New York Times discovers "Rat Rodders". Oy...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/automobiles/collectibles/01RATS.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
No Tangerine Flake, Baby: Hot Rods Back to Basic Black

Dave Wallace
Skulls have long been popular in hot rod culture.





By PHIL PATTON
Published: October 1, 2006
LIKE many of those who created it in 1950’s and 60’s garages, the postwar hot rod culture has grown mature, rich and rather respectable. In place of personalized jalopies cobbled together with cannibalized parts, many modern hot rods flaunt the latest electronic toys, custom fibergl*** bodywork and nearly fluorescent paint. High-end customizers like Boyd Coddington are television celebrities, building costly cars on camera for wealthy collectors.
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Aaron Houston for The New York Times
Steve Gill, a Road Devils member from Clifton, N.J., with his ’29 Ford Model A.



In counterpoint, like Goths amid the temples of Rome, a growing movement of younger hot rodders is taking the hobby back to its greasy, barebones basics. Their rough and ragged cars, often called rat rods, wear matte black and gray primer and roll out on steel wheels wearing wide whitewall tires.
Clubs of rat rodders are flourishing, and shows of these old-style, do-it-yourself cars — part of a growing movement for traditional hot rods and Kustom Kulture — are finding large new audiences.
Rat rods could also be called roots rods, since they often feature the stripped-down, hoodless and fender-free look of cars that were popular a**** early hot rodders.
As the previous generation of enthusiasts has aged — look around the crowd at events like the annual Oakland roadster show in California — the hot rod hobby had seemed in danger of eventually dying out. But goth-inspired rat rods are bringing a younger crowd drawn to the hobby’s unpretentious beginnings.
They also reflect a reaction to the extreme commercialization of customization that began in the 1990’s, as collectors snapped up finely wrought cars created by Mr. Coddington, Chip Foose and others.
“Some take the name rat rod as an insult, but we are proud of it,” said Jeff Mrozak, president of the New Jersey branch of the Road Devils Car Club. “We are poor-boy rodders with at***ude. All of our cars are true hot rods. They may not be bright and shiny, but they go.”
On a recent lovely Sunday afternoon, Mr. Mrozak and some of the group’s nine members were hanging out at the Devils’ clubhouse, a three-bay garage in West Orange, N.J. A black 1954 Chevy sat beside a 1948 Ford F1 pickup undergoing work. With burbling engine noise, two other members rolled up in battered prewar Fords, one with trumpet horn exhausts projecting from its naked V-8, the other with rust holes in its rear deck and spider-web paint accents.
The New Jersey rodders are one of several branches of the Road Devils. The group was founded in 1946 in Southern California by returning veterans, then fell into decline before being revived in Ohio in 1997. Now there are branches in Europe. Many other hot rod clubs show a similar pattern of decline and revival.
“We are big on creating true customs with our cars,” said Mr. Mrozak, whose own 1949 Ford has been lowered three inches and wears a 1955 De Soto grille and a louvered hood. He plans to swap the Ford’s flathead engine for a more powerful motor.
The clubs usually include both pure hot rods, stripped-down vehicles with an emphasis on power and speed, and “kool kustoms,” which are modified production models that stress appearance and style. The K’s are meaningfully flip, suggesting the patina of irony that suffuses the movement. Some cars fit both categories.
For rat rodders, billet aluminum has become a symbol and something to avoid. Essentially a large chunk of aluminum, it is milled on computer-driven machines to produce parts and wheels for the gleaming new hot rods that these traditionalists perceive as effete. Traditional rods, in contrast, are all about steel that can be hand-cut, bent and welded by the owner. These cars are free of aluminum and the modern technology that comes with it, and thus billetproof.
On the same weekend that the Road Devils gathered in New Jersey, one of the largest shows of rat rods and similar cars took place in Antioch, Calif., about 40 miles east of San Francisco. The first Billetproof show, in 1997, attracted 26 cars. It has since outgrown several sites, and this year included more than 800 vehicles.
Billetproof was founded by Kirk Jones, a graphic designer, and Jay Ward, who later joined Pixar and was in charge of creating characters for “Cars,” the studio’s recent animated film.
The traditionalists at Billetproof emphasize the hands-on side of hot rodding. They deride the expensive cars created in recent years as “trailer queens” and “midlife crisis fluffmobiles” and disdain digital gauges and fibergl*** parts.
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Dave Wallace
At Billetproof show, a ’23 Ford in plain 40’s hot rod style.

