is it a RAT ROD? is it not a RAT ROD?

Umm...yeah, that front-end is screwed though.

 

I wonder how he feels about it being called a "rat rod". If that deuce was mine, I might be offended....
Flatman



i wasn't going to respond to this but ...........
as far as the hamb is concerned i've touched on this subject very lightly over the years and with the
exception of a handful, most of you are missing the boat....completely !

you want to know why the owner doesn't mind his car being called a rat rod? its because he comes from a club who invented the term. once and for all folks.....this term actually meant something to us 15 years ago ....and it obviously meant something entirely different than what it does today. why? because we wanted to be different than the mainstream peach,turqoise,& neon green colored cars that filled the rod shows.

back in 1992 we were building hot rods using 32 bodies,model A bodies & model T bodies. although these cars & speed equipment were more obtainable back then we still hunt down & purchase the same stuff....even if it costs more money today....why?..because its the real deal. sometimes you have to splurge and suffer to get the right stuff but in the end you really have something special. NOT THAT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE 100% AUTHENTIC...IT JUST HAS TO BE RIGHT !!!!!!
anyone can put stuff together like what you see pictured above but thats not what guys were in to back in the 50's,its not what we were in to back in the late 80's & early 90's,and its not what we're in to now. for some unexplainable reason people across the country are changing history in front of our eyes.....and "one particular magazine" ISN'T helping matters
any ! these "johnny come lately" magazine owners,editors,publishers should take a real good look at what they're doing to the rodding industry! i dont know if these people have looked at our cars over the years and now perceive them exactly as what they own? do they simply not get it? have they even studied thier rodding history books !?!?!?

in a nut shell all keven sledge and i are saying in that sema article is that people took the term and have changed its meanings to be derogatory. that wasn't its original intent, and now a rat rod ISN'T really a rat rod. 15 years ago when we first started getting ink and when the word FIRST made print a rat rod to us was a well built hot rod that wasn't finished. it was a pre war ford hot rod in primer that lacked the luxuries of full interior.
at this time there were 4 so-cal car clubs around that consisted of younger greasers. only two out of the 4 exist today and its sad that we're mixed in and compared with the stuff you read in magazines now.

a famous tattoo artist that i use to live next door to said it all in the desperate generation video. "SEEMS LIKE EVERYTHING COOL GETS RUINED".


where is all of this going today? i dont know...only the future will tell. mattel had hot wheels with the term a few years ago, and now revell toy co. recently patented (TM) the name. if only we had a crystal ball 15 years ago.

hope this clarifies things a bit.
axle

p.s.
one of you asked about dan collins' 60 olds. kevan sledge originally built,chopped,and owned that car then sold it 8 or 9 years ago. it switched hand a few times then dan collins bought it. well, as the world turns...kevan bought his old car back.

 

I agree Axle. Most guys I have met don't like their cars being referred to as a "Ratrod". A traditional hotrod is just that,built with traditional concepts. Sledges car is a traditional hotrod. Billy Gibbons car and Corky Cokers car,is a "Ratrod". I consider my Merc a traditional style custom. Most customs I see today are full of leather interiors,fancy stereos,billet engine stuff. Hotrods are the same way. Jimmy Shine,Cole Foster,build traditional style cars. Brizzio,Boyd,and many others like that,build "Streetrods". There is a difference. Smallblock Chevy isn't traditional,nailhead,331 Caddy,Hemi,flatheads are. Also there's a HUGE difference between traditional and traditional"look". Old School Rods and Car Kulture Deluxe magazines have distorted the image of hotrodding. IMO of course.

 

It pissis me off, all these old guys driving fuckin 4 door cars, and calling a nice home build HOT ROD a "rat rod" . Just because it dose not have 5k paint job, or modern wheels does not make it a fuckin rat rod!!! And these old guys 65+ should know better!!!! Fuck the word "rat rod" and the person who started using it. There are 2 types of Rod, A Hot Rod, ( cool lookin 30s 40s 50s period rides ) or a street rod ( money car ). rat rod came from the "rat bike" scene and there can KEEP IT.

 

I Like the 32 its a great car, But really what ever we may decide to lable a car, Rat Rod or what ever....Does It really matter? its just a term and we will never all agree on what term to use. The fact that we all have a common interest in older model cars and we for the most part try to help each other out with advise, inspiration, parts, etc. is all thats really important.

My 3 cents

36RRC

 

Well said Axle.....the problem is ALOT of guys (even HERE) will call a car a RATROD if it doesn't have ALL the REQUIRED parts to be a TRADITIONAL hotrod....
To build a nice, trad car is big $$$$ today(not 15 years ago)........todays ratrods are built on the cheap with WHATEVER is available by guys with no $$$ to have fun.
I don't like most of it....but if it makes the builder happy, so be it......I just don't want to see 'em(the abortions) on the HAMB...he he....

 

In my opinion some of the guys that drive hot rods would like to have street rods but the big buck are holding them back.

I also agree that a lot of the gold chainers lack the knowlage to even begin to build there own car but don't have any problems acting like they have a clue.

I know what I can afford and a big buck street rod is not in my future. I have had my truck for 10 years and only spend what I can scrape together without taking away from my family. One of these days my 2 kids will be done with school and I can play.

Make mine a Hot Rod

Let the flameing begin!!

