mine) you can build three 350 sbc's for what it will cost to build a Nailhead Buick.....If you can even find the performance parts that you would want for it. They can be found but they are pricey. But if your doing a Nailhead.....I like it...they are really cool. :cool:
 
#18 ·
willowbilly3 said:
It is just a buzz word like "old school" that people throw around. It used to mean a car built with resources at hand and not a catalog menu of parts. Now Boyd Coddington puts flat primer paint on one of his cars and calls it a ratrod. There are actually techniques to make a car built with all new parts look old. Then people with money can buy coolness that they would never have been able to obtain any other way.
yep...saw a clown at Greedguys a couple of years ago, selling a glass "ratrod" he had just finished. DP90, SBC,coulda been a decent car, he just didn't get it.

Have seen "ratrods" arrive at shows, on a trailer, that i wouldnt drive across the parking lot. Have seen the 100k cars show up in an enclosed trailer, behinda 250k motorhome, that i wouldn't drive across the parkinglot.
.......for different reasons....
mine may not be pretty, nor is it finished, (and pro'lly never will be)
but it puts a smile on my face.......

Ratrod = buzzword

buzzwords, invented by marketing people
marketing people = satans spawn

just my .02
 
#19 ·
Rat Rods and Hot Rods are in the same bucket for me. "rat" usually means crappy paint and body, but just as fast. "Hot" means just as fast, but looks alot better.

Crap-Rod is my new word now, which I'm gonna be using to describe some of my projects.

One of which I bought almost a year ago, a 49' Lincholn Front, and a 52' Mercury back half, with stretched fenders, cut in half, welded together, with the roof cut off. No doors at all, and the body is really floppy. I want to find a running truck, and cram it all together. IFS is fine with me, since the cars keeping its shoddy looking Linc' fenders. No hood would ever fit this car, the cowl is a mystery deal, its one vehicles fire-wall, and a sliver of metal from the back of another car, uses a Ford rear-windsheild for the actual windsheild. The dash is from a 51' Ford. The trunk was full of random garbage from both cars, used to have Air-Bags, but they rotted off.

-GF
 
#20 ·
Rat Rod or Hot Rod

Decho said:
I agree with Henry about the Rat Rod def but for myself, I call an no-frills hot rod a old time hot rod. But I call those thrown together, wacky rods that sit 1 inch off the ground as just a big piece of junk!
It's funny, though, that those guys with the tattoos, greasy hair, cigarettes hanging from their lips, leaning against a Rat Rod just as big of a snob as those fat cats with the 100K + Coddington rods!!
Crazy hobbie we're in!!
Yes, it is a vry crazy Hobbie. However I don't understand why. I have a 1967 Pontiac Catalina 2+2 Convertible with a 428 and tri-power. The car has only 62, 000 original miles and the only thing changed was that I added the 66 tri-powe. Now I am looked down on because I have changed an original car, but I can put it back original in about 2 hours. So when I am original one group down't like me and when I am not original another group looks down on me. So I decided to use the car in the best way that the wife and I can enjoy it and the heck with others. Another grip I have the Street Rodders don't like us guys with so called original cars and some of the guys with original cars look down on the street rodders, rat rods, hot rods. There are several in my club like me who have both. The way I look at this hobbie is that there is room for all of us even at one show. If a street rodder likes his rod, then I am happy for him and don''t want to put him down, the same for the old car guys who want to be original. I like all cars, I enjoy looking at some of the street rods with the 2 4's and a GMC 671 Blower. I also enjoy looking at an all original car and rat rods, hot rods or whatever has 4 wheels a motor of some kind and a steering wheel especially a good set of breaks. We all have the same love and that is cars whatever you call them.
Now my opinion and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffe at the local convience store.
Parrot428
 
#21 · (Edited)
I fully agree with Parrot, this is a crazy hobby! And like Parrot, I just love cars!! It's unfortunate that we have so many snobs, whether a rat rodder, street rodder, custom, whatever, they just think there poop and ideas are the best ones!!
I own 4 old cars (57 chev, 55 ford, 66 mustang, 50 chev coupe) and if I could afford a 30-something coupe (thanks for driving the cost of those up so high, you fat turd wanna-be cool street rodders, you know who you are!!) I'd have one of those and a hand full of other cool cars.
So my attitude is I love cars period!! And those turds who look down at me or anybody elses car can take a flying jump in the lake with Coddington and his attitude!

That's just me...
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top