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Post your hot rod and rat rod karts and bikes!

Budget GoKart

Aka a kenbar
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Heres my rat rod(hp pacesetter streakers s350) and my hot rod(yerfdog 3202)
The yerfdogs hubcaps came from my riding mower lol
Also i dont have a pic but i modified an el cheapo mini chopper it has a 4hp tecumseh
 

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JTSpeedDemon

2019 Build Off Winner!
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The Hothead

Definitely not complete, but this is definitely a hot rod kart. I still plan to paint it gloss black, add in a screaming chicken-esque floorpan sticker, build the engine even farther, undo the frame mods, and I'm even seriously planning supercharging this old Briggs!!! :cheers2:
One big beef I have with so-called "hot rodders" is when all they do is bolt on new parts.
I've had to put some serious elbow grease into this thing between mating the carb to seal it, and taking all four wheels down to bare metal/clearcoating them.
I actually managed to save those front rims, they are the factory original from 40ish years ago along with the seat back. They were extremely rusty when I got them, the original tires had rusted on, the inside is extremely pitted, and there is even 2 small pinholes in one of them. But after several hours of wire wheeling, I cleaned them up, clearcoated them, put some new tires on, and now it looks LEGIT! :2guns:
I actually soldered the pinholes shut, real old-school technique I'm sure.

Ooh, did I mention it outran a race kart? :wai:
 

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Budget GoKart

Aka a kenbar
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roachdale, indiana
Definitely not complete, but this is definitely a hot rod kart. I still plan to paint it gloss black, add in a screaming chicken-esque floorpan sticker, build the engine even farther, undo the frame mods, and I'm even seriously planning supercharging this old Briggs!!! :cheers2:
One big beef I have with so-called "hot rodders" is when all they do is bolt on new parts.
I've had to put some serious elbow grease into this thing between mating the carb to seal it, and taking all four wheels down to bare metal/clearcoating them.
I actually managed to save those front rims, they are the factory original from 40ish years ago along with the seat back. They were extremely rusty when I got them, the original tires had rusted on, the inside is extremely pitted, and there is even 2 small pinholes in one of them. But after several hours of wire wheeling, I cleaned them up, clearcoated them, put some new tires on, and now it looks LEGIT! :2guns:
I actually soldered the pinholes shut, real old-school technique I'm sure.

Ooh, did I mention it outran a race kart? :wai:

Lol! My yerfdog is a true hot rod! Then your bird kart MUST be a rat rod. Also did i mention my kenbar out ran racekarts on their own dirt track!!!
Edit also i got a hot/ratrod baja warrior i dont know which way ill go on this one but it should be pretty cool
 

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JTSpeedDemon

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Er, no. :lolgoku:

The Hothead is definitely a hot rod, not a rat rod. If it were a rat rod I would've left the wheels rusty LOL. And I probably would've kept with the pillow seat.
But you do make a bit of a point, it would be better described as a "hot rod in progress".
 

Budget GoKart

Aka a kenbar
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You hand built it rat rods arent all rusty but atrods are more hand built less brand new chrome. My yerfdog is a hot rod it has a bunch of brand new chrome and shiny new parts. And my ken bar is leftover hand built junk from several parts piles and years of ownership and abuse. Also i finnaly put a 5hp briggs on it and its an absolute RIPPER! new gearing also makes it waaay too fast and fun. And its loud and proud because a water pipe exhaust!
 

JTSpeedDemon

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I beg to differ, I've heard of plenty of hot rods built with almost exclusively old and repurposed parts(I have several old issues of Hot Rod Magazine). To me hot rods are good old fashioned performance machines built from old mundane vehicles, with a lot of custom hand-worked parts and some serious upgrades. Obviously the number of brand new parts can vary, but a rat rod tends to be raw performance with that "I built this in the junkyard" look(meaning a lot of rust and sketchy stuff).

As a matter of fact, if it has almost exclusively brand new parts, I tend to call it a "custom" instead of a hot rod. I dig that weathered and loved look(but NOT rusty/sketchy!!).
 

mckutzy

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From what I have seen...The definition today of a rat rod has been slightly skewed... I guess Steve Darnell has caused that(not a bad thing I might add)...
Typically a number of years ago... a rat rod had a flat black and red rims, some chrome and other colors, various modifications with some slight finishing to it, ect...

Today, typically means time rusted or Faux Rust(an acid Patina) parts, hand made cobbled or otherwise re-purposed stuff, Typically having holes or generally accumulated decay from time...

My bike for ex, I think is the latter...New School Rat Rod. Actual rust(I honestly hate the called term "Patina" for this... call it what it is...RUST), a bunch of stuff cobbled into a form/function machine, runs/drive/stops... Id even call it a true rat rod, as the earliest people racing and building hot rods/cobbled vehicles... 'rung what brung' or found and made it themselves, on the cheap.
 

itsid

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from what I remember the earliest rad rods ( that I remember.... i.e. mid eighties)
wer either stock paint or with a roller (most indeed flat black, some grey primer some left rusty)
with zero high dollar parts
(everything left looking as raw and crude or "untouched" as possible)

And since that's been nearly fourty years ago.. yes, that same "left as untouched as possible"
style can now mean more rust, holes and general decay ;)

So yeah I think it didn't change much it only "evolved through natural decay" ;)

'sid
 

JTSpeedDemon

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Hmmm, then I guess the Hothead is a rat rod for the time being! I will freely admit I did not know that.
But that’ll all change once I’m finished with it!
 

gegcorp2012

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My .02 on the topic - shaped by motor swapping a kart at 14 and returning to karting at 57.. over 4 decades of working on my own wheels. Mostly somewhere between Hot Rod and Rat Rod (there's a lot in between).

Hot Rod - shiny paint, store bought bolt on speed parts, true to your marque. I would say a real hot rod kart would have some kind of obvious high performance mod like a turbo motor like @karl builds, in something like an Amex for pavement, or a MC engine @joe405 yerf dog for offroad.

Rat Rod - sometimes painted, mostly home made, use what parts you can easily obtain no matter the make, and fab or adapt the rest. Surprise people with proper engineering (strength and geometry) and crafty ornamental metal work

I hope to build a ~18hp wheelbarrow kart one day and it will most probably be ratty.

Side note: It was searches for info on rat rod karts that led me to DIYGK !



Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk
 

karl

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I would say a real hot rod kart would have some kind of obvious high performance mod like a turbo motor like @karl builds, in something like an Amex for pavement, or a MC engine @joe405 yerf dog for offroad.

Rat Rod - sometimes painted, mostly home made, use what parts you can easily obtain no matter the make, and fab or adapt the rest. Surprise people with proper engineering (strength and geometry) and crafty ornamental metal work

Thanks, I still have never fired up my turbo gx200, I decided against putting it on the pit bike.
So its been sitting, Idk what to do with it. Thinking of some kind of hot rod/ rat rod, wheelbarrow?
 

pearl111

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This was an old Manco frame that was cut and lengthened, which caused it to be twisted. I made it as straight as I could and built it from there.
 

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numscul

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I found the shopping cart at the creek near my house and tried to use only the parts i had or made my own and the GC160 engine was dropped off in front of my garage by someone

I only had to spend about $240 bucks on a few things that i didn't want to make or didn't have on hand
 

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