Page 12 - The Magazine of AAA Ohio Auto Club – September 2020

Diamonds in the Rust By Pandora
Paúl Sordon
Rat rods are defined and identified differently within this growing sector of automotive artistry
and customization. One definition offered by Rat Rod Magazine is “a blue-collar hot rod.” Another is a “counter-culture hot rod.” It is generally agreed that Rat Rods are different from “glitzy” hot rods in that decay is used as the medium upon which the builder adds their own flavor, creating metal artwork that uses natural aging processes. Rat Rod customs form a recognizable aesthetic that favors a decayed look and “unfinished” qualities in rejection of the many established rules that have come to define hot rods over the years.
Instead of loathing rust and the
degradations of time, as many do in the car scene, the Rat Rodder welcomes and embraces it. Life has taken its toll on the car bodies, but the Rat Rodder reclaims what is disintegrating and discarded, using the car’s age as a nostalgic badge of honor. Resurrecting it, yet spawning something new, with no rules and no boundaries. While many are made from 1920s and 1930s vehicles, they can span from the earliest teens onward. Some even creatively develop methods to instigate rust to generate a specific style of decay that adds to the appearance.
To find what Rat Rodders do as a defilement of the vehicle lacks vision. Customizing and “hopping up” vehicles has been happening for as long as the automobile has been rolling. While some will attempt to pinpoint when the term Rat Rod began, the cars’ actual origins and the word are murky. As they are in obvious
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