OK, here my two cents. A "rod" wheather you call it hot or a rat is what the builder see's. Do some look better than others in the eye of the person that did not do the building, sure. (my wife is the most beatiful girl in the world, in my eyes yet other might not agree with me?).
The idea of a rod is that we all have our own idea of whats Kool. I wanted to build some thing born the same year i was, a roadster would be best, so the Willys was what I had to do. I looked at the start car for a long time until I could see what was at the end, looked at lots of picture along the way. I actually thought i have a novel idea before i goodled "jeep rod". Not a lot but there out there. Most people like how it ended up and thats cool, but what matters is that i like how it ended up. Most say the pinto front end is ugly? my thought was,, rack and pinyon steering, disc brakes, independent susp. and how may CJ's do you see with a pinto front end? (I interpet CJ and Crazy Jelopy).
Ok, i'll stop and by the way"snakefarm" i think your ride looks great, in my eyes.
Build whats in your minds eye, if you don't like what turned out just do it again
Just one more thing, i get asked a lot is it a rat rod or a hot rod? rats have patina as in rust, hot's have some kind of paint any paint, and hopfully no bondo on either in my opinion.
see ya. [P