Advice please folks. Have reached a point where I either tidy up and re-spray or give in to my vagrant tendencies and Rat my 73 westy. The old bus is looking pretty tired, and although a show standard resto is out of the question I could stretch to a respray. Can anybody recommend any rat resto threads, I've plenty of inspiration but maybe not the skills to pull it off! Caveat: The girlfriend hates rat look, but it'll grow on her I'm sure.......
Each to their own l had a similar discussion with my mate whose doing the welding on ours ....I love the rat look ....
Can't say I've never seen a Rat late bay. Plenty of splits and early bays. Whilst I have a stock Westie I do like Hayburner and Skeg Vegas type motors.
its as hard to get the rat look as it is to get good paint job outherwise it just looks like a rusty old van
@matty It's already a rusty old van, a careful artistic blend of OG (under the flakes), rattlecan, primer, and replacement panels.....takes vision to pull that off. However, it's becoming a chick repellent! She's refusing to get in it! The daughter still thinks it's amazing though.... I have to say that as she's reading over my shoulder
depends if you are truly happy driving your van round that looks unloved... I am and allergic to nice buses inside and out...
I'm hoping to be able to flat the horrible dark blue off ,that the pickup has been painted in, down to the original blue. See if I can end up with a patinad look a few repaired areas will need blending but if it ends up a mess I can just respray the lot. Love the faded aged look rather than full on rat.
Not a lover of the deliberate rat look. Esp when they have alloys and are lowered. Not keen on pristine resprays either as they are usually hiding something. Prefer a working project with a bit of primer or filler here and there.
Over here the whole "rat' scene is SOOOOO played out, IMO a true rat should be a survivor with modern up dates to suspension, engine, interior not some thrown together piece of rubbish with little to no care.... ( The UK has a little better laws for this) And should NOT include a vehicle that was once 'NICE' These are true 'rats' (I can't stand 'Splittys')
And these are RUBBISH! You can clearly see that they were once nice & clean until some fool messed with them!The body panels are to nice to be a real 'rat'
