Haha, I'll never understand "rat rods"... :lol:

Check out our article: "10 Best (Worst) Rat Rod Interiors"

I had a guy bring me coffee bean sacks and use them to insert his seats.

This is the equivalent of buying shredded jeans.... :lol: :rofl:

@Nadeem Muaddi this cracks me up. Unfortunately my daughter buys those jeans. Not as bad as the pic you posted. I always ask if she got half off since most is missing. She loves my dad jokes...

@Fred Mattson was this one of the frankenstiener vehicles?

@Cody LunningI saw it at the MSRA Back to the 50's.
I also saw about 30 other cars that I had worked on over the past few years.

@Fred Mattson I go to that show every year with my dad. Great show. Bigger and bigger ever time we go. Then usually the next weekend down to the goodguys in Des Moines. About all we get to anymore.

Had someone bring in Chivas Regal bags they wanted sewn together and made into seat covers. I asked him if he ever had a few and drove. That changed his mind.

So basically jute is not such a bad material at all. it is very robust, durable material. And if I remember correctly even one of the few fibres that become more durable when wet.
The trend with the coffee sacks has never been able to establish itself here, but I have always had occasional requests. Recently I made a cover for a Harley bag. I did not find it so bad at all.
However I want to say quite clearly, an overturned bag is of course far from being a seat cover.

I love the rat rods. Honestly its the only reason I can stand to go to car shows around here any more. I can only look at so many Tri-5 Chevys, late 60's Camaros, and all the other resto-mods that all look exactly the same. All clean shiny paint, sparkly chrome, nice interiors, fancy wheels, etc. This is what I stare at almost every day in my shop while I'm working on them. Don't get me wrong I'm glad people are still restoring these cars. That's where 1/4 of my income comes from.

The way I am, it's really hard for me to look at any car without picking out the flaws. With rat rods I don't bother looking at paint or interior. I can focus on all the cool home made things that people come up with. If you stop and actually look at some rat rods you may see some really cool fabrication. At the same time you'll see a lot of junk just thrown together, but the cars owner likes it, and must really enjoy the process of building and driving it. I'm sure the typical rat rod owner has just as much fun if not more working on and driving their car with a fraction of the investment $$

I wish the crazy low rider stuff was still popular. It's not my thing, but I've seen a lot of really innovative things and awesome fabrication on those.


It all comes down to what you like, and who you hang out with. I'm much more likely to hang with the tattooed rat rod crowd rather than classic car, tuner, or low rider guys.