The Rat Look Debate

In order not to disrupt this project thread:

http://www.vwgolfmk1.o…wtopic&t=55914&highlight=

I suggest to debate the good vs bad aspects of "The Rat Look" here instead.


I'll kick it off with:

Good
- Its their car, they can do what they like with it! You can't be a "white knight" and go round buying up ALL Mk1 Golfs and restoring them to originality, or perfection, much as one might like to.
- Its definitely the kind of thing which grabs people's attention. After all, we only need to see one restored Mk1 Golf GTi and its going to be similar/same as another. At least with rat look, its original and distinct
- Artistic?

Bad
- Its lazy. For example, if the car needed welding and it were a ratter, you could simply hammer and weld a rough patch, it would satisfy MoT requirements and take about 2 hours. To do the same type of repair on any other car, might take 10 times the length (or more) due to carefully cutting and trimming back rusty metal, concealing the line welded, filler, paint, etc
- 9 times out of 10, its not in fact that innovative and its all been done before, so you're not really trend setting anyway. If you want to be innovative, there's much better things you could do.

I love true rats, as in driven out of a barn after 20 years and do the minimum for a mot

Not to keen on the take the paint off with a sander and let it rust look!

I'm glad there's ratty Mk1's around. The shows would be a bit boring without them. Some of my favourites at Billing where the rattier ones - not even intentionally ratted (no offence to anyone  :wink: ). I drove an non-intentional Mk1 rat for years - I just couldn't afford the respray and new panels!   I prefer to drive a smart, fairly original and fully painted car now though for practical reasons because it's a daily driver…and I don't want too much unwanted attention etc.

funk-star said

I love true rats, as in driven out of a barn after 20 years and do the minimum for a mot

Not to keen on the take the paint off with a sander and let it rust look!

I agree. A Mk5 I saw with a ratted/rusty look bonnet wasn't my cup of tea! But the fact that it got a reaction of any kind makes the show scene more interesting!  :mrgreen:

funk-star said

I love true rats, as in driven out of a barn after 20 years and do the minimum for a mot

Not to keen on the take the paint off with a sander and let it rust look!

Pretty much agree with this, the genuine ones are cool, but I'm not so keen on when it seems forced. It seems like it's just been done because the skill to restore it properly isn't there, not saying that's how it is, but how it comes across to me at least.

To be honest, the car in that link is rank. Literally just throwing things at it an attempt to make it look good…

I think people get confused between tatty and ratty. There is a big difference

Tatty = not having the money and/or skills to restore a Mk1 or quite happy using car in current form as a daily workhorse. Might have the intention to restore when time/money allows.

Ratty = deliberately making a Mk1 look crap by denting it, rusting it, writing on it, covering it with rubbish, etc. No intention to restore the car, more likely to get broken for parts or crushed by new owner.

Arrr…  a contentious issue Paul's started.  Grab the popcorn and sit back  

For my 2p any car done well looks good, be that rat, show scene, perfect restoration, track car etc etc.

The problem seems to be more people produce crap rats than any other type of car.  If you restore a car and it isn't 'factory' it would someone rally anal to tell you you've used the wrong sort of petrol cap for your model.  Similarly, track cars are for speed and not looks.

However, on here we are mostly purists so rats and scene cars tend to get a kicking.  X5pea's car, though, is a car of the highest quality so regardless of taste it is still a good piece of engineering.  However, stick a plastic bodykit and half a tonne of fibreglass of your mk1 and everyone will tell you it's a pile of ****.

I've only seen a few rats done perfectly - I think it's a case of time invested to quality of output.  Total restos can take years.  X5pea's took years.  The guy in the link above did his in an afternoon.

Which would you expect to have a better outcome, 2 years work or an afternoon?

Dont like the idea of forced rat at all although some have a lot of character. There are better ways of giving your car character though!

