Rat?

[jmpowie]

Huh??? Something with rebar suspension is unsafe and should be shunned by the people on this forum. We've tried hard on RRR to get rid of those kinds of junk builds being called a rat rod, or those kinds of things being built at all. Makes us all look bad.

Pop culture has kinda made "ratrod" a unsafe rebar build. Its the same way a "streetrod" is a high dollor Boydster. If you went to a parking lot and showed 10 people a few pic's of custom car's. The car with saw blades, rebar and junk welded to it. What kind of car is it? They would call it a "ratrod".
I love the cars on this site, because they are made safe and are built not bought. I am not tring to make anyone mad. I just would not like someone calling my car a "rat"

 

[Neverdone]

Pop culture has kinda made "ratrod" a unsafe rebar build. Its the same way a "streetrod" is a high dollor Boydster. If you went to a parking lot and showed 10 people a few pic's of custom car's. The car with saw blades, rebar and junk welded to it. What kind of car is it? They would call it a "ratrod".
I love the cars on this site, because they are made safe and are built not bought. I am not tring to make anyone mad. I just would not like someone calling my car a "rat"

Mine has saw blades and junk welded to it no rebar though. It is pretty much as safe as they come though too. Just because it has odd things welded or whatever to it doesn't make it bad. Some might even call that unique, or personality. But I know mine is a rat rod, I made it that way, I don't care what people think of it, I like it.

If you don't like your car being called a rat rod then correct them and move on. Personally it doesn't bother me at all and don't consider it a bad thing. But my definition of rat rod is a little different than everyone else.

 

[21willys]

Had a guy ask me yesterday at a show what I considered my car. I told him, fun.
I don't care what anyone calls it. I like it, it was built with my family and we have fun with it and that's all that matters to me.

 

[Willowbilly3]

To all of you who say you don't care what anyone else thinks, why would you even comment on the thread if you don't care? Personally, I want people to like my car. I don't want it to get attention because I've welded goofy crap to it but because it's a well thought out rod.

 

[21willys]

To all of you who say you don't care what anyone else thinks, why would you even comment on the thread if you don't care? Personally, I want people to like my car. I don't want it to get attention because I've welded goofy crap to it but because it's a well thought out rod.

Because he asked for input. If we never posted, it wouldn't be much of a forum would it?

 

[jmpowie]

To all of you who say you don't care what anyone else thinks, why would you even comment on the thread if you don't care? Personally, I want people to like my car. I don't want it to get attention because I've welded goofy crap to it but because it's a well thought out rod.

AMEN, I tell my 5 yr old do something good for attention not something bad.

 

[EnglishBob]

I'm a Brit so I know nothing about cars ,now cricket and golf yes but cars no but I still have an opinion and it's simple...Rats were 'non traditional' hot rods substituting big and small blocks instead of flatheads etc.
Power steering instead of 'traditional' vega or corvair boxes.
Unpainted instead of painted,bucket seats instead of reupholstered stock,tilt steering instead of stock and the list goes on.
The craving for attention for all the wrong reasons is no different than painting flames on your car in the 50's..big difference is the 'unsafe' element garners negative responses and rightly so.

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

"Ratting is raw hot rodding, not purposely making junk for junk's sake". - Sam_Fear

Exit, stage left.

 

[riverrat44]

I just call my stuff yard decorations, since they never leave the property.
U-build it
U-name it
U-enjoy it
I enjoy all types myself, and never criticize anyone about their ride.
You can view my collection on photobucket.

 

[TDK]

Pop culture has kinda made "ratrod" a unsafe rebar build. Its the same way a "streetrod" is a high dollor Boydster. If you went to a parking lot and showed 10 people a few pic's of custom car's. The car with saw blades, rebar and junk welded to it. What kind of car is it? They would call it a "ratrod".
I love the cars on this site, because they are made safe and are built not bought. I am not tring to make anyone mad. I just would not like someone calling my car a "rat"

You hit the nail on the head. The car culture at large has defined rat rods as rusty homebuilt cars, and that's what everyone thinks of. And the more popular they become, the more people are going to build cars that are super rusty, with tons of crap welded onto them. So the growth of the popularity of those kind of cars, actually makes it harder to define the kind of cars many of you guys have. Ones that aren't totally rusty, and are well-built. They start to not fit what people consider rat rods.

Personally, I don't care. They are all just cars. Muscle cars, hot rods, rat rods, exotics, imports, whatever. They are all just engines and metal. They can all be modified. You can turn anything into anything. You can build something from scratch if you want and make it look like nothing anyone has ever seen before.

 

[jfg455]

funny that what was once considered a "rat rod" by the "street rod" crowd 20 years ago is todays "traditional rod". And yes society has taken the "rat rod" persona down the whole rebar, cartoon crap and unsafe road. Back when our cars (rusty, lightened with speed parts but shy of paint) were running around they were called "Go jobs" "jalopies" and "hot rods". And alot of those were plain unsafe. But alas, those are no revered "traditional" rods. My family has been driving dented, mismatched paint mechanically sound cars since the late 60's. Dad in his MG's and me with my american stuff. [cl

 

[jfg455]

A true Rat Rod

(BBC of course)