27 replies to this topic

[retroguy]

I've seen alot of cars that people call "rat rods"

If you look at the word rat,to me this means dirty and unclean ,not new and shiny

I'd like to hear your definition of a "ratrod" and see what you guys call a "real ratrod"...

Edited by retroguy, 13 November 2012 - 10:48 AM.

[jw78z28]

dirty,unclean and way more motor than u need thats how i view a rat rod. I consider my 78 z28 to be a newer rat rod beat up nasty looking and one heck of a big block and 10.5 DOT cheater slicks.

Edited by jw78z28, 13 November 2012 - 10:54 AM.

[Tom Setzer]

To me a rat rod is a bunch of parts, that are thrown together without much thought, and no care for trying to have a decent body!

[Erik Smith]

A mix of used and discarded parts pieced together to make a fun to drive hot rod on a very limited budget. It is NOT a car that has been purposely built (staged) to look old. I can see the art and design in building a car to look old and rusty, but to call a multi-thousand dollar build (that includes modern components) a "rat" is completely missing the point.

[MachinistMark]

Garbage wagons.

[signguy2108]

Spending $20,000.00 on a car to make it look like it's worth $200.00!!!!!!

[Harry P.]

What a can of worms you've opened!

Just like "muscle car," ask 10 different people to define "rat rod" and you'll get 10 different answers.

I think the most widely accepted definition is a hot rod that is built on a bare-bones budget using junkyard parts, with no real attention being paid to "design" or aesthetics, and no real "plan" or design as to how it winds up looking in the end.

At least that's how they started. Then people began building "rat rods" that looked that way on purpose. What they were actually building were rat rod facsimiles. Whether these are true "rat rods" or just copies of rat rods is open to debate.

[Longbox55]

If you go back to origins of the Rat Rod movement, it's an evolution of the Rat Bikes of the late '70s. The idea is function over appearance. They weren't pretty, many were built with used/salvaged/refrubished parts, no flashy paint. They were meant to be used, not show queens. It's not really a new concept, what most people call "rat rods" today have been around since the beginning of rodding, but the term itself is relativeley new, as I mentioned, is from the rat bike trend. Unfortunatly, it has gotten to the point that you have fake patina cars, cars intentionally rusted to look "ratty", and even the thrown together cars that look very unsafe to even be around, let alone try to drive. It's gotten to the point where calling a rod a "rat rod" will get you dirty looks from the owners, even if it does fit the description.
BTW, not all rats are unsafe peices of junk, many are actually very well built. They just arent necessarily "pretty". Not all of them have flat paint, either. As far as unsafe, I've seen my fair share of Tuner, Low Rider, Lifted Pavement Pounder 4x4, and Muscle Cars that would not pass a state inspection due to improper build quality.

[rel14]

Rat rod, finding whatever you can put together and make a dependable dirty, unpaint car. Let whatever you feel go into the ride, No Rules.

[JunkPile]

If I have to explain, you will never understand

[southpier]

[Daddyfink]

Who cares! This fad is done!

[jw78z28]

_{rat rods will never die there will always be broke hot rodders out there.}

[James2]

Rat Rod: A well over used term that describes a type of automobile that was hobbled together with parts from the junk pile, and made to look older than it really is.
The term was stolen from the real biker community and they want it back!

[Longbox55]

Does this look "hobbled together with parts from the junk pile"?
Under that chopped flat black Studebaker truck cab is a full IMSA stock car chassis. Hardly "junk pile" parts.

[MachinistMark]

yes, it does look like junk.

[Joe Handley]

Well, yea it kinda does. It's at least built on good, solid underpinnings.

[James2]

Well, yea it kinda does. It's at least built on good, solid underpinnings.

That was salvaged from a wrecked IMSA race car, on the pile of junk behind the shop.

[Badluck 13]

Rat Rods usually are old but then rust are clean Wednesdays sing on Thursdays without a choir
have your anchovies stopped playing the piano without a generator it must be Tuesday, I've brought my tomato sauce and a surly duck where is the telephone that I am," sat does he the does? one down at I came of that does under think mass of terrified jelly on the ground in a small mud floored chamber an ape about driving trials is something a buzzing a very long honey is he was,....just my opinion

[Jantrix]

Mike, any fumes where you are sitting right now?

Seriously guys, just about anything pre-'49, in primer or flat black is called a rat rod these days regardless of the quality of the workmanship or parts used. Where ever the term was coined, it has out grown its origins and is now an automotive trend that continues to grow.

Like any automotive trend you either love it or hate it. (I still think lowered mini-trucks are totally ridiculous.)