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Dave Wallace
Skulls have long been popular in hot rod culture. A car with chopped and channeled body of unknown origin has six skulls serving as air scoops atop an original Chrysler Hemi engine.

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Ezra Dyer
A 1985 Gatsby Atlas, an example of a "neocl***ic," in Rhode Island.



Mr. Ward and Jones began the show with a self-deprecating air — Billetproof calls itself “the world’s least important car show” — but its ideals are firmly held. The award categories include Body Basher, for innovative body modifications; Odd Rod, for the best car from an extinct automaker; and Jive Bomber, for the most ragged entry.
Billetproof admits only cars dating from before 1964, and the Road Devils limit members to pre-1960 models. For many clubs and shows, the dividing line is 1964, the year the Ford Mustang went on sale. From the pony car craze a new muscle car scene arose — a culture very different from this one.
Hot rodding was burned into pop culture by the music of the Beach Boys and the 1973 film “American Graffiti.” The quintessential hot rod platform is probably the 1932 Ford coupe, the “little deuce coupe” of the Beach Boys song.
Hot rod culture was also recognized as early as 1968 as an American folk art, at least on the West Coast, in several museum shows curated by Phil Linares of the Oakland Museum of California. For younger drivers, hot rodding is history waiting to be rediscovered and revived.
The Road Devils sometimes attend shows in Las Vegas or California, like Billetproof. They hold two gatherings of their own each year, one in June and one around Halloween.
Hanging around the Road Devils or another club of rat rodders is like stepping into a black-and-white world. Not only are most of the cars monochrome, save for the occasional accent of painted flames, but their owners tend to dress in black T-shirts, black ****ies pants and black work boots. White socks can p***, akin to the wide whitewalls common on rat rods. (Even some contemporary photos on club Web sites were shot in back and white.)
Rat rodders favor hairdos as sculptured as their fenders, suggesting early Johnny Cash or characters from “In Cold Blood.” They listen to rockabilly music — the garage was filled with the sounds of Gene Vincent and Johnny Burnette — from an iPod, one of the few nonblack objects in the place.
The names of the clubs sound like biker gangs and rock bands. Many hot rod clubs support specific bands, who appear at their gatherings. The Road Devils, for instance, are friends with the Turbo A.C.’s and the Tombstone Brawlers, two psychobilly bands. (Psychobilly is rockabilly music infused with doses of punk and grunge.)
The club’s elaborate Web site (roaddevilsnj.com) includes images of members’ tattoos, many showing the club’s devil-face logo. Most members have tattoos, but the Road Devils do not require them, Mr. Mrozak said, as some clubs do. The Web site also offers links to a sort of women’s auxiliary of pinup girls in Betty Page style.
Most club members are men, though there are exceptions like the Piston Packin’ Mamas, an all-women group in Seattle.
In August, the Road Devils joined another club, the Rumblers, for a parking-lot show called Kustom Kills and Hot Rod Thrills, under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Williamsburg. The Rumblers have seven chapters across the country and two in Europe. The Brooklyn gathering began in 2001 and includes Betty Page lookalikes drinking in a nearby bar called Union Pool.
Rat rodders tend to be in their 20’s or 30’s, and many work in media or the visual arts; Mr. Mrozak runs an art gallery and store. With names like the Stranglers and Beatniks, and logos formed of elements like skulls and crossed wrenches, or dice and cards, the clubs display varying degrees of at***ude and a strong feel for graphics. But the social side is the bedrock of the movement. “We spend all our time hanging out,” Mr. Mrozak said. “We are family.”
For all the grit and grease, the Road Devils are surprisingly systematic in operation and organization. The club’s members greet one another with elaborate handshakes and hugs. New prospects must audition for three months before the club votes on their admission. Mr. Mzorak printed up a full agenda for the Sunday club meeting, complete with an outline (divided by Roman numerals) that would impress a middle school English teacher. One important item on the schedule: Halloween Havoc, set for the Clash bar in Clifton, N. J., on Oct. 28.
Many rat rodders were inspired by spending time as children with fathers who had hot rods. Mr. Ward grew up watching his father race cars in Kansas City, Mo. He was inspired to create Billetproof to re***ert the importance of cheap, hands-on hot rodding, but he stepped down from running the show in 2002 because, he said, it had grown too large and he no longer had time for it.
As a member of a group called the Vultures he is now involved with Asphalt Unlimited, a show in which participation is by invitation only. Mr. Ward even created a hot rod character for “Cars” — a ’32 Ford named Josephine — that was cut from the final version. If there is a “Cars 2,” Josephine may return.
Some clubs even have father-and-son members. For Mr. Mzorak, the relationship was different. He was inspired in part by his mother, who raced cars for pinks — the winner takes the ***le of the losing car — when he was growing up in the Ironbound section of Newark.

