What is or isnt a so called "rat rod". Opinions??

Ornberg · July 17, 2006, 08:24:53 AM

And if you have a Chevy small block in your rod, it must definitely be a mouse rod

Per

EMSjunkie · July 17, 2006, 09:22:31 AM

Quote from: "Ornberg"And if you have a Chevy small block in your rod, it must definitely be a mouse rod

Per

LMAO.

according to the NSRA, my Coupe is a "streetrod"
I call it my hotrod.

don't matter to me, I'm still gonna have fun drivin' it.

Vance

58 Yeoman · July 17, 2006, 09:57:16 AM

....and I was wondering what to do with all the old license plates in the basement; I saw the ones on the floor in Don's third pic.

I always got ticked off when I would put the '58 in a local car show. The body looks to be stock, except for the chrome wheels. The interior is velour instead of vinyl, the floor carpeted instead of rubber mats (vinyl seats and rubber floor mats were stock on this car), and it has a 350 instead of a 283. Well, guess what? That makes it a street rod around here, instead of stock. Now, if I go to a show, it's for show only, not judging.

Recently, I did go to a cruise in for cystic fibrosis. The fella that put it on had a son die from it, and over the years always had big shows to raise money for it. It just got to be too much for him and his wife, so they had a cruise in at a local root beer stand instead. Five bucks got you in. More cars showed up than he expected (about 150), and he only had 30 trophies, all exactly the same: best of cruise, no classes. Participants voted for their favorites, and dang if I didn't get one of them. Some really nice cars got one, and some really average cars got one; just depended on what the people liked. You didn't have to have a big bux car to win.

BTW, I saw a 40 Willys four door sedan there; I'd never seen one before. It had belonged to the guys uncle, and he inherited it after the uncle died. I wish I'd had my camera that night.

alchevy · July 17, 2006, 10:50:41 AM

Phil, I saw a 4 door Willys the other day too and thought that was the first time to see one like you said. Can't remember where I saw it now or if I had my camera with me at the time.
I think what is happening is the 2-door cars are getting hard to find to street rod and there are plenty of new fiberglass and steel cars on the market if you got the $$ to afford them. So this means when someone sees a 4-door car for a good price that's all steel and they can buy it for not much $$, those cars are coming out from hiding. I first wanted a coupe, then I found out that there wasn't that much room and most of them didn't have a back seat so they were only two seaters, so I moved to looking at sedans and folks told me that 2-door cars were popular over 4-door ones, so I ended up with a 2-door sedan. Now I see all of these 4-door sedans on the road street rodded and see how easy it is to get into the rear of the car, hey that's a good idea.
But the ones that have it made are the street rod pickups out there with a bed lid that can be locked. I could haul a lot of parts home from Louisville in the bed of a truck.
The first year I drove my '40 Chevy to Louisville, I got home and started unloading the car of all of the car parts I had bought for it. Each time I would take something out, the rear springs would groan in relief. Hmmm..........maybe that's why I don't get good gas mileage coming home as I do when going to a car show!

I think this topic (getting back to the topic of this thread) has been discussed enough to know that we all know what we like and don't like about the term. We also agree that if the vehicle is built safe and we enjoy driving it 'til the wheels fall off (figure of speech, hope the wheels don't fall off), then we don't care what they are called. For a minute there I thought this was like that beer commercial on tv where Burt R. and the guys are talking about manlaw.

My car has no interior except for seats & carpet and the paint is old and needs a new paint job. My friends keep saying that they are all going to show up at my house with cans of krylon and paint my car...I only respond that they buy the same color! On Saturday I put a new fender on the car that's a different color and my new rear fenders & running boards are going on next which are black. So it's going to be a three color car. I just thought I was hearing the question of "When are you going to paint this car?" I think I'm going to keep a bucket with me so the next time I hear that question, I'll demand they put $100 in the bucket for the painting of my car.
AL

Rayvyn · July 17, 2006, 11:15:42 AM

Quote from: "midnight sun"Posted some pictures yesterday of the 31 sedan body I picked up. In describing what I was going to build, I said I was shooting for it to be a rat rod or hardcore rod. One of the replies was a request not to call it a rat rod. No offense meant to anyone and none taken but I am curious as to what the opinions are as to what constitutes (or not) a so called rat rod. What are the criteria?

Just curious as usual.

