Newbie definition needed

hey what's up with the vintage tin in the background of the pics of your car??

looks like some good rat rod parts back there.

 

A buddy gave me an issue of a newer magazine ***led Rat Rod as a joke because he knows how the term fires me up.
While thumbing thru it I ran accross a cartoon I liked.
Two guys are standing there looking down on a pile of **** (feces) on the ground, and one says to the other "Its a turd"...thats my definition of a rat rod.

 

Nice car, def. no R** R**! Someone suggested steel wheels w/ caps and trim rings, but I see you're already running those. Tru-Spokes are O.K., with a nod towards being period for your car, and those Chrysler wires look even better.

One other look that I would suggest is what are known as "artillery" wheels. They are steel wheels with heavy stamped spokes that were common in the mid thirties. Most brands offered them as an optional upgrade, and there are two or three wheel companies who sell them in modern sizes.

The picture shows some aftermarket Jumbo Generals with chromed spokes on this '34. On your Nash, I'd go with painted rims, hubs, and spokes with caps and blackwall rubber.

I know, I'm starting to sound like a restorer! We like modified cars on the HAMB, especially if its done in a way that pulls the whole "look" together, rather than just tacking on **** and gee-gaws to make people to look.

Later, *****6

 

I know no one will agree with me, but I can't not say it. That car has been maintained in stock form for more than 70 years. All of its history is right there--you can see it, you can feel it when your drive it. You can imagine what it was like to drive that car in the 1940s when having any car was a big deal and they weren't making new ones. It escaped rotting in a field. It escaped having someone blow up the engine and dumping it in a salvage yard. It lived through the '50s and '60s when most people would have considered it worthless. After all these years, it still resembles what it was when someone drove it off of a Nash showroom. It is 2011, and all that history is still there.

I don't know that a '38 Nash four-door sedan will ever make a good rat rod, hot rod, or otherwise. But it sure is an awesome bit of history as it is. I know the tendancy here is to modify things above all else, and I do understand that. But if it were mine, I'd maintain and improve without destroying what's already there.

 

WELCOME! I like your car. Keep your eye on your goal, as to what you want it to look like, not mine. Satisfy yourself..............it's 94 degrees in my shop, way to hot to work, I think I'll take a NAP.

 

My thoughts are like Revoh. If this were mine I would be keeping it extremely original. I say, do with it what makes you happy, drive it (because that was what it was built for) but please don't ever butcher it.

 

Really nice looking Nash, That car is dripping with ol cl***. It's your car ,you can do what ever you want. Call it a custom,hot rod,what ever. Have a good time with it.

 

what the others said and welcome to the HAMB! I tend to call certain cars Rat-Rods; not because they are poorly built or unsafe, etc. I call them rat rods because they look "ratty". Theyre rusted out rust buckets that look haggard to the eye and their made out of masny different cars, and parts etc. To me; a rod rod is a nicely presented car that is well built and traditional in every sence of the word. I have a hard time calling a car a hot rod when you can literally just see the thing rotting away in front of your eyes with rust holes all over it and an obvious complete lack of respect to preserve the car. I'm not sure when the "hot rod" world thought it was brilliant to drive cars that are rusted out and primered, etc. Back in the day....you look at any publication and you hardly ever saw something that looked like that. Its not "tradition" to have your ride look like a complete mess for the sake of appearing "old". Rust and primer is not patina.

 

I have a question. If a traditional car or a hamb worthy car is to be built with parts and "at***ude" of pre 1964, then how come I see so many "correct" cars with turbo 350, 700r4, c4 and other modern transmissions? How about rearends? Intakes? Carburators? If has to be an automatic in a chevrolet it should be a cast iron power glide to fit in the rules... correct? It just seems as if people come here and flame others for the choice of how to build their car. Then you see a "correct" car at Billetproof or another show and it is not correct underneath. Seems a bit sketchy to me! I agree with the term Rat rod, but I guess they have their place too.
Have a good day!

 

Yup..Welcome to the HAMB! You need to be careful using *R*R* in opinions here also. A post asked for an opinion and I said it looked like a clean *R*R*. Christ! you would have thought I called someones mother a pig! The post asked for opinions and that was mine. I still have all my fingers so at least I can still type.

 

Got it !! And nice memory !! ....what comes around, goes around...

 

They are guidelines not rules. It is about the spirit of the thing....

 

The whole rat rod thing has been done to death! Seems like everyone goes round & round about it. Were all forgetting that the term rat rod has been used since the late 70's (maybe earlier?) before guys were building **** boxes with tractor grilles in em and chain bumpers! Those are the guys that gave the term a bad name! I was building hot rods with my buddies in 1981-82 that were traditional but were rusty or had primer on them and the owners of the cars were calling them rat rods. That was then this is now, oh how things change! Personally I dont like using the term anymore because of the bad rap the name gets. I guess use it at your discretion, however it tends to offend a lot of guys!

 

you are noe entering the "HAMB ZONE"-prepare to become addicted.

 

its your wallet and your money do what you want....having said that it would be hard to believe you could accidentally make that car into a rat rod.... unless you set it on fire on purpose

 

Revoh is Right! Nashes were slow and were designed for dull stodgy old guys. They were not considered as material for traditional hotrods

 

So is there some good non-Traditional Forums that someone would recommend that would be more lenient?

 

It's your car, build it the way you want, with what wheels you want, with what engine you want, with what trans. and rearend you want. If you ask for opinions, boy will you get them, as you have already found. Your car has no chance of being called a rat rod unless you really butcher it up. Enjoy it and just remember if you ask for opinions on here to have thick skin. Opinions are like ***holes every one has one.