daddy, if all the visiting self proclaimed rat rodders were as thoughtful and open minded as you I suspect there'd be less tension on threads of that subject. If you look at the "legacy" threads usually the first nasty salvo is fired by some ratter who's taken offense to any statement that doesn't proclaim rat rods as the only true symbolism of rodding. Honest opinion, perhaps disagreement, doesn't fly with them. Your comment about "anger" nails it pretty well. I made a similar comment in the "Death of Ratrods" thread in the first post, without your deeper insight and personal reference. As you've seen there are certain ratters that totally missed the point of it being a trend analysis piece, not a put down. It even references, in a very favorable light, a member who builds cars that generally fit the definition. The latest two new ratters even admitted in their hate posts that they read very little of what was posted, but that didn't keep them from blasting both barrels from their pea shooters.

As for nobody taking on your request to define the term rat rodder, most of the older hands here don't see the point anymore. Look at Hotrodpaint's recent post on "Street rod,......." definitions. There's too much anarchy to get complete agreement on the names, so it's easier to just let folks self define. Saying that, I'll go with what fairlane said, and it's consistent with the member reference I made in "Death.....", if it's trashy looking it's a rat rod, if it appears some attention to detail was lavished on the assembly, it's just a rod, traditional or otherwise. To me it has much less to do with primer, steel wheels, body style, etc. it all comes down to pride in workmanship, whatever level the builder has grown to.

Foose will be rolling out his P32 roadster at the Detroit Autorama the first week of March. He has stated it's intended to be a "tribute" car, something that might have been built by a returned WWII fighter pilot just after the war (thus the P designation, meaning Pursuit which is what that era fighter planes used). The paint will most likely be satin, maybe even camo, it'll probably have "bomber" seats, aircraft style gauges and so on. But it will be done to the highest level of craftsmanship that Foose has become known for. It'll be called a rat rod from here to Sunday..............but there's absolutely nothing about it that'll be ratty I'd bet.