rat rod
Jack Fuller has been at this hot rod game for a long time, and while he builds hot rods for a living, make no mistake—this is a man who loves his work. As a matter of fact, the mantra of the garage is, “When the fun stops, the doors close for good.” It’s pretty simple stuff, and oddly enough, that seems to be the specialty of the house—basic hot rods that look cool and work well. Jump in a Jack Fuller hot rod, and you’ll know it was designed to be driven. Jack’s own ’32 cabriolet has seen untold miles over the years, as have most of the other hot rods he has built.
If you attend car events in California, such as NHRA’s California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, the West Coast Kustoms show in Paso Robles or the L.A. Roadster Show in Pomona, you will notice that rat rods are a growing segment of the hot rod hobby. Years ago, when they started becoming a common sight at many of the shows, the mechanical aspects of most of the cars were scary at best. You could see cars with no springs, some without floorboards, and many constructed with less-than-desirable stick welding. It is this type of construction that created the name “rat rod.” Fortunately, over the past few years there has been an attempt to upgrade the construction of rat rods, even though the enthusiasts want to use as many original parts as possible.
