Coined over 10 years ago now, this term "Rat Rod" has seen it's day in the sun and it's time to throw a cover over 'craptastic retrorides' with the halloween decor displayed upon the fenders and the Pringles cans that are being employed as velocity stacks! It's obvious to most of us who are around these cars what happened. When the high dollar cars became passe, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction. The next thing you know low buck rods became the rage and everyone and their brother was buying up old rusted pieces of crap to make a "rat rod". Websites popped up left and right and even Magazines were spawned with this esthetic being the focus.
What was gained by this happening? Not a damn thing!
Shows that encouraged traditional styled cars came to look like a scrap yard on show date. People went over the top with how shitty they could make a car or truck appear as bragging rights. No sense of style or history was even being considered when putting something together. It was if people took a bunch of jigsaw puzzles out of the closet, mixed them all together to make one crappy collage. Cars have been built so unsafe with ugly independent front suspension on a fender-less car. Street signs became the floor of choice as opposed to the craftsmanship of their ancestors. And the list of crap mods goes on and on. It's seriously ridiculous anymore.
Coupled with this was the 'Anti Trailer Queen' movement. "Drive your car" was what everyone chose as a battle-cry which gave us a little leeway on stone chips and some mud on a fender on show days. But then the inevitable happened; Rat Rods began showing up in trailer and on flatbeds because they were too uncomfortable to drive or were too 'craptastic' to be on the road. Time and again at shows across the country with the Anti Billet theme you began to see Rat Rods being unloaded the night before, sometimes miles away from the show so people could cruise in to the city limits in their Ratmobiles trying to look all bad ass. You guys aren't fooling anyone!
So now where are we? The pendulum has now found it's place back right where it should be, straight down the middle with all the classically styled customs and hot rods (notice, I spell custom with a c) The Sins of Steel show will be turning away the junk as well as the high dollar cars. It features 1964 and prior TRADITIONAL style rods and customs ONLY!
- No visible billet anything! Especially wheels!
- No 80s graphic, Night Ranger playing, big-haired pro-street cars
- No trailer queens - all cars must be driven in unless they are vintage drag cars
- No IFS on fenderless cars
- No mag wheels made after the 60’s
- Traditionally styled choppers and bobbers ONLY! (No fat-tired theme bikes)...
- But this show has a twist too. No "Rat Rods" either. It's bad for the scene to make something intentionally crappy just for the sake of being different. Let us harken back to a time when builders like George Barris and Gene Windfield were making customs nice! Hell, even good old Big Daddy Roth could make a sweet "art car" out of crazy stuff lying around and not just crappy welds on a rusted frame. Having a flat black car isn't saving you much money either. Lets face it, you can buy single stage paint for the same cost as a Hot Rods Flat paint by the gallon!
Build a car safe, build it nice, be proud of the work you do, and bring it out to Sins of Steel on June 5th
Amen, brother.
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