Call it a "Rat Rod" and look what can happen!

[Richard Coney]

Hi Robert. Nice to know you are still collecting. Nice coupe!

Regarding clear coating patina, I suspect much will depend upon the prevailing climate in your particular area. Whilst I know it does rain in California, it's a lot dryer than the UK and most US States, so retaining the patina, stabilised or not, is probably less of an issue compared to wet States. People certainly appreciate the effect over here, but how they stop their cars from rusting away before their eyes to the point of being dangerous, I have no idea.

[Don Boger]

rat rods..the liberal art side of of collector car hobby..what to do when you have no skills...kinda like taking a failed clay pot project and pressing two dents in it and calling it an ashtray..its creative..but unrefined

thank you!

[T120]

It's the "patina."

I have this old Plymouth,very nice patina...

Edited July 5, 2012 by Ralph D25cpe

[Plymouthy Adams]

patina serves its purpose..as seen on a newly discovered/purchased car to rebuild..it sets your imagination free and activates that build in ap in your brain..the color palette..oh..and see how long the insurance company will insure you patina-mobile at the value most folks put on their cars..not going to happen...I was unable to get insurance from one company due to the patina on the 54 I pictured above...oh they wrote the policy, however the company declined my coverage approx 30 days later..once they reviewed the prints...the other company did insure it but for a low amount for a agreed period of time as I brought the surface condition up to speed and protected with a coat of paint..yes..I was on a time frame to get the job completed..at which time they increased my coverage to the top end of the make and model the car represents..

[RobertKB]

Hi Robert. Nice to know you are still collecting. Nice coupe!

Hi Richard. I see that you now have a '39 and it is a nice looking car. Did the Buick go to make room for it?

[T120]

Hmmm..I wonder if faux patina is insurable?..Some may have read comments about the shabby chic-patina 1937 Ford featured in Hot Rod mag and the Dolly Parton

quote "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap"

[Richard Coney]

Hi Robert.

I'm afraid there is no hope for me. I've still got "Baby" the '55 Buick century, plus a '55 Ford F100 pickup, and the P7 business coupe (Polly). I've also a faint possibility that a good friend who is moving house will sell me his 1948 Chevrolet Aerosedan. It's all sorted except for paint and reassembling. I'll PM you with pictures as the guys might think this is getting too far off the Thread.

Regards,

Richard

[Niel Hoback]

It's not too far off the thread for me, but it is making me sick with envy.

[Richard Coney]

No need to be. None of them are anywhere close to hi-Buck projects. I simply don't have the disposable income to buy an expensive old car. The way I looked at it was buy several cheap old cars as and when they come up and gradually, as funds allow, bring them back to a nice safe, working, and preferably smart, condition. Having said that, despite their rarity in the UK I do seem to have found some nice raw material. The Buick is all ready to go once the weather improves. We have had the worse summer for years! The truck was going to be a cheapy, which I could drive about and haul stuff as well. That's turning into a money-pit, but as it's a F-car, as I believe you call them on the Forum, perhaps we'd better keep quiet about it. Lol

[Eneto-55]

If you go to some of the hotrod sites you can read a lot of hate directed toward the ratrod guys. But read an article about a rat rod, then another about a hotrod, and which one is within your budget? And it is not necessarily due to a lack of quality work, or safety. In my opinion the ratrod guys have raised the bar in respect to weld quality and metal work. The hot rod guys can cover over it all with bondo - no so the ratrod guys. It seems to me that metal working skills such as hammer welding were just about lost art forms when the ratrod craze revived them. It is of course a personal opinion, one with which I do not expect a lot of guys to agree, but I feel that rat rodders are more in the realm of the hotrodders of the past, where you used what was available and remade it into something you liked better. And sometimes it actually was better. The 57 Chevys my older brother had in HS in the late 60's were about the same age as my current work vehicle, a 2000 Chrysler Town & Country. They were just common old cars. Yeah, I'm a restoration guy, but I draw the line where you start trying to make everything more perfect than it was when it came off the line. And while I might someday build what some would call a ratrod, I have no interest at all in building a hotrod. The ratrod world still allows for personal vision and expression - too many hotrods just look like cookie cutter copies of such-and-so rod built by such-and-so great hotrodder from decades past. As I said, I'm a restoration guy, but I sometimes look longingly at the open field for creativity that is ratrodding. (No, not all of them appeal to me. But not all paintings appeal to me, either.)

Neto

[Plymouthy Adams]

as you said..all in what you want..but if you do your own work the high end budget is not a problem...but as for rat rod and good welding..maybe where you live..most I have seen in this neck of the woods are just not up to snuff as the saying goes...paint is not that expensive..yeah we can get that thread running but IF YOU DON"T PAINT you will pay too much..case closed, enough said, you will have more into the car for the paint than the car is worth less paint..I will not take away from some the artistic and creative liberties these guys have and display..only I see no purpose in the ratty look class of car when finished..ie..rat rod..originally started due only to the low end build of car on display..kinda grown from there..not much difference between them and the juvenile exploits of shriners..I am so glad that they park these things so far away from the general audience at the swap meet I often vend..the ratty looking cars is just the tip of the iceberg in general but heck...I'm a dinosaur..can't expect anything else..cynical and very opinionated..but I still feel I have put my bricks in the road so have room to voice my opinion..

[Eneto-55]

Tim,

What I was trying to contrast, and didn't do so well, I think, is the likelihood of the hotrodder to buy a custom front end, or even the whole rolling chassis out of some high-dollar speciality shop, where as what I see in the ratrod end is guys using what can be sourced from older model cars. I will readily admit that I am not really into either of these scenes sufficiently that I could say how it is for the average hotrodder vs the average ratrodder, I am just going by what I've seen in reading on sites like RRR and the HAMB. I am really an almost total outsider looking in on both - as I said, I am a restoration guy, and that is all I have ever done.

Added:

Re: paint. I don't like the rusty look, either. I just don't see the need for such a super paint job that you go bananas when someone touches it. I'd more so follow the example of some of the guys on here that use Rustoleum, and roll it on.

Neto

Edited July 6, 2012 by Eneto-55
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