Saw this at the 2012 Spokane swap meet car show

This truck was very nicely put together, beautiful welds and some interesting features. I only had my phone camera and forgot about these pictures until last night, so here they are now.

 

Looks like a Rat rod to me!

 

A rat rod built by someone with welding skills no less...

 

I'm not into rat rods, but this was so nicely put together I looked it over pretty good. The trailer hitch looked interesting too.

 

interesting rat rod built by someone with welding skills

 

I agree with everybody - nice build, but I sure hope it's a work in progress, because if that's what the owner considers finished, it doesn't quite get it. Again - traditional is the key term here. Most of us that were building/driving hot rods and customs in the 50s and 60s would have been embarr***ed to be seen driving something with that much rust. Secondarily, to proudly display that much rust (and calling it "patina") just isn't what real hot rodders do. I know there are members here that believe in "leave it as is", but nobody 'back in the day' did it that way, so it shouldn't be heralded as a new trend, an old trend, old school/skool or anything else that tries to justify a lack of finish of some kind.

 

well that tells me break time is over back in the garage.

 

The biggest problem i see is that it does NOT belong to me! I would drive the piss out of it--stop refill & did it again!

 

As an aside...I had a friend who is in his 70's tell me that around 1958, all of his group were driving 2-3 year old cars of various makes in nice condition. One weekend, thye all decided to buy new wheels/tires and have their entire cars scuffed up and spayed in primer. It was the 'hot' thing to do. Then they spent the next couple weeks explaining to everyone else why they had purposely screwed up perfectly good paint jobs.

 

I kinda like it. Too much surface rust in my opinion, but it looks well built. I view rat rods as being poorly fabricated and unsafe to be driven on the road. To me that truck is neither.

 

I actually know a guy that bought a perfect low mile '40 coupe out of a garage in his neighborhood in '62. Had it scuffed and shot in gray primer because his favorite car at the local strip was primered '40. He said that a lot of the local drag cars were in primer or primer spots. The rest of the story is that the primered '40 that he was emulating was gloss black the next time he saw it after the primer job.

The truck in question could easily become a nice ride. For finish paint I don't doubt that it needs lots of prep work but the basics are done. I would prefer even an abreviated bed if it were mine but that is a personal thing I suppose. I don't think that I would like to pull a trailer with a hitch hung off thr babjo though.

 

That truck used to be the Yard Wrecker @ the Antique Auto Ranch in Spokane. Cool to see it still in use in some form. www.Antiqueautoranch.com

 

What makes it a "rat rod"?
The rusty finish?
Looks like a nicely built hotrod that the owner wants to drive while he tinkers on it....much like how this entire traditional hotrod "movement" started back in the early '90's...before traditional guys started looking down at everyone with a car...

If it were a rusty '32 would it be a ratrod???

 

I'd say its about proportions and over accessorizing, opposed to the finish of the body, etc.

 

Rust is not a finish. How is that hard to understand?

 

I don't know where the idea that rust and neglect were "traditional. I can see putting a rig together with the completely but maybe not finish panted ch***es and throwing the less than finished body on it to sort out the ch***is before blowing it apart to finish it but no matter what ***le you put on it rust shows neglect. And slapping numbers on the side of a rusty car just makes you a poser. 9 times out of ten those numbers woudn't have fit any cl*** that the vehicle could have run in at the lakes or salt flats in the 40's or 50's anyhow, at least get the cl*** right if you have to play the poser game.

 

You know what's really poser about it? 15 years ago, that car and the OP car would have been ran out of every show they tried to get in to. Just when the hell did it all go wrong? Who is the poser/***hole, who woke up and said that **** was cool?

Is it ex-mini-truckers, who are trying to fit in or is it just lazy? I vote lazy. Too lazy or resourceful to finish a car, in an effort to be one of the "cool guys".

I don't care what car it is, the history or who owned it. If it's rusted out, it needs to go home and get finished.

History says that guys fixed up cars to go fast and get girls. I'd be scared to see the girl that would ride in a rusty heap.

And bolting a trailer hitch to a rearend has "WTF" written all over it.

 

^^^^ X2 ^^^^

Easy for a guy with a fibergl*** car to say.

 

Yea. it's gl*** and if the gl*** was ****ed up, I'd fix it. So, what's your point? Easy to say? You're god damn right.

 

Looks like a Hot Rod to me. Chris

 

My truck has patina and rust holes. Not because i am lazy but because i am working out of it everyday i have it running on the road. When i go to a local car show/hangout i am always embarr***ed because i dont have the shiny paint or solid floorboards. Maybe after i start and finish my 1950 chevy coupe can i take my truck off the road to fix it properly like i have always envisioned since i bought it

But it seems funny to me when people look at my truck at shows and i can be parked right next to a beautiful version of my truck without many looking at the one i am next to. This past weekend i was at a swap meet and came out to leave to find someones phone number on my windshield asking if i want to sell it. Maybe people feel sorry for the truck. I better get it painted so people wont think they can afford it.

 

I do like the truck but one thing has puzzeled me about rat rods or at least cars with rusted bodies is that most have spotless new rims and beautiful new white wall tires, how come ??? And I really question pinstriping over rust.
The truck does look well built to me and that trailer hitch looks like it would be OK as long as the trailer was as light as the one pictured.
But I still prefer nice paint and no rust. In the 60's we never had any rust on our kustoms or hot rods, primer yes, rust no !

 

I've never understood the rust or patina look that a lot of these so called rat rods have on them. I hear the term rat rod, and I don't think a lot of them are really rat rods; which are really something that I would scuff off and prime. I'm attracted to cars that are under construction, more so than cars that are finished. So if your car doesn't have paint on it, I'll probably look at it. Maybe because it isn't finished, it would be something that I think would be an affordable piece.

 

I like it, but I'd put a bed on it and get rid of some of the foo foo stuff...

 

I haven't got a problem with rust, real patina, or whatever it's called today. I know it's part of the process, and I sure understand leaving a car until you have all the bugs worked out, or can afford to get it painted and finished.
What I don't understand, and never will, is the idea of leaving it that way, or actually spending time and money to make fake patina.

 

Thanks, that's what I was trying to say. I guess I wasn't clear enough. Just about everyone has been at that stage, but leaving it rusted up and calling it done is, well.....ratty.

And a bed would make that TRUCK look nice. Air cleaner's bigger than I like, but I get it.

 

Meh. Even if its built well, it looks like a rat rod. Bad proportions.

What makes a rat rod to me is the horrible proportions and shock factor add-ons and gee-gaws. Not the build quality. It's a style.

 

needs a new frame and a bed. fenders would be nice as well. the thing I hate when I see something like that is to find out he started with a complete truck and built that out of it. cab looks to be in good shape.

lots of good parts there to build something cool.

 

Agree with the one addition noted above. Survivors have patina created by age. It was not what their creators intended to be their look. Sometime it is preserved because they're only original once. RRs have rust because someone intended it to be there.

 

I like it, its low buck well built. he maybe drives it. that would make it a lot cooler than a Queen!! needs a pick-up box. new category: "driver in progress" maybe: "chunk of coal" (diamond in the rough) or.. how about "i would if i could" (finish it) maybe "saved from the crusher" (how many have YOU saved?)