I think some rat cars such as that beemer look well good, but when people do things like citroen C2's (example off the rat-look website) it looks shit. Just doesn't work on a newish car.

That 'cheers westwood' proper cracked me up, thats what its all about for me, having a laugh and not really giving a shit. There seems to be a lot of people taking rat look too serious, almost taking as much care on it as someone would with your typical euro look car.

I've just got a merc 200E to do somtihing with but I'm not sure yet, think its gonna get brushed NATO green first. Just because its a cool old car to smoke about in and I can spend a bit of time messing about with it.

That 'cheers westwood' proper cracked me up, thats what its all about for me, having a laugh and not really giving a shit. There seems to be a lot of people taking rat look too serious, almost taking as much care on it as someone would with your typical euro look car.

I've just got a merc 200E to do somtihing with but I'm not sure yet, think its gonna get brushed NATO green first. Just because its a cool old car to smoke about in and I can spend a bit of time messing about with it.

thats exactly how i treat it, its fun at the end of the day, if my car gets a dint in it i dont moan i use it to an advantage and make it part of the look, but yeh people are being way too serious about it at the moment and i dont like the way chavs are doing it either, just coz uve rusted the bonnet on you are saxo doesnt mean its rat look u idiot!

Some rat's look amazing, but those sprayed on ones...wtf?

More pics of that Bmw also!

what u mean sprayed one ones? and i will put some more of it up in abit, he took me out in it drifting on an airfield it was awesome and if u like shit like that then check out www.rat-look.com

lynden

There are a select few 'rat' cars out there that have sprayed/painted on rust/dirt/grime, which looks proper shit.

i could imagine it looks utter wank! why spray rust on?

personally i wouldnt be seen dead in a rat look car, i'd be embarrased. anyhow back to the question. if you have bare metaled a car, it'll actually take a long time for the the rust to get really bad, as there is nothing to trap the water against the metal. a rust scab will cause rust at a faster rate, than if you were to knock the scab off and leave the area bare, this is due to the scab holding water against the metal, whereas if it were bare the water will run off.

you could laquer over the top of the rust but imo it would do more harm than good. another thing you could try is to wash the car using something like autoglym car shampoo which contains rust inhibitors, dunno how well it would work though

my old rat car after 6 months of bare metal with salt water etc , best way i found was nitromours :) as for maintaining it , mines lasted ages without rusting through or anything :

but i do almost feel guilty about that car , its only on 50k from new full vw service history the paintwork was just mega fooked :(

Hope you boys dont mind a slight input from an aircooled side of the fence

IMHO the golf and caddy up there are the nearest to the aircooled rat look ideas. Not dissing the other vehicles up there, rusty bonnets really aint my thing, but, as mentioned before its whatever floats your boat! The large majority of patina/rat busses come in from the dry states of the US, the paint is extremely sun faded and technically "Sand blasted" by the winds they encounter there too! Original paint is a big thing in aircooled hence a lot of ratty bugs and busses.

A lot of ratty dubs are protected by ANKOR WAX, its made by MORRIS. Be Warned tho, the likeleyhood of getting an Ankor waxed vehicle painted again is between slim and none,it impregnates the steel to the point its virtually unpaintable!

Extreme rat look dubs are left untreatedand really do look rough, my favourite area of the rat look is when you pop the engine cover and theres a 2300cc turbo aircooled motor on huge carbs, powdercoated tinwear, generally mechanically awesome underpinnings, porsche disks and calipers etc are often fitted too. Mechanically and structurally the things are spot on,its just the body and trim thats ratty.

Hope that shines a bit of light on the subject from "The other side".

I'll leave you with a pic of my 77 swedish (Ex-airport fire bus) Baywindow, Lowered about 7" Original paint thats getting rattier and having nothing done to stop it looking worse, however she also runs a type 4 (Porsche 914) 2 litre motor :-D

Keep dubbing dudes!

I have a pickup truck and it had been previously owned by the council who had painted it white without any prep work whatsoever so the paint was peeling off it from everywhere. I painted it matt nato green in a garage and i think it looks cool as funk but i would never like the term rat associaated with it. Just an easy paint job to lay down that looked alright.

I don't think there is anything wrong with cheap mods, doing things yourself, being creative or even making your car look like AIDS if that's what you want to do. Just think people should steer clear of ever labeling their car as 'Rat'.

thats exactly how i treat it, its fun at the end of the day, if my car gets a dint in it i dont moan i use it to an advantage and make it part of the look, but yeh people are being way too serious about it at the moment and i dont like the way chavs are doing it either, just coz uve rusted the bonnet on you are saxo doesnt mean its rat look u idiot!

Neither does putting stickers, a roof rack and spraying RAT on the side of your MK3 though does it???

The Merc, The Bucket and The Caddy all fucking ROOOOOOL!

I like ratty stuff but when its imaginative. When its just a car lowered on steelies with some matte black paint then its not really very interesting. Julian with the 'Got Wood' car, its not conventionally ratty but its got loads of interesting touches that make it stand out a bit more than most other cars of that style which is why I like it.

Thanks mate

As for keeping the rust from getting any worse , as has already been mentioned ANKOR Wax is the stuff to use . I used it on my rusty lowrider bike ....