OMG RATLUK - Where are they now?

[purplebargeken]

You've seen one of my old cars then.

[Wilko220]

You're close, but not quite there. The Triumph part is fine, but it should be a 1300. Also the paint should be black, not red.

 

Sorry, but any excuse to re-post this and it just has to be done...

[purplebargeken]

Aaarrgghhhh! 

[purplebargeken]

[fordperv]

I thought rat was the thing to do when you wanted to make something worthy of taking to a show out of a piece of crap without spending any money, it's what I did for fun when a mate bought a £175 mk2 golf which was faded to fook and looking round it saw it was ready for weigh in after the test was out.

[DeeJay]

The "individual" tag make laugh.

There seems to be a check list to make sure you are conforming to the "individual" tag.

Roof rack,

(There's even a check list for roof rack contents)

stretched tyres on banded rims,

wheel spacers,

sticker bomb random panels,

rust paint random panels,

matt paint remaining panels,

rip out interior till it's like sitting in a skip,

set number plate at jaunty angle,

chop springs,

Stretch wheel arches,

etc. etc.

[sporty-shite]

The Astra 'Asrat' has long since been scrapped. In true forum style the 'creators' bummed each other about it until they bled. I saw it at a show in 2008 and it was actually alright.

I saw Asrat at RR08 and quite liked it. There were loads of little details and it didn't seem to take itself too seriously. Also, it wasn't a VW which did add a little indiviuality to it. Bear in mind this was six years ago and rat wasn't quite as twattish as it is now.

[purplebargeken]

Phew, none of the above apart from the matt paint.

[DeeJay]

^^Slippery slope^^

[purplebargeken]

Mwoahhahahah!

[DSdriver]

This was my 1965 Ford Corsair in 1969/70 (doing a night PCT at Layhams Farm.

Ford Corsair V4 by DSdriver, on Flickr

It didn't last much longer due to a rather spectacular under bonnet fire. Who's daft idea was it to put the carb in the middle of the V engine so that if there was a fuel leak it filled the V with petrol and then went wooomph?

I lead where others follow!

[Split_Pin]

In my experience, most properly modifed cars that run big power, look excellent and are not chavvy at all usually end up being broken for parts and fragged after a year. The owner gets bored and he car is worth more in bits.

 

Nobody plays the long game any more do they?

[nisfan]

Ok, i admit that a couple of my cars are omg ratlook, including this one,

 

This is just a car to play about with until the rot kills it, bit of fun, in no way trying to look 'indervidual' or any of that shit. But the more i drive it the more i fucking love it, it drives absolutely brilliant. On the other hand i have this,

 

 

Which i have no desire to ruin.

If a car is made to look rat for a bit of fun then thats ok, but to take it seriously and possibly fuck up some perfectly fine chod is another matter.

[catsinthewelder]

I've got a soft spot for rat-look after spending a lot of time at custom bike shows before pineappled Golfs started turning up everywhere.  I ran my camper in grey primer for a couple of years after rust repairs had removed half of it's previous paint job and still haven't painted it's rusty back bumper.

 

[HillmanImp]

That can't have done the camper any good? Primer is porous isn't it? If you then painted over it rather than taking it off and starting again, will you not be in trouble later on?

[michael1703]

My van has been rat look for 15 years, wasn't the intention,just parking under trees causes it to look minky

 

[PiperCub]

Did have thoughts about doing a matt black or camo-type ratting job on my tatty Eunos but looking around here, there's a surprising number already sporting this look or similar so I'm not bothering. It seems to be a case of trying to look different but ending up like the rest, I'll stick to the peeling factory lacquer-look then.

[eddyramrod]

My van has been rat look for 15 years, wasn't the intention,just parking under trees causes it to look minky

 

See, that's PROPER rat-look, it's been earned over time rather than forced on some poor unsuspecting shopping trolley.  Fix the MoT stuff and drive as is.  Lovely.

[derskine]

All of my cars will soon be painted shitly with a roller in a satin/matt finish but not through choice. They've all required severe amounts of welding each, leaving the outer bodywork with big primer patches etc.

I can't really afford/don't have the time to spray them properly at the moment, so for the sake of them all being one colour, the roller will have to do.

I think people locally must think I like matt paint jobs, I would rather they were shiny but it just takes too much effort.

 

The polo would have been scrapped had I not bought it, the 18 most likely would have been scrapped in the near future too.

[barefoot]

The front panel is a bit rusty on my t2. Because I can't afford to have it repaired properly, I was planning to bodge it up with rust killer

and some thick paint and then hide the crappy repair behind a bra. But now I'm worried that you lot won't talk to me anymore if I do.

[chaseracer]

Anyone seen Barefoot recently...? 

[chaseracer]

All my cars are OMGRATLUK to some extent.

 

The Dyane and the Blingo because I've had them for a very long time, the 205 because it lived under a tree... and the Merc is ex-Wobbler... 

[Junkman]

Sadly it's spreading outside of VW land.

 

 

It didn't originate in VW land to begin with, it's just most commonly applied to VAGs nowadays.

Not too long ago, it was foremost associated with yank tanks, or old Eurobarges with 'Americanised' styling,

except in West Germany, of course, where the primary targets used to be old Mercedesesses.

 

It has been around for as long as I can remember, i.e. at least 40 years, and I bet it was already well established back then.

I find the mentioning of 'individualism' in this context particularly funny, since ratlooking your car originally served

the exact opposite purpose, i.e. to signal your affiliation with a specific subculture.

[Partridge]

Ok, i admit that a couple of my cars are omg ratlook, including this one,

 

This is just a car to play about with until the rot kills it, bit of fun, in no way trying to look 'indervidual' or any of that shit. But the more i drive it the more i fucking love it, it drives absolutely brilliant. On the other hand i have this,

 

 

Which i have no desire to ruin.

If a car is made to look rat for a bit of fun then thats ok, but to take it seriously and possibly fuck up some perfectly fine chod is another matter.

Exactly. A knackered old VW that was one, maybe two MoTs away from the Pineapple in The Sky is no big deal, but when perfectly decent, useable, nice motors are screwed up, it makes my blood boil.

 

I know it's their money etc etc etc, but I can't help getting pissed off when I see a nice car wrecked in the name of fashion. At least bangers racers have the decency to finish the poor thing off there and then!

[New POD]

I like a bit of patina.

[richardmorris]

I like a bit of patina.

 

Indeed - our 2CV is down to the base coat in places, but that's 20years of polishing, sun damage and  wear and tear rather than strippers and rusty paint.

[Cavcraft]

I like a bit of vagina, but I'd never be a big enough back-to-front to rat look my car.

[vulgalour]

Both of these vehicles could be considered rat look, but they aren't.  Apparently, the DS is just a cool old classic and the Princess is just shit.  I will admit that at the moment I feel like the Princess has fallen just foul of shite status due to the large bits of rust that have been removed and the attendant any-colour-that's-handy bare metal protection combined with Hydragas fail.  The roof rack isn't helping the cause.

 

 

I was very tempted to badly draw American police crests on the doors of the DS, but I was good and I didn't.  Also I didn't have a marker pen.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

I have long seen 'Rat look' and heavily lowered cars as being on the fast track to the scrapyard.

[eddyramrod]

 

20140810-03.jpg

 

CALENDAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Did you just happen to meet the DS wherever you were, or have I missed an episode in which you bought one for peanuts and had it shipped with your Princess?