Rat Rods

My 16yo son and I went to a car show a couple weeks ago. I thought we were going to a normal car show, but it was a rat rod show. I kind of knew what a rat rod was from reading my car mags, but had not seen one in real life. The high points of a rat rod as I see it are- rust, black primer, badly chopped tops, Flame jobs over rust, indian blankets over plywood seats, Von Dutch type pin striping over rust or primer, Skulls (painted and shifter knobs) and straight pipes. They were so cool! Boy have I got plans for the '70 Suburban now. It's already rusty. It needs a paint job (black primer). I've tried my hand at pinstriping on my first car ('68 mustang) and really enjoyed it. I love flames, and want to learn how to paint them. I think (know) I'm going to skip the chopped top and plywood seats though.
I haven't said much about the '70 suburban (olive erl) because I was going to sell her and use the money to finish my '82 pickup. My son and I cleaned olive erl up to drive to the car show with a for sale sign in the windshield. I hadn't had her on the road for about a year and a half, So we spent about 3 hours cleaning her up in & out, and checking fluids, airing up the tires, and getting her sort of legal. We couldn't get the tranny to shift out of first, so we went without her. Spending that much time with olive rekindled the fire that her and I had a few years back. I don't think I want her to go. I don't think she wants to leave either, her transmission has less than 5ooo miles on it! About 5 years ago I had a 400 small block built, and had her original turbo 350 rebuilt. I cleaned up the engine compartment and bought shiny stuff and Edelbrock stuff to put on the engine. We got real close during that time, and I drove her to work every day, but we drifted apart, mostly due to her lack of AC, and fuel mileage (10-12 mpg).
I bought an '86 suburban parts vehicle for the AC, power disc brakes, five lug bolt pattern front and rearend for Olive, and also the electric windows and locks, and 1 door and fender for the '82 pickup. I haven't named the pickup yet cause we haven't progressed past the "it's just a car" stage, we're still just friends...
I was already planning on a true fire flame job on my pickup, so will try a classic white/yellow/orange/red fade with lime green pinstriping on Olive erl (by the by, the name comes from her original color) That link is Mike Lavallee's shop, He's the originator and best true fire painter (imho). There are other cool paint sites to see on my last blog entry.
The one thing that bugs me about the rat rod culture (Kulture) is the people. A lot of them looked like a cross between the Goth crowd, tattooed Harley gang members, and James Dean. I don't really like death, tattooes, or james dean, but the cars look cool...