Bruce Haughton is no stranger to car shows, spending days at a time to prepare a bit of automotive excellence for the masses to enjoy.
But for all the gleaming machines of horsepower and artistry on display at Saturday’s Farm-City Days Car Show, few matched the eccentricities of Hauton’s entry, a 1946 rat rod.
The vehicle, sporting the frame of a 1946 Jeep Willy, took several years to assemble.
“Everything is a different piece,” Haughton explained. “I got it six or seven years ago, and I just had it sitting, waiting to collect the odds and ends.”
There is plenty to marvel, from the welding plug affixed to the frame, with a kill switch hidden inside, “so nobody can steal it,” Haughton joked.
The rod’s bed came from an old Studebaker, “cut in half both ways” so it would fit.
The rear bumper came from a large conveyor belt chain. The throttle cable, displayed prominently from the hood, is a rusted chainsaw chain.
But almost always, the element that catches everyone’s eye is the upholstery, a pair of emptied dog food bags stuffed with foam.
“Everybody loves the upholstery,” Haughton said.
The front window came from a Jeep as well, but the frame was cut to about half its original size, along with smaller windows, to better conform to the rest of the vehicle.
Haughton’s rat rod has been inspected by the Kansas Highway Patrol and is legal to drive on the city street, although long-range trips are ill-advised, Haughton said.
For one thing, the hard metal beneath his unusual upholstery is quite uncomfortable.
“You can’t sit there for very long,” he said. “And it’s crazy, stupid fast. You’ll probably get killed if you try to go the speed limit.”
The exterior components were intentionally left out in the elements to preserve his rat rod’s rusted look. (The headlight cowls were left in a sink with the water dripping.)
The streaks, indeed, look like the vehicle has been driven at high speed through the rain.
