Return of the Rat Fink Hat!

“If we’re going to work on your car at my shop, we’re going to need silly hats.” That’s a direct quote from my pal David di Falco from the spring of 2020. At that point I didn’t have a car. I didn’t even have pieces of one. Nonetheless, I took that tidbit of information and stashed it somewhere deep in the back of my mind.

Later that summer, I started stitching together my Model A roadster. Once I got the car running and driving, I began thinking about the next steps. Flathead, Deuce frame, quickchange, etc. Seeing that I only have a one-car garage here in the city, I reached out to David about teaming up and wrenching on it at his shop. Being the great friend that he is, he agreed. I thought back to our phone call from more than a year prior.

I knew I didn’t have much time. Silly hats? What kind of hat would a hot rodder wear? There was one clear choice: a “Rat Fink Hat,” a la Ed “Big Daddy” Roth.

Although their exact origin may have been lost to time, rumor has it that they’re based on the old felt souvenir hats like the one below.

These hats were sold in the Missouri Ozarks and other popular tourist locations back in the ’50s-’60s. I remember reading about them in The Rodder’s Journal and Pat Ganahl’s Roth book when I was a kid, but I had never seen a real one.

As luck would have it, this plan was unfolding as I was preparing to leave for Michigan. I called my mom—a master seamstress—and introduced the idea. “Let’s make them when I get there!” I said. Without hesitation, she dove right in.

First, she collected inspiration. Old ads, snapshots, artifacts, you name it. Next came materials. Felt, pens, markers, scissors, leather laces, and some really good fabric glue. I had figured we would handle assembly when I arrived back home but, much to my surprise, she had already finished the basic forms by the time I walked in the door. That gave us even more time to customize.

And customize we did. On a late summer evening, me, her, and my brother sat down at a picnic table in my brother’s backyard in Lansing and got to work. With music playing, snacks and drinks in rotation, and chunks of felt flying, it was a party that I’m sure Large Father himself would have dug. When it was all said and done, we had a quintet of RF Hats. That’s David’s in the middle. He ended up loving it!

Since then, the hat has become part of my regular uniform. It’s traveled with me across the country time and time again. It kept me out of the sun at the RPM Nationals one week and at The Race of Gentlemen the next. I’ve worn it while riding my chopper, racing my roadster and just about everywhere else one can wear a hat. Nowadays, it’s battle-worn and sunbaked. There are flecks of Oregon mud and holes from cutoff wheel sparks in Missouri. It’s fully customized—and it’s mine.

One final note. These days, so many hot rodders take themselves way too seriously. At The Race of Gentlemen, the announcer blurted that I needed to bring my hat back to the Renaissance Fair and get my money back. Later that day, a grown man crab-walked halfway across the beach just to say, “You’re a wizard, Harry!”

A hat like this isn’t for everyone, but it can be. The goal here is to be goofy, be nice, freak out the squares, respect tradition and, most importantly, have fun—just like Ed Roth.

—Joey Ukrop

We’ll close with this shot from Benjamin MacMaster…