Automotive cultural stereotypes?

Recently I've been obsessed with building something Rat-Rod-y. I've been digging through gazillions of pictures looking for inspiration, and have (what I think) are some pretty cool ideas for something "different."

I've also been digging through "rat-rod" message boards, and I'm surprised how narrow-minded a lot (not all) of these folks are. i.e., "If it's not a ford or a chevy, it's not a Rat-Rod. If it was produced after 19XX, it's not a Rat-Rod. If there's ANYTHING shiny on it, it's not a rat-rod. If it the wheels aren't red, it's not a rat-rod. If it doesn't have the number 13 painted on the side, it's not a rat-rod." (ok, so I made up the last few, but they seem implied.) There were some pics of a BITCHIN' Volkswagen rat in one thread, but the poster was immediately flamed with tons of "that ain't a rat rod! Take that E36 M3 over too..."

I grabbed a rat rod themed magazine at the grocery store this weekend, again, looking for more inspiration and ideas. Don't worry, I'm won't be trading my subscription of GRM for "Greasy hair, neck tattoo, rolled up pants...and oh yeah, rat-rods" magazine anytime soon.

Like a four-year-old, I was really just interested in the pictures, but inevitably started reading some of the articles. While the "build" articles on the cars were generally short, vague, and uninteresting, some of the editorial and how-to stuff was pretty cool. Toward the end of the magazine, one of the contributors had a pretty good article on being a "patient" car builder, and how a lot of folks in the rat-rod "scene" had become too dependent on online auction sites, CL, etc.

The article was very insightful and well written, but the author still felt the need to throw in a "Save that E36 M3 for the credit-card funded riceburner crowd..." Ouch.

Anyway, still pretty confident that this attitude might be the exception and not the rule, I went to the magazine's website. On their "submitted photos" page, they had specific instructions NOT to post pictures of anything built after 19XX. Well damn.

Desperate to find pics of SOMETHING other than 33 Fords, chopped Mercs, etc, etc, etc, I skipped over to Jalopnik, where I found this:

Okay, let's get this straight right off the bat: we love traditional hot rods and customs. We love Carl Perkins. We love the Blasters. And we think girls in sexy outfits "inspired" by the fashions of the '50s are really freakin' hot. But we're entirely sick of this whole rockabilly badass lifestyle. Case in point, we were once threatened with a beat-down for admitting we thought electronic fuel injection was a good idea. Seriously. Anyway, if you can deal with a number of pseudo-hard-guy, backwards-thinking, "It was better in the '50s because we could be raging homophobes and it was entirely acceptable" types, there should be some fully-awesome cars at the Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday, October 15th. Oh, and before the hate-mail flies, we've got just as much ire directed at polo-shirted, braided-belt-and-denim-shorts billet rodders and bro-ham import scene types. There are a ton of great people involved in every branch of the car hobby, no matter what their preference. That said, we call 'em like we see 'em.

So before I go any further into this "rat-rod" thing. What do you guys think? Are the "I'm going to beat your ass if you like fuel injection" rockabilly greaseyheads the exception or the rule in the "rat-rod culture?" Seriously. Who the hell can look at the Andy Nelson Volks-rod and say "That's not cool?"

-rantover.

Ahh, the rockabilly badass scene, something I know too well.

There's always been that element to rockabilly, just as it's always been there for punk. But over the past few years rockabilly has balkanized into all these little warring factions, and each one is convinced there's is the one true way. Meanwhile, guys that REALLY know--guys that have actually played with Ronnie Dawson, Wanda Jackson, etc--are all of a sudden not "real rockabilly". Brian Setzer even had a song called "really rockabilly" on a recent album, ripping these jerks a new one.. "he wears 1954 underwear".

Anyway, the whole thing is collapsing in on itself because nobody can meet all the requirements anymore, and when they do its boring as hell. The irony is that rockabilly was originally a bunch of wild-eyed loons who didn't care what anyone thought... "let's just do this thing and see how it'll run"

In other words, the lunkheads seem to be in the majority now, but their days are numbered. The smart guys know, cool is cool, even when its different. Maybe especially if its different.

