Does it need to be a Model T, '32 Ford and the like? Does every square inch need to be rust? Should it just be on red wheels with whitewalls?

The subject is so vague that "anything goes" or are there guide lines that'll turn people away?

mostly it would be a pre-49 cars and trucks mostly pre war vehicles.  Rat rods are generally thrown together cars from whatever parts are available with no reguard for safety or workmanship. A lot of people seem to think rat rods are any car or truck that has a patina (surface rust) or primer finish. That is not the case, Rat rods are junk that will get you killed driving.

 What you are thinking of I think is just an orignal style rod when people built thing for themselves with what they had for parts and skills made for function over fashion. 

Good reference would be magazines like ol' skool rods and car kulture deluxe.

imo, rats are just low tech hot rods with no flash just a lot of GO! some appear to be a dangerous vehicle to drive some seem to offer a good ride, some are rusty some have a lot of body work invested,(most have been chopped channeled or sectioned)some have red wheels some don't, my best friend has a 40 ford "rat truck" sittin on nice bright chrome steelies with wide whites his dads 37 ford "rat" has sublime green wheels with chrome center caps and bfg ta's all around,  i've seen 60's and 70's era cars and trucks that the owner defines has a rat, putting limits on the term ratrod is exactly that....limiting,but thats just my 2 cents! hope my opinions help out.

CFL2005:

That is not the case, Rat rods are junk that will get you killed driving.

LOL Ever hear the term "Never Judge A Book By It's Cover"??? Like you said, most of them now are just More Pocket Book Newly Built Rods funded by Seniors/Baby-Boomers, made to look like a "Vintage Well Worn Rod" from the past (Ie in the Rodder World, a "Holy Grail Barn/Garage Find")..... Even the Original Rods that were badged by the "Senior" Stuck Up Rodders "Rat Rods"( named that, cause they looked like the car at some point might have been, or currently used as a rats nest), were never built in such a way that they were "Unsafe".... All Vehicles of any Age/etc are subjected to Safety Inspections, to deem them road worthy, if not then those vehicles must comply, or may be seized to be destroyed.... Yes they can be assembled from parts that have been accumulated from a Wrecking/Salvage Yard,Swap Meet,Classified ADs,and Etc, but they Safety Equiptment is always New or Quality Rebuilt pieces...... Most of those Owners/Builders may be care-free when it comes to what people think. They are willing to beat their Cars/Trucks to Hell and Back, but none of them are Careless enough to endanger themselves, let alone someone they care about, or someone else that may be within range of said time-bomb(Yes there are exceptions to every rule, but usually those individuals eventually take themselves, and usually only them out of the Gene Pool for us).... Heck even some of the Newest Cars out there that are the current rage, aren't exactly the safest on the road, but you have people that will flock to them(SMART Cars,Certain SUV/Mini Van's,Etc)....

Previous posters have pretty much nailed it.

 Rat rod term started out describing raggedy looking beater hot rods. no bling, no high dollar paint, usually homemade, but not neccssarily unsafe or carelessly built.

However, the 'coolness' of the concept caught on and dorks would primer something and paint the wheels red, and 'SHAZAM', he was cool!  On the other extreme, people like Foose spent tens of thousand dollars building a one. Kinda dilutes the uniqueness of it all.

So if it ceases to be unique does that mean that it becomes something like a bellybutton, everyone has one? Kinda like how kit cars and fiberglass dueces were in the 80's, everything becomes fad?So once something becomes cool, and everyone is doing it, Does it cease to be "cool"? hmmm food for thought!!!

Rat Rods were originaly built by hot rodders who couldnt afford a nice shiney hot rod. Much like myself. Parts from scrap yards were thrown on, most dents or rot was fixed, if possible.

