Honestly, how does a Rat Rod...........

[West Tn Dawg]

come even close to beating out real show cars at a car show?
Most of the Rat Rods are just rusty junk with whatever they can find tacked on it. Today we had a car show in Jackson, TN and I had my Bronco entered along with a bunch of "REAL" show cars. There were 4 "Rat Rods" that won top 20 Trophies while many of the show cars won nothing. Several of these were perfect cars!%)%)

 

[JGbronc]

A lot of people including judges look at creativity rather than quality. Don't fully agree with it, but it happens. The way they look at it, its something unique, different, one of a kind, whatever you wanna call it.

 

[Whoaa]

A lot of people including judges look at creativity rather than quality. Don't fully agree with it, but it happens. The way they look at it, its something unique, different, one of a kind, whatever you wanna call it.

^ this sounds like a reasonable answer to me.


I don't agree with it w/ the judges logic, but that's the closest explaination that makes sence. What I have experienced several times is that if you're not part of the "in" crowd for whatever club is hosting the event you're not going away w/ a trophy.

Many of the rat rods that I see are junk. Just a cobbled together POS built as a cheaply as possible.

 

[smokinjoe]

I hear ya and agree w/ ya Dawg. A problem IMO with novice shows with not clearly defined classes and judging criteria.

 

[sykanr0ng]

Rat rods became popular as a reaction to all the "Too pretty to ever drive it" trailer queens that became the rule in car shows instead of the guys that drove it to the show, polished it up, then drove it home after the show.

Cars and trucks are meant to be driven.

 

[D.R.Y.]

HI Guys I am with you on that one and always felt that way. Until I was asked to helped a guy in our club to make his look nicer and a couple of other things. Although this one had a natural made patina over 75% of the body and the work that went into repairing any sheet metal that was weak or rusted thorough was extremely well done. As for the frame and motor and everything else they were also well designed and though out while maintaining the vision of the rat rod look. I have seen many "show cars" that may look better but lack the quality of work.
This style of car is not my cup of tea but much like us bronco guys who are divided by "cut or uncut" we do also look past this and see each owners personal vision.

 

[West Tn Dawg]

I understand, some of them(veryfew)are thought out and put together well. The Old original Rat Rods were well built, just using whatever was available to the builder. Not to be rediculous, but functional.
These new Rat Rods seemed to be built with rediculousness as a part of the process. I've seem eveything from bed pans made into seats to feed pails used as headlight visor's. Most could be built by a couple of Buddy's in a long weekend!
Maybe a class for them would be ok, but should never be in the class with these vehicles people have put years and $'s in to bring back to better than new condition.

 

[JGbronc]

Maybe a class for them would be ok, but should never be in the class with these vehicles people have put years and $'s in to bring back to better than new condition.

I fully agree with that.

 

[ep67bro]

They should have there own class in judged car shows. Comparing they to a correctly restored classic is just wrong. I like some of them and some are very well put together. I think they are popular because they are different. I think it is a fad, and only a few will stand the test of time. I my self wanted to build one for a while but mine would be mild, not one of the ones with all kinds of strange things bolted on it. I wanted to do a 48-52 Ford truck but finding one decent to start with was almost impossible around here.

 

[sprdv1]

That's just how people's opinions are these days man..

 

[jwh]

I think discounting the quality/quantity/time involved with a rat rod isn't necessarily fair either. To suggest that people haven't spent just as much time, money and effort on them, or they are somehow less of a vehicle because they don't shine really diminishes what they are. How hard is it to build a car the way it was always built with readily available parts? I agree some are pretty much hobbled together junk, but I've also seen a lot of shiny hobbled together junk as well. There are a lot of 'rat rods' that have been made to look rusted and distressed. That sometimes takes more time and effort and money than laying down a 'nice' paint job. Should they be lumped in with fully stock & correctly restored vehicles in a judged event? No I don't think so. But I have no problem with them being included in modified/custom classes which most of our vehicles would fall under.

 

[k13evin]

every time i see a ratrod. all i can think of is Mad Max

 

[Ksm]

I think discounting the quality/quantity/time involved with a rat rod isn't necessarily fair either. To suggest that people haven't spent just as much time, money and effort on them, or they are somehow less of a vehicle because they don't shine really diminishes what they are. How hard is it to build a car the way it was always built with readily available parts? I agree some are pretty much hobbled together junk, but I've also seen a lot of shiny hobbled together junk as well. There are a lot of 'rat rods' that have been made to look rusted and distressed. That sometimes takes more time and effort and money than laying down a 'nice' paint job. Should they be lumped in with fully stock & correctly restored vehicles in a judged event? No I don't think so. But I have no problem with them being included in modified/custom classes which most of our vehicles would fall under.

I agree with this sentiment. I've seen a few that were near pieces of art. They should probably be in a class by themselves but the work and sheer ingenuity put into these cars should not be dismissed.

 

[Ucantafordnot2]

I have a 65 Fury III w/ 318-A (polyspheric heads) ("wide block 318" some folks call them) and it has the patina thing going on and my thoughts are that I will do a 60s themed race car rat rod by adding period correct stickers and maybe a big ole number 8 (black and white 8 ball or maybe lucky number 13?) to the doors and top ( I know they didnt enter the FuryIII that year in any of the stock car races but it was a Pace car )..It wont take long or cost that much to do and should look pretty good considering that "Gods paint brush" has already graced the sheet metal..Of course both my Broncos are runninng with the Rat rod look too..I could have painted both of them by now but most folks comment on how cool they are as is..

 

[bmc69]

Dang. Sounds like my old '67 beach rig could be a contender after all.;D

 

[edmedlin]

I really try and keep mine nice to look at, but if you look closely you are going to see that I do drive it. I can't spend a lot of time under the hood making sure I can eat off of everything under there. You will find some slop somewhere on my chassis. I will be 66yrs old here in a month or so and I am not going to crawl around with some of the latest/greatest stuff in a spray bottle to "detail" my chassis for some 20yr old judge to give me some kind of thumbs up jeep wave and tell me how nice it is........ I do like rat rods and think they should have their own category just like everyone else does. The problem is that they make rat rods out of anything today. You can "fake rust" up a later model diesel truck today, add some "patina" and show it. It is getting out of hand.

 

[sriha]

Car shows are interesting. Sometimes they want just purely show cars and other times they let anything in that is unusual. The town I use to live in has a car show around the 4th. When I'm in town I sometimes go to it with the Bronco. It is not really show worthy but diffidently different than everything else. The only thing I could probably win would be kids favorite since I am the only one to let kids climb all over mine. One time someone commented that my truck shouldn't even be there but just a few cars down was a lifted mall crawler Jeep all shiny that would probably never see real dirt. The local Corvette club puts the show on so there are a lot of corvettes and half of the awards are slated for the vettes. I find it boring when there are a lot of the same vehicle and nothing that makes them stand out besides a different color paint.