My question would be- who are you building this for, you or them?

Another "side" to the "rat rod" group are "classic rods"- which are ratty on the outside, but very, very solid underneath. We met some of these guys at Bonneville once, and suggested an Alfa project- and while it wasn't their cup of tea ( :) ), they did think it would be cool.

Now I wish I could remember who they were- that was probably 5 years ago.

Like the Hot Rod vs Street Rod discussion, Hot Rods have a trunk full of tools, Street Rods have a trunk full of lawn chairs. Pick your poison.

Build whatever the customer wants! In this casa the customer is you. I lean toward these guys because they may not even have a category, they're just builders of things I like!

http://www.oddballkustoms.com/index.php

Dan

My question would be- who are you building this for, you or them?

Certainly me. I suppose I just expected that these guys would be a lot like "us;" you use E36 M3 you have laying around or pick up cheap or free, keep it stupid simple, stupid light, Ford Van springs fit on turbo dodges, etc., but for a "culture" that started out this way, it seems that it's gone all image - before I get flamed for that, the same could obviously be said about the "tuner (yuck) scene."

Is there a group of old guys who just wear jeans and t-shirts, aren't interested in picking up skanky tattoed chicks (not that I don't like skanky tattoed chicks, just not my motivation,) and don't particularly care for rockabilly or Social Distortion? Do they have a website? A car show?

You got something against Social Distortion?

Seriously, those guys are out there, they're just currently getting drowned out by the hipper-than-thou crowd.

By the way, this is cool: http://www.oddballkustoms.com/?p=123#more-123

Thanks for the link, Dan

914Driver wrote: Like the Hot Rod vs Street Rod discussion, Hot Rods have a trunk full of tools, Street Rods have a trunk full of lawn chairs. Pick your poison. Build whatever the customer wants! In this casa the customer is you. I lean toward these guys because they may not even have a category, they're just builders of things I like! http://www.oddballkustoms.com/index.php Dan

Suite. Thanks for the link.

By the way, this is cool: http://www.oddballkustoms.com/?p=123#more-123

But it's FUEL INJECTED!!!!!

Did you see the Jag T oddballkustoms made? It's incredible (and fuel injected).

I don't care if it runs on blueberries and pixie stix. Cool is cool.

Tim Baxter wrote: I don't care if it runs on blueberries and pixie stix. Cool is cool.

ditto. I was being sarcastic.

I worry about people who put too much style in their lives.

I like cool cars and I'm the final arbiter of what I consider cool. That includes certain rat rods, hot rods, street rods, street machines, pony cars, muscle cars, sports cars, race cars ... you get the idea.

The worst thing I've noticed about the few rat rods I've seen is a lax attitude toward basic safety. Front brakes are a good idea.

I don't get the idea of severely limiting your car/part/engine/technique choices to a certain era or style - my budget and time are limits enough.

Go, look, enjoy, and take from the ratrodders and others any ideas you can use.

Long before "rat-rod" was a household word, I was bench racing, in my own mind, concept upon concept of "sleepers."

I hesitate to bring this to the surface, because, by my definition, a sleeper is a car that doesn't draw attention, at least not until it's too late.

Maybe this genre would be more down your line. Play the cosmetics down, focus on the "invisible" aspects of mechanical prowess...and have fun knowing you know something they don't (yet). There's no rules...there's no significant following...dress however you like (I like jeans, t-shirt, and sandals when I'm not in grubbies).

All that said, I've never gotten any of my cars to true "sleeper" status...they've just been junky with no punch to back it up...but I keep dreaming and scheming...

Clem

Maybe this genre would be more down your line. Play the cosmetics down, focus on the "invisible" aspects of mechanical prowess...and have fun knowing you know something they don't (yet).

