Memorial Day Special Interview THE RAT ROD KING An upclose and very personal interview with Steve Thaemert of Rat Rod Magazine... At 1st when I thought of doing this I was like maybe he will talk to me and if I do get a chance to talk with him, he would probably scruff me off with just a couple of questions and I would probably just do something simple and be done with it... BOY WAS I WRONG!!!! I chose Steve Thaemert as a Little surprise.. So I hope yall all enjoy this.. Steve Thaemert is a very very interesting man. He was a high school drop out. He never went to college. But this man has so much faith in himself to lead a very successful life! He says he has failed at many many things in life. But failure is not an option now. It has just made me stronger! Steve also has a family, so working his tail off and putting long long hard hours into the magazine, he is very excited to go home!!! The culture of Rat Rodding is so enormous and amazing! Rat Rod magazine not just a magazine, they are family! Everyone who goes to the corner store or news stand and picks up the magazine are my rust brothers and sisters!! Its hard to show everything in our magazine but this is just part of what we live everyday!! Over the years I have been to many many shows and most shows treat Rat Rods as the cast outs of hot rodding. But I will tell you that I have not met 1 person in a rat rod that I didnt like!! We are such a big family!! We are made in Minesota! We keep it American and we represent every guy out there!! We are blue collar people with normal everyday jobs and families at home!!! Q:Why start a magazine with nothing but Rat Rods? A:There wasnt a magazine out there for rat rods! I went looking for one and no one wanted to put cast out cars in a magazine! So I thought our rat rod brothers should have one that they could relate too. Why not, I love the USA I love vintage hot rods and why not this magazine is for the hard working blue collar hot rodders! The magazine was published and it sold out within hours all over the USA!! Q:What is your definition of a Rat Rod? A:Blue collar hot rod! There really is no definition of a rat rod.. If you go back into history, Its about the blue collared guy coming home and working on his car... Opinions dont really matter! We dont argue bout it cause its what the person building the car likes. The builder dictates what his or her rat rod is... There really is no right or wrong when building a rat rod... Q:When you look for cars and trucks to put into the magazine, what are you looking for? A:We do not look.. We persue cars with history and the people who build them. So there are many great stories behind the cars. The build of the car, the uniqueness of the cars are what get our attention. We dont not reject any car!! We do monitor all them for safety though... We will not showcase anything that is not safe and undriveable. Q:Steve I have got to ask you a funny question! Do you have rust colored underwear? A:Actually yes! We ride in some cars and you are