[blancojp (R.I.P.)]

A rat rod is anything you wanted it to be. You start by gathering old parts until you have enough to build a car with. Paint, interior and other flash items are ignored so you end up with a unique car that you can drive the crap out of.

In this day and age, the true definition has been lost since people are getting old vehicles and spending tons of money just to make it look like a rod. In a Opel this is very hard to do since you can't actually put other body parts together to make a statement. But as an example, you can get a Model A, cut out the rumble seat, replace the front with a T engine cover, add a truck rear and old POP lights. You find the largest engine you can fit, wire it like you just don't care and voila!, you now have a rat rod.

Of course you will not paint the outside, just leave blobs of primer everywhere and the interior must be done using the same scenario. People actually pay big money for these vehicles and they are just spare parts jammed together to form something.

 

[blancojp (R.I.P.)]

Ok guys!

This is a rat rod which was sold for $45K last year. The car was built using parts from anything that was available laying around the shop.

Was quite impressive and sure made some noise....

 

[blancojp (R.I.P.)]

See, a Rat-Rod selling for $45 grand just seems all wrong to me. The one pictured in the post above looks too polished and deliberate.

But this one in the attached photo is a good example. It needs a few more interesting items; such as a hand grenade gear shift knob, and a few birds stuck in the radiator. It could also use wide tires and red racing rims.

I'd love to see this with some of that faux wood panel vinyl (available from J.C. Whitney's) pasted on the sides of the bucket. And if it was peeling that would just be the icing on the cake.

The rat rod I posted was built on a chevy S-10 chassis. It had a '32 body which was made (badly) into an unfinished convertible, plexiglass windshield, '23 "t" firewall and part of the tub, painted white wall tires, motorcycle torpedo front lights, '29 model A radiator with chrome shield found at a swap meet.
The interior is just a carpet, a mercury steering column and a '65 mustang steering wheel. The paint was a single coat of clear after the body was sanded and a few decals from a P-51 were added just to be cool I guess.

The parts above are just a skim of the list, the vehicle has lots more from different manufacturers.