I really like the idea of MOT'ing a rusty barn find though. Atleast its natural

P.S. I dont like it when people are selling a car which is a bit tatty and they call it rat style just to make it seem more acceptable. Its sometimes a way of getting round saying your car isnt in good nick. lazy

I forced a rat once… I still feel dirty  ops:

MikeyBoy said

I forced a rat once… I still feel dirty  ops:

That's just wrong!

ross_m said

I dont like it when people are selling a car which is a bit tatty and they call it rat style just to make it seem more acceptable. Its sometimes a way of getting round saying your car isnt in good nick. lazy

Hear hear!

a proper rat can take as long as a concours car.
how ever a person who can't be bothered to keep his car in good repair then calls it rat look is where i have problems.

look at lawsys hof project. the work that was done took alot. he hasn't just left it to rot.

some of the ones the yanks do are amazing. but i think the dry climate of the southern states helps.
theres a blue one that if you look at it looks dead but underneath is perfect. i jusst cant find a pic right now.

however i dont really like the rat look personally i would rather see an original or lightly modded example.

i love the rat look i think it is fantastic.

not to say i'd like all cars to look like this, but i'm a real believer in the car being sound to start with. I.E: no rust holes etc.

so other than the sills and arches this car kinda wins me round.

THE BONNET IS AWESOME  (SKULL AND CROSSBONES)

as far as i'm conserned it's each person to there own and if you don't like it noone is forcing you to look at it. go and find something you do like.

it's not that hard

there is a funny thing with "rats" tho.

for some strange reason even the people who HATE them can spend hours looking at them.

WHY IS THAT?

For all its worth the more ratty looks about the better mine look!    

Sorry, maybe its me but I can not see how driving around with
an empty oil barrel strapped to your roof improves a car? :wink:

I understand "Rat Look" Eg: dragged from a barn, still going, beating
modern cars, 2 fingers etc… but the paintwork / Barrel, errr have
left me speachless……. each to their own I suppose, I guess he would
look at a concourse car and scratch his head .

Just my 2 pence worth :mrgreen:

Dibbler

well yeah, the barrel is a bit pointless!

a true rat is awesome

Taken from the hot road days where the real focus was sod the looks, slam it and sort out theengine

on the hot rod scene this has developed into some truley awesome cars..


I like Rats, there's no way of hiding it.. Take project HOF, bought as a run araound for a while, with a view to tidy up it later on, so too see out the show season last year instead of driving round in something boring a bit of a forced rat look was done!!

My mk2 that I've aquired is rat look, rusted bonnet etc, but I'm going for a more conventional 'rat' look, more hot rod style

so if there is Ratty - looking crap on purpose - Tatty, looking tatty cos cant afford to go further

What is the original 'rat' look then ie, this


http://www.hotrodhappenings.com/ShowTell-Brads30FordRatRod-001.JPG

or this





last 3 pics were pics i took in america of a show winning car..

original paint, purposely left

then all running gear, engine, well eveerything except the body was upgraded

Owner refered to itas a rat rod and said it cost as much if not more to build as he didnt want to damage anything original whilst restoring

so really shoudl it be 3 style

SCENE RAT - Tatty - Rat Rod….

I prefer the Rat Rod style along with the true Ratters, barn finds that are left but mot'd and used

I'd rather a good tatty/ratty whatever you want to call it as a daily, I've noticed it certainly draws more attention (weather its good or bad i dont care) than running round in tidy cars

Plus you dont care when you park them etc!!

so if you theme a car correctly then why not respect others wishes

I see keeping a car on the road and away from the scrapper as a better option to scrapping it, so if its really bad welds and surface rust on the body then so be it!!

In all, I like them all and if i had my choice, it would be really tidy in the engine bay, good running gear, decent performance then sod the exterior!!

a bit like this one

I think if its done with abit of imagination like rust design bonnet or like there were stickers there befor, it can look good and not too forced.  You can see some people put alot of thought into there RAT projects.

Its those that just have run down dirty  car and say look its a RAT, and you end up thinking yeh you're right.

thats the one i was thinking of lawsy.
it is rally nice.
although i beleive he has now had it redone to a very nice condition.

can anyone tell me how low that is?

i wanna go that low.

may even go rat too.