when we were young there was very little to choose from. you fought ants and hornets in the wrecking yard for your parts but we cleaned and painted everything. many of our cars had salvageable paint on them. if not we sanded and primed it . i learned to paint because i could not afford to pay for it and refused to "earl it ". i'll drive one in primer before i turn it over to some cheapo paint shop .
now to rat rods. imho they are junk. built to look like junk with junk .
but dont confuse a hotrod in patina for a rat rod. no comparison . kamikazie's truck is cool. he chose not to paint it. his call . my problem is with these young rockabilly wannab's telling me how it was done in the old days . stfu i was there. i refuse to go to any show such as the " no billet " shows or shows that crowd have a large attendance. this is why i do not go to the round up in austin . in all my 50 years involved with hotrods i know of no one who would pass up a piece of chrome .