For the life of me I still can't figure out how people who are totally out of the car loop heard this term...........even Moms dropping off their Daughters at the ballet school down a few shops have said it. How did "rat rod" come to replace "hot rod" in so many people's vocabulary???
Don,

Television and magazines. Lately, "Rat Rod" is up in neon lights everywhere. Most rats look old to the uneducated, so any early rod automatically becomes a rat rod.

I love the comments like "My rat rod drew twice the crowd." I agree. The only problem is that 80% of the crowd is saying "WTF?" - not "I want one of those."