Art & Inspiration Return of the Rat Fink Hat!

You guys made them?! Far out man, I would have believed it was an original.

love the silly hat rule, may have to put that into effect haha. Watching Yama’s videos I kept thinking “if we want to hang out with Joey we need mustaches and a silly hats. Make mental note”

you wear them well

 

I never take myself seriously, that's whats up. Someone I trust with my life told me that TROG is just a Ren Faire for "Marlon Brando from the Wild One" wannabes.

 

I don't wear a hat. I look silly enough without one.

 

Joey, I too had a hillbilly crash helmet back in the day.

 

These hats were a deal for us in the late '50s and early sixties. We made them out of old 50's dress hats, we would soak them in water and then stretch them over a fence post stretching them easily, then for a good peak we would use a broom handle. This had to be done when they were soaking wet and a watchful eye on the material as it stretched. The better the hat quality the more stretch available. When they dried they retained the shape and we would cruise around sitting as low in the car as we could and still drive with the hat showing. I told Ed Roth about it at a show and he was delighted to know we liked his style. I had a great experience with Ed and Von Dutch at some drag races in Pomona where they were vending airbrush shirts. They were both liquored up pretty good and having a ball, a super experience!

 

Seems to me that a lid like this with a HAMB logo on it would sell well to a bunch of us in the HAMB marketplace. I wonder how hard it'd be to get a bunch made?

 

Great job on your hats. We love our silly hats too.It’s all about just having FUN. I am a Rat Fink, my initials are R.F.

 

Yes,in the early 1960's,cool hats were a in thing with us teens,what we thought was cool was a lot about who you were!
There a lot of types of hats!
I used a hand-me-down Fedors from my Uncle, in early 60' an on,still do at cars show even now some times.
But also a handmade tophat,given to me by a girlfriend who made them in a few styles. She was also my sailing crew for racing my Blue J. I was able to find a pic,that looks same as her handy work.
I used it when doing airbrush Wild-Car T-shirts at car shows,under my art name"The Bat" out of hell. Wish I still had that one hat,but by now it is dust.
My cartoon side kick,was not a rat*,but a hanging spider* an sometime a little gator named "Bite"*.
My hanging spider was a inside joke, art wise,poking fun at my own drawings of hot cars moving fast an doing wheel stands<but it was a drawing that didn't move=so you see a little spider hanging off the front bumper or ex header pipe in nearly all my car art.
As for car shows,a pic is good,and going back a lot of years are some older pic's of me in my Fedora.

 

Up in the Adirondacks, they were called "Hillbilly" hats. A couple of us wore them on the job, being in uniform, bearded and with the hat, confused the boss more than a few times. I guess we just wore them out! Ryan, are you taking note?!

 

I remember these from when I was kid, thought Rat Fink stuff was cool and had a lot of it. wish I would have kept it all. OH WELL. that hat is cool Im going to make one. BTW remember the beach movies was always one guy in the movie that wore one.

 

Fun story Joey. Thanks.@ Ron Funkhouser you win with the helmet.jmho. Snowman ⛄️

 

This Dude.

 

Yes, that's him.

Look what wearing a R.F. hat can do for you (results may vary)!

 

I remember that movie, that guys got the hat and the babes!!!!

 

that be the guy

 

forgot to mention I was young and impressionable in the early 60s

 

Grinning to myself here, as a kid, I had all of that RF stuff, as with so many of here on this thread, I wished I had saved it all, oh well.

Now I totally get the silly hat gig, I have always been into crazy hats.

A few years back, I made this hat to wear in our annual Fremont solstice day parade, its not wind proof, but it does get a lot of attention, and it creates a lot of smiles.

Just a styro-foam head, hand painted and the jacket is hand painted by me as well.

 

Dude that’s wild! Love it

 

Maybe the most shared human trait found in all cultures worldwide is the tendency for people to find stupid looking shit and then put it on their head.

 

Talking about Roth without talking about Stanley Mouse is like talking about Jack without talking about Daniels ! Much of Roth’s work was borrowed from Mouse .

 

In the beginning of the hot rod art thing , Roth brought the Cars and Mouse brought his T shirt booth . Mouse would rake in the Money painting shirts and selling hats , Roth quickly picked up on Mouse’s ability to turn a buck and started selling monster shirts and hats also . Mouse could out paint Roth and each shirt was more or less hand done , on the spot to satisfy each customers wishes , Roth being a slower painter , silk screened his designs , often done by other artists , and simply colored in the backgrounds . Mouse published a catalog of his designs , Roth followerd suit , they were friendly competitors. Mouse was in awe of Roth’s 3 dimensional art cars , but was by far the better 2 dimensional artist . In my memory , Mouse started the hat craze , and Roth simply followed suit . Here are some more images of Mouse , also notice his supply of German Helmets , he showed up at the car shows ready to sell merchandise. As times changes , Mouse moved on to the world of Rock and Roll , and left his friend Roth with the Hot Rod car show clothing gig

 

This right here is why you are one of my best friends, Joey. That dang hat added AT LEAST 5 times as much fun while you were in town this week!

My nephew Sam loved the hat, and hanging out with Joey so much, he wrote him the best note ever.

 

That is such a cool story! I'm going to keep an eye out for an old dress hat at an estate sale to make one!

 

I think we should have a "Tech week" article on making some of this resplendent head attire.