 

Kevan is not rat rod by todays terms. its a cool hotrod. I am a huge fan of one of Kevan's previous rides (at least I believe its the same Kevan). A blue full fendered Model A sedan. He was nice enough to send me a few pictures after I tracked him down after seeing a pic of it in a mag. That was about a year and half ago. I still have the mag pic taped to my computer monitor where I see it ever day. The car was inspiration for my sedan.

 

that LABEL is so stupid,,,"RAT ROD's",,the word(s) is nowadays a big joke to me,,,NOTHING is sacred anymore,,,,i grew up around REAL bikers(not meaning that you own a stuipid harley,,but a real biker that would rather kick your ass thn look at you,,) ,lowriders(real lowriderrs,not the shit you consider lowriders here on the hamb) real TATTOO's,,,back when if you had a tattoo people looked at you funny,,(not like today when a tattoo,,is something to do when you go to flordia on vacation,,,or you get a FULL SLEAVE beacause you started a garage band and have connections with MTV)


it was like 1989 or '90 when i had my first run in with the SHIFTERS...i say "run in",,but i was actually a bystander,,,,i was in my fresh white Tee,501's,doc martins and about 17 or 18 years old,,,,,riding shotgun in my dad's 56 nomad the first time i spotted those dudes out up in la habra,,,,
.
,,,my first impression??? PRICELESS,,,,,never forget it......

 

like this one!?,,hahah just fuckin with you,,hahaha

 

holy shit! Who cares? I wanted to build a cheap fenderless truck out of a B-Model mack cab i had since i was 12 years old. Well...not exactly the best candidate now that i think back about it.

Not everyone's out to join a fad, I didn't even know what "Rat" was until about a year and a half ago.

 

my mom had a birthday party for my brother along time ago when we were lil kids,,,,his freinds from school were invited,,,everyone was playing in the back yard,,and this kid cam running up front saying that a RAT bit him.....

..i still have never figured that one out,,,

,,when i hear the word RAT,,,...i think of a BIG BLOCK CHEVY....

 

I don't care what people call my car,RATROD,Hot Rod, The Munster car.So what! I can't stop grinning when I fire up the Hemi,and blast down the road baking my Cokers,and banging gears.Nothing can't beat the SAFE time I have!!!!!!!!!! Oh yeh,Mine is primer cause for right now,I got no money and not enough skill,YET,to paint it.Isn't that how it was????Same ol same ol here.No interior?see above.Same ol same ol

 

A B Model Mack?.... My dad worked in the trucking industry and the B61 has always been my favorite truck. I'd like to restore one with a tilt bed one day.

I don't know how the heck you could pull that Mack cab off as a rod body. But if you could do it tastefully, it'd be awesome!

BTW, I'd never heard the term "Rat Rod" until 4 or 5 years ago because I'd been hanging out with a Ford musclecar bunch. I assumed that it meant a bare bones, basic primered traditional rod as I saw when I was young. You guys quickly educated me to the fact that that isn't the meaning. My two best friends have caught onto the "movement" and are ratting out the wife's '74 Caddie Sedan DeVille.....Blitz Black, red wheels, wide whites, skulls,hopefully no barb wire and all of the standard issue crap. I hate the plan but it's Lisa's car so who am I to say? At least this will be a safe one.

Jan

 

Yeah, was my favorite truck as a kid. We have a spare cab that my dad bought and stripped for parts. Used to be called "Red Bird" and had a sleeper on it. One side of the cowl is messed up, both doors are dead, but there is a pair laying next to it.


But, apparently a month or two after watching American Graffiti, something clicked an I suddenly had started having an urge to build an old rod.

 

Sick of the term "rat rod", sick of black primer and red steelies with WW being the requirement. A clown here did it to a 80's suburban and thinks he's a rat rodder. Get a clue kiddies, it takes more then some spray cans and tires to make a hot rodder. Tradional Rods are timeless.

 

Like caprices with flatblack/wide white walls.

I dunno...the "styling" has been kinda bastardized at this point.

 

Found this today, thought It might've been an abandoned Vicky project/rat or something. But its a '34 Hudson. Decent body actually, kinda rough, but it definetly didn't deserve this.

Typical Rat fashion, S-10 Frame, bad proportions, and a floor thats horribly tacked in made out of an truck bed and pieces of a school bus floor. Grill shell is crapped together also. Wheels are...well...atleast their not red.

Owner was actually a pretty good guy, his 12 year old son had pressured him into buying it, he didn't do none of this crap work (had a nice Chevelle, which I'm pretty sure he done the bodywork on) But hes now found an 50-F2/3 and is reconsidering trying to complete the Hudson. Hes thinking about carving off the deck-lid thing and making it flat again.

He seemed interested in unloading it somewhere, and I really don't blame him. Body needs to be taken off, floor pulled out (lieterally) and a new frame and floor put under it.

Ah well...this is the first "close" look I've got at these Rat/Crap Rods.

 

If you read the artical in HOP UP #8,Kevan explains why he calls it a "rat rod",because it meant something different to him and his club when he built it.It made sense to me.No matter what "label"you want to apply,the car is f%ing cool,and is obviously a lot of fun!

 

The term RAT ROD is misused by rodders as much as STREET ROD is misused by other rodders.