Thats why they were rusty, couldnt afford to blast it all, prep, prime and give it a nice paint job. So scallops were thrown over top of the rust, just to add a little flare. Basicaly, a rat rod is a ratty death trap built with a low budget. Now, it's a style of car, so pretty much anything goes. Still a  cool style though.

 got to love Wiki

 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_rod

 I was looking for a pic of a rat rod and actually found this...very very cool

 

i could be wrong but i believe that is the "infamous" Daytona coupe that was involved in a nasty lawsuit.

Dave 

 Yep! That was the one that a old woman owned or inherited if i recall.

 A rat rod in its purest form is a hot rod designed to look like it was built on a low budget by a teenager in the 1950s. They were conceived as a statement against the high cost billet rods being turned out by builders like Boyd Coddington.

They can in theory be based on any type of car that could be classed as a hot rod, therefore pre 1949 cars modified primarily for speed rather than appearance.

Once these rusty and primer painted rods started to draw more attention at car shows than the shiny rods they rapidly became popular.
In turn they encouraged a number of barn find rods/gassers etc back out into the open

Essentially they are supposed to represent a hot rod in progress but many are in fact finished, whereas in the 1950s the guy who owned a primer painted car was usually saving up the money for paint.

And it's a little known fact that a group of British hot rodders belonging to a car club called the Low Flyers actually re-started the rat rod movement in the mid 1980s several years before it took off in the USA.

Like most things in rodding and customising one man's trash is another's treasure, I've seen rusty Cal-look Beetles described as having the rat-look, and even 70s/80s Toyotas with lowered suspension, chequred graphics and a roof rack full of 80's junk called rat look...

In essence the guys who were old enough to remember rods in the 1950s/60s generally look down on rat rods, while those of us not old enough to now what it was really like back then tend to me more accepting.
Mike

I have read through this thread and it got me thinking back to my first car. I have been a car freak since about the age of 10, I'm 44 now. When I was in high school I cut enough lawns and earned just enough money the summer before my senior year to buy a 1969 Chevelle 2 door. It was bone stock with a 327 in it. I think I paid 700 bucks for it. It was rough. I spent my whole 12th grade year scraping coins together to make a hot rod out of it. Looking at so called rat rods, reminds me of what my friends and the girls I liked at the time would say about my old Chevy. "Ride with us, we don't want to ride around in that ratty old car". Here's a description of what it looked like. The paint washed off in a car wash under the high pressure of the water so I primed the body black with a rattle can. Repainting it was an unaffordable luxury. The front bumper was tweaked pretty bad when I bought it so I found one from a wrecked 68 chevelle. It was free although it didn't look right on the 69. The trunk floor was rotted out along with all four corners of the fenders and rear quarters. The battery was strapped in with bungie cords because the plastic front fender well was busted and would not hold up the battery on its own. The battery actually fell out on top of the front tire not long after I bought it. I ended up rebuilding the 327 in auto mechanics class with a hotter cam & ignition, headers and a GM aluminum intake off an old 69 Z28 302 topped with a 780 Holly. I also rebuilt the transmission adding a shift kit. All of this for very little cash, most of it was freebie junk from older hot rodders in the area that felt sorry for the little skinny 17 year old (Me). I then scraped up a set of big and little aluminum slots for free and bought used tires from a local tire warehouse. For the life of me I'll never know why, I cut a hold in the hood and bolted on a hood scoop from a Dodge challenger. Talk about an odd looking Chevelle. The point is, It was my version of a hot rod. With the little resources I had, I was very proud to tear up the streets in it. I remember running it heads up against a new for the time 1980 Z28 with a 4 speed that a friend of mines dad bought him. After that very public display, the high school kids my age started calling my old chevelle, " The Rat Rod". I'm pretty sure the term was around before 1981 but I had not heard it before that.

 Why anyone would spend good money to end up with a car that looks like junk is beyond me. Just another way to take rare old bodies and destroy them.

mustanglover1951:

 Just another way to take rare old bodies and destroy them.

...or find a use for the ones that are too far gone to restore?