It's either a Hot Rod, or a Custom. /end debate

[PL Team]

HOT ROD - Finished, raw, and performance focused.

CUSTOM - Finished, pristine, and aesthetics focused.

PROJECT - Unfinished...


Kill the term Rat Rod already before the industry is saturated with subgenres like music!

[Edson Carlos]

Life is like a box of chocolates sometimes, and chocolates are good!

[Edson Carlos]

You cant walk up to a home garage built rod and think, great hot rod!? If it looks my fully restored 65 Mustang with alpine head unit and sound think, great custom!? To clarify BOTH of those cars would have been considered project cars at some stage during the build up to being a Hot Rod or a Custom.

Your Harleys would likely be considered Customs, and there is nothing at all wrong with that. Where does "go buy a car already done" come into play? I don't think anyone ever mentioned there being a term for that car. Again there is nothing wrong with that either. That person would either be buying a Hot Rod or a Custom.

[Edson Carlos]

LOL And there you go opening up another box of chocolates, Concours vs. Restoration vs. Restomod ;-P


richie/rockabilly richie{PLA} said:

ACTUALLY MY BIKES ARE RESTORED. BOTH BONE STOCK. I STILL PREFER TO INCLUDE THE TERM RAT ROD. IT MAKES IT EASIER FOR ME WHEN I'M SEARCHING FOR A PARTICULAR CAR, SAVING ME ALOT OF TIME. BUT K-SIR-R-SIR-R. HAHA, HOWS THAT FOR A TERM.

Edson {PL Team} said:

You cant walk up to a home garage built rod and think, great hot rod!? If it looks my fully restored 65 Mustang with alpine head unit and sound think, great custom!? To clarify BOTH of those cars would have been considered project cars at some stage during the build up to being a Hot Rod or a Custom.

Your Harleys would likely be considered Customs, and there is nothing at all wrong with that. Where does "go buy a car already done" come into play? I don't think anyone ever mentioned there being a term for that car. Again there is nothing wrong with that either. That person would either be buying a Hot Rod or a Custom.

[Matthew Sumpter]

Richie, so you've heard the term "rat bikes" so that is an old term. I was always told "rat rod" was like a Chevy "rat motor" and was like a bare bones street car, a term used in the 60's.

I think the point Edson is trying to make is EVERYONE thinks just because you're driving a primered car that your building it's a RAT ROD and you're doing some trendy s***, or if your hot rod is rough as you build it it's a "rat rod" too. If I could have 6 layers of candy apple paint and a flaked top I'd HAVE it. Real car builders know it's a journey and that half ass "rat rods" are for style and Look at my cuffs!

[Edson Carlos]

Still heavily used! Imports carry that term on.

richie/rockabilly richie{PLA} said:

We also had another term in the 60's, not sure if it was an east coast theme, a sleeper. It was a plain run down stock looking car with a huge motor under the hood.

[RASH {★}]

I had a 4 door grocery-go-getter that was a sleeper. I'd roll up on an import and hand them their a**** off the line. '01 Buick Regal GS/LS cool air induction, chipped, mapped blue printed, ported and polished with flowmaster exhaust and a couple other slight mods to a 3.8 gm motor. It was the ultimate sleeper.

richie/rockabilly richie{PLA} said:

We also had another term in the 60's, not sure if it was an east coast theme, a sleeper. It was a plain run down stock looking car with a huge motor under the hood.

[RASH {★}]

Oh you know it, especially when my youngest daughter was sitting in the back in her car seat, "Beat 'em daddy" lol..

richie/rockabilly richie{PLA} said:

Cool. Don't you wish you could see the look on their faces.

RASH said:

I had a 4 door grocery-go-getter that was a sleeper. I'd roll up on an import and hand them their a**** off the line. '01 Buick Regal GS/LS cool air induction, chipped, mapped blue printed, ported and polished with flowmaster exhaust and a couple other slight mods to a 3.8 gm motor. It was the ultimate sleeper.

richie/rockabilly richie{PLA} said:

We also had another term in the 60's, not sure if it was an east coast theme, a sleeper. It was a plain run down stock looking car with a huge motor under the hood.

[RASH {★}]

Mr. Jynx,

You are partially right, and pretty close at that. and no you ain't sounding like a nerd.

The term "rat rod" was coined by the traditonal 'hot rodders' for the unfinished streets rods, that would cruise the shows and the strip, primered, and was pretty much a frame, seats motor, tranny, and wheels. They were works in progress, that the owners would race to pay for the parts to fix them up. These were the poor kids from 'across the tracks' that was bringing these cars and trucks to the swap meets and races. They would goto a bone yard and find rusted parts from various types of vehicles, and would modify them to fit on their hot rods, and the traditionalist would call the vehicles "ratty", because they didn't fit into the 'standard' hot rod category. These cars and trucks were chopped and channeled to give them a lower wind resistance for racing. But the Traditionalist hot rodders didn't accept them for what they were, light weight cars that were specifically designed for racing by the poorer kids and young adults.

Then the Physcobilly movement exploded and brought the rust buckets to the scene (not to knock the Pyshcobilly movement I like some of the music). Becuase it was ouside the social norm just like they were. Bare metal that rusted, no paint, not primer, except maybe some pinstripping, and a monster motor, and termed them 'rat rods'. These folks bastardized the name of a true rat rod to meet there standards. something that was loud and obnoxious and disgusting to look at, but it fit into their culture.