Been there, done that, interested in trying something new. It's not so much that I'm trying to "fit" the car into any particular genre. I was just pretty amazed to find that a lot of the rat-rod guys had a pretty elitist attitude, and that there's a lot of homogeneity in the cars for the sake of "purism." As my wardrobe generally consists of a free GRM shirt, a pair of $5 clearance priced old navy shorts, and a 5 year old pair of sneakers, I'm not really interested in any kind of "fashion trend."

On the other side of that coin, here we all are judging them for being passionate about whatever they're into. If having a life filled with art and style is worthy of your worry, I feel bad for the boredom you must feel.

Do what you like, define it for yourself, and avoid painting a portrait of any scene with too broad of a brush. If you aren't looking to the crowd for approval, who cares what they like or tolerate?

Its funny... if baxter replaced civil war reenacting with Rockabilly in that explanation.. He'd have it down as well.

Yes I was a civil war reenactor. It got so bad near the end that if you're weren't picking the corn out horse poo to eat or peeing on buttons to get the "correct" patina on them.. you weren't cool.

yes we called them button pissers. yes.. some would forget to take them off the coat first.

What pisses me off about the whole "rat rod" thing is the import kids copy that fad by taking a nice example of a hard to find 70s-90s import and destroying it, rather than take one that is already a rat and rod IT instead.

On the other side of that coin, here we all are judging them for being passionate about whatever they're into. If having a life filled with art and style is worthy of your worry, I feel bad for the boredom you must feel. Do what you like, define it for yourself, and avoid painting a portrait of any scene with too broad of a brush. If you aren't looking to the crowd for approval, who cares what they like or tolerate?

Christalmighty. I know it'd probably bore you to tears, but read all of every post. I made every effort to avoid "painting" anyone as anything. I think rat-rods are berkeleying cool as E36 M3. I was purposely asking if I had the wrong impression of these guys.

I wasn't really responding to your post, but some of the comments that came in later; things like

slantvaliant said:I worry about people who put too much style in their lives.

Don't be so damn sensitive; I'm generally in agreement.

Short non-reactionary version: The potential for irony wasn't lost on me.

I don't know if you can have too much style, and I don't have problem with trends. Just as long as you are true to your self, and not some caricature. Style encompases a lot though: clothes, the way you act, talk, treat people, the things you appreciate and are passionate about, what you create, your ethics.........

I think the style you guys are talking about is mask that just about anyone can see right through.

Scenes suck. They all start out with some cool, like minded original guys and then you get all the nerds who need some scene to belong to because they are, for the most part, losers. Before you know it, these new guys start establishing rules and it loses sight of what it was originally suppose to be about.

I think the style you guys are talking about is mask that just about anyone can see right throug

+1 .

Realistically a "Rat Rod" would be any currently cheap car modified as cheaply and easily as possible to make a bit faster. In the 50's, that meant 30's and 40's cars (when they were dirt cheap). Which of course means currently a 30's car is definitely NOT a rad rod (unless the prices have dropped radically recently).

Currently I am guessing that would be 80's and early 90's cars with some mods. This of course would means that many of the "ricers" that the Rat Rodders so abhor are actually more true "Rat Rodder" than they are!!!

Remember to be a rebel and different you must look and act exactly like everyone else who is being a rebel and different.... idiots...

aircooled wrote: Realistically a "Rat Rod" would be any currently cheap car modified as cheaply and easily as possible to make a bit faster. In the 50's, that meant 30's and 40's cars (when they were dirt cheap). Which of course means currently a 30's car is definitely NOT a rad rod (unless the prices have dropped radically recently). Currently I am guessing that would be 80's and early 90's cars with some mods. This of course would means that many of the "ricers" that the Rat Rodders so abhor are actually more true "Rat Rodder" than they are!!! Remember to be a rebel and different you must look and act exactly like everyone else who is being a rebel and different.... idiots...

word.

Automotive stereotypes?