We we're first!

[zachmac]

So my son starts telling me all about this hot “new” trend called rat rodding where you don’t give a hoot about how the car looks, just sort of mask over any rust, piece together the interior from any old crap you find lying around, and for the most part cobble together pieces parts from any source to make it functional with little or no regard for what the manufacturer originally supplied. But, you also make it go faster than is safe and drive the snot out of it!

I told I hated to bust his bubble but that ain’t new, it’s just a new name for being a Fiat Spider owner!

[RoyBatty]

I know this was meant to be funny, but our Fiat ownership experiences are diametrically opposed.

[azruss]

I work with a "hotrodder" who showed me a magazine with rat rods. Looks like some of those guys spent serious time on their bodies to get the right patina. Also have a customer that is a long time hot rodder with a high boy. Says its value has now exceeded $130k, which means it is too expensive to just drive anywhere. He was trying to find a cheaper car he could afford to drive. Like me, he is old school and likes a flat, shiny body.

[RRoller123]

At a cruise last night, I noticed a rat that had no door handles at all on the outside. How do you get in I says? He reaches into the fender well and pulls a small hidden lever and the door pops open. Very cool, I says.

[georgeramos]

Yeah the "patina" on the nicest Rat Rods is like artwork. A lot of it would come with age/rust but it's "perfected" with labour. Perhaps not as much as making it look like factory but labour still. I saw a radically chopped one where the roof was covered with remnants of leather vests all stitched together sorta patchwork like. A lot of work. The motors are usually chromed/polished and tuned to within an inch of their lives and are the real beauty of the cars. It would be fun to do a Spider but I'd still prefer a perfect yellow one (ie Supply Guy or soon to be JIM's right?)

[zachmac]

I know this was meant to be funny, but our Fiat ownership experiences are diametrically opposed.

It was indeed meant as a joke and I am sorry to see that you've lost your sense of humor somewhere along the journey. I hope you find it again some day.

If you bothered to look up my history here you'd see that I lovingly brought an 80 Spider back to very nice stock / improved condition before selling it and I am now looking for my next project to restore to "better than when Fiat sold it". That said I am not ignorant or in denial about the sometimes cantankerous nature of Spiders and I also know that the appeal to a lot of Spider owners is the ability to just enjoy a relatively cheap, slightly ratty, fun ride. Again, for you sake hope you can find your sense of humor again some day and sorry if I somehow insulted your pride of ownership.

[DanD]

The fastest Fiat I ever drove was an old rat with an engine built by a Ferrari mechanic. I acquired it for 400 dollars because it had a split muffler and it didn't run right. It turned out that the engine problem was a bad weld on the throttle pedal that would only open the throttle 1/2 way. I fixed that and WOW, what a car !

The rust was terminal, but I did learn to weld on that car. It was a very memorable car, and I loved it as much as most of the high dollar cars I have owned since.