The same goes for the motorcycles and choppers argument. A chopper WAS a motorcycle that was bought and had everything that wasn't needed 'chopped' off for racing to make the bike lighter. it was usually done with a chop saw. The tem chopper is thrown around to casually today for these psuedo customs that are out there that are completely unridable, a monster back tire, a rake that is impossible to turn, but they look pretty with all there chrome and diamond plate. (thank you discovery channel for killing choppers).

Perfect example: I had a '76 iron head sportser (1000cc) in a Suicide frame frome the late 60's with a 6' Denver grider front end. I would enter it into 3 categories, Rat Bike, Chopper, and Custom classes at ralllies and bike shows, and would always place in the top 5 for each class. The Rat Bike becuase it was painted rattle canned flat black, no chrome, and was a bare basic bike, the chopper categroy, becuase it had all the stuff not needed to ride it chopped off, and the custom, becuase it was had a custom frame and front end.

These arguments over classifications will continue to go on and on until the end of time, becuase Traditional, and non traditional Hot rodders will never be on the same page. And when it comes down to it, it's all about the money, who has the most to throw at their vehicle and who has a rolling project that they are fixing and driving at the same time.

mrjynx said:

I didnt want to comment, I held off for a long time, but damn I`ll explode if I dont.
Im sure Ive made myself sound like a nerd.

[RASH {★}]

The Damn thing part of my post.

I also had a '52 chevy LWB P/U

I took a rolled over 93 S-10 LWB and stripped it to the frame, had it modified to fit underneath the 52, and reinforced. for a modern suspension and brakes. channeled it 2 in to lower it and put lowered the suspension 2 inches as well.. tubbed the back 4" to run 15x10 cragars with 15x6 on the front. I ran disc brakes all the way around. I chopped 3" out of the cab. I ran a 383ci Stroker with 2-750 holly dom's on top, with a 5speed munsi (out of the s-10) that I had built bulletproof.

It was painted PPG Satin Black ($3K) and had the frame and underside powder coated. with no billet or chrome outside of the Cragars.

I would have the traditionalist call my ride a rat,up until I'd take there money in heads up race, I built this thing to run lows 12's in the quarter, on pump gas and high 10's on 108 octane.
total investment 10k give or take a few bucks turned around and made my money back on racing it and sold it for 23k.

But since it wasn't a era specific, it got snubbed by alot of people, becuase it wasn't loaded with billet and chrome it got snubbed by others. It was what i had avaialble to work with and we went to town and made something I enjoyed to drive.

That little hot rod/ got called a 'rat' all the time, and I didn't argue with anyone, just said put your money where your mouth is.

[RASH {★}]

Oh okay, I see what you were saying. And the description of the Finished Rod with the patina, and cracked paint. It's like finding a survivor , a barn kept '55 Nomad, all orginal, one owner, and not restore it becuase it has to much historical value as it sits.




mrjynx said:

I think the point i was trying to make got lost in too many words.

Hot rod, isnt a vehicle its a description. hot rodding is the culture.

Traditionally certain cars were used. new 30s fords etc.

These days there are still hot rodders who want to follow that tradition, but obviously cant get new cars, so they choose rusty bodies, and some, will choose to preserve the rusty look, old cracked paint job. people just keep as they find them.

but that doesnt make it a rat rod. (its a finished hot rod)

Then theres the newer cultural cool, of rat rods, where manly younger people go and find rusty parts, and put them together for the purpose of creating a rat rod. (which would be a finished rat rod)

Not all rusty 30s cars are rat rods, theyre just patina`d hot rods. you could if you want use ratty to describe the rusty look. Just be careful where you use it because not all people like it.

Then youve got the naive newer kids who just call everything rat rod because they dont have a clue.

But thanks for fillin me in on where "rat" started.

[Johnny C. Photography]

Typically a Hot Rod is anything pre 1935 and a Kustom tends to be anything 1936-1961. This is true especially in cars, the line with pickups can be a little different. It is really a split between Hot Rods and Kustoms/Leadsleds, then there are pickups and restorations. On the topic of "rat rods", it was a term that started out being used on unfinished traditional style Hot Rods. Then it blew up overnight and people started intentionally building unfinished Hot Rods which eventually morphed to unsafe rust buckets that were poorly built. The fad seems to be fading and most guys are getting back on track now. You are right mrjynx, if you want to find out how unpopular the term "rat rod" is mention it on the HAMB. Alot of this is a repeat of what was already said but just my take in my words. I am an avid Hot Rod/Kustom builder so I had to respond.

[Dr. Sizzle]

A Kustom is when the body is modified with hand fabricated lines. The usual frenching and tunneling of lights, shaving, nosing, decking, channeling, and sectioning. To where it's almost impossible to tell the year of the car. A Hot Rod is a worked stock car with or with out flashy after market parts. Hot Rods are usually geared towards racing and performance and are more or less coupes and tudor sedans. Both can share similar work done. Kustoms tend to be large heavier cars. Again you can have a Kustom coupe or a Hot Rod DeVille but you catch my drift. Rat Rod I agree is an over used slang someone threw into the mix. We all mostly associate it with a ratty, rusted rod with red wheels for some reason. And they ALL are projects..haha
Street Rods are usually Hot Rods with way to much money invested in them with billet part and state of the air crap in them. No offense. Pro street is a Hot Rod tubbed out with giant slick and a whole lot of horsepower, Super chargers, blowers, fuel injections etc.
Just my 2cents

Tom