 

They must have had a good proofreader on that article, unless the term Rat Rod gets your shorts knotted up it is a good overview of the hobby IMO.

 

It could have been much worse, and I applaud the writer for going the extra mile to be non-judgemental and share the social and artistic aspects behind the cars (and clothes, and hair) as well.

Nicely done. It could have ****ed. In fact, I'd expect it to ****, but it doesn't. They talked to the right folks, and got the right person to write it.

~Scotch~

 

Pretty even tempered article,

 

It was actually a preety fair ***esment. It had all the stereotypes ***ociated but it was an article not a book. For someone that doesn't really know the hobby its a good start. But its gonna keep that word "rat rod" going. Can't help that. But they did a good job keeping the article from ****ing...

 

Not a bad article, but ****! Now that the NY Slimes has discovered us, is it time to move on to the next thing?

 

not bad,yous two kirt and jay!

 

Arn't they Cute, They look just like Dune Buggies!!

 

the writer did their homework, it was a good non-biased article and it gave a couple of hambers some well deserved exposure.

 

pretty good article.. though Jay Ward is involved in the ASPHAULT INVITATIONAL , not asphault unlimited. kick *** show by the way.

I always get a kick out of the "home built by thier owners" deal. if the only cars allowed at billetproof were homebuilt they could have it in a high school parking lot with room to spare..... not that there is anything wrong with farming out bits and pieces or even a whole car in order to have your car fun, just this home home built thing is not reality...

 

Nice read!I knew the jersey brothers would keep the writer on track. -jimmy-

 

Hell yeah! You do us proud East Coast Road Devils!!

 

Nice article.

Like it or not, I think the term rat rod is here to stay. I'm not that crazy about it, but it doesn't get my ******* in a knot either.

 

The author says that they should be called "root rods", but that really ****s

 

LOL

 

Well, for the most part, that was very well-balanced and well-written. How come you guys didn't tell the writer about our goat and marshmallow initiations???

Oh yeah, that's only down here in the SoCal chapter. Never mind. Don't tell the authorities...
dvz

 

I think it was a good article, and frankly, I don't care what the **** people call our cars as long as we can call them "ours".

 

jersey doin' us proud, the article seemed positive, now, if they could just get the term "rat rods" out of their vocab.

 

Great read...thanks for posting it.

 

Yeah, my friend Mike told me his car club was in the Times, I thought he was kidding. Congrats Road Devils

 

Good Job to yous guys in Jersey..

 

Not bad for the mainstream media...truthfully, after hearing that the NY Times was covering Billetproof, I was a little worried. At least they managed to get a shot of a HAMBer's car

Bryan

 

my buddie was called my ny times on artical. i suppose this is the one..


not sure if hes mentioned. Bob Carol Custom metal works....

 

Great artical,we could use more ink like that in local rags. Half way through reading All American Hot Rod, Somebody posted it was a good book and it is, having a tough time putting it down.

 

Hey Noo Jairsee guys...thanks for sharing that.....now I'm REALLY looking forward to our interview in SKIN TWO....

Johnny Ace

 

I'm probably closer to the intended audience than those written about and I'm far from a veteran of the culture, but I would be hard pressed to find anything bad to say about that writing. Props to Kirk, the Roadevils and all that came before us. You've paved the way for guys like me that love the machine more than the show. I'll do my best to uphold your example.

 

With all the great rides in R.I. ........they had to show "that" car!!!!.........We get no respect....

 

Decent article.

 

Good job fellas. I'm so proud of yall.

 

good job guys! my folks in NY enjoyed it, denver has a different version of the paperwork so I couldnt find it. i'll have my pops send me his copy.