How would everyone classify this one??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/52-MGTD-671-Blown-Chevy-5-speed-PRO-STREET-Rat-Rod_W0QQitemZ130007205232QQihZ003QQcategoryZ7251QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Dave · July 17, 2006, 11:34:02 AM

Quote from: "Rayvyn"
Quote from: "midnight sun"Posted some pictures yesterday of the 31 sedan body I picked up. In describing what I was going to build, I said I was shooting for it to be a rat rod or hardcore rod. One of the replies was a request not to call it a rat rod. No offense meant to anyone and none taken but I am curious as to what the opinions are as to what constitutes (or not) a so called rat rod. What are the criteria?

Just curious as usual.

How would everyone classify this one??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/52-MGTD-671-Blown-Chevy-5-speed-PRO-STREET-Rat-Rod_W0QQitemZ130007205232QQihZ003QQcategoryZ7251QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I saw that. Id say wasted time and money and fuggly to boot. I couldnt call it anything cept a mg.
Dave

1FATGMC · July 17, 2006, 06:00:51 PM

Quote from: "Rayvyn"
Quote from: "midnight sun"Posted some pictures yesterday of the 31 sedan body I picked up. In describing what I was going to build, I said I was shooting for it to be a rat rod or hardcore rod. One of the replies was a request not to call it a rat rod. No offense meant to anyone and none taken but I am curious as to what the opinions are as to what constitutes (or not) a so called rat rod. What are the criteria?

Just curious as usual.

How would everyone classify this one??

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/52-MGTD-671-Blown-Chevy-5-speed-PRO-STREET-Rat-Rod_W0QQitemZ130007205232QQihZ003QQcategoryZ7251QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

He calls it a "Pro-street Rat Rod"

. Billet is mentioned way too many times in the add to ever qualify as a Rat Rod. I wonder what kind of brakes are on that thing. This is a case of trying to use all the "right" words to draw in a sucker. Unfortunately it usually works.

What is a Rat Rod??? You will know when you see one and won't have to ask. I love the looks of some of these cars, but agree that they should be built safe and if you do that you don't have to spare the looks, except maybe in the scrub line area and there are a lot of "street/hot rods" that also fail there. I really wonder how many times that actually comes into play anyway.

You will see tons of these cars at B'ville this year if you are going and they look great to me out on the salt.

c ya, Sum

Crosley.In.AZ · July 17, 2006, 09:30:53 PM

4 door Willy sedans?

I owned 3 Willys 4 door sedans.

1937 , 38 & a 39.........

GPster · July 19, 2006, 07:51:52 AM

It all gets so confusing. I would think a Rat Rod would be powered by a Big Block Chevy (BBC) motor. But then something powered by a Small Block Chevy (SBC which a lot of them sware at or about) would be a Mouse Rod which would do nothing for their image. Maybe the could keep the initials (which are probably tattooed on their body somewhere) and be Rodent Rods which might be of less concern to the people that don't want to be included in this terminology. There has been a lot of talk here on this Rat Rod Topic (RRT) but no cures offered so I offer this one. I've probably offended someone so I'll crawl back in my hole. GPster

tomslik · July 19, 2006, 08:56:45 AM

Quote from: "GPster"It all gets so confusing. I would think a Rat Rod would be powered by a Big Block Chevy (BBC) motor. But then something powered by a Small Block Chevy (SBC which a lot of them sware at or about) would be a Mouse Rod which would do nothing for their image. Maybe the could keep the initials (which are probably tattooed on their body somewhere) and be Rodent Rods which might be of less concern to the people that don't want to be included in this terminology. There has been a lot of talk here on this Rat Rod Topic (RRT) but no cures offered so I offer this one. I've probably offended someone so I'll crawl back in my hole. GPster

sooo, i i put a 4.3 v6 in something it'd be a what? gerbil?

Ornberg · July 19, 2006, 09:10:42 AM

I saw someone put a Japanese Lexus V8 in a rod, what's that? A rice rod? :? Or maybe a Sushi rod :?:

Per

GPster · July 19, 2006, 09:23:13 AM

Quote from: "tomslik"sooo, i i put a 4.3 v6 in something it'd be a what? gerbil?

It looks like that deal fell through. 4 places of dead grass in my back yard are all that I have to show for a weekend's worth of work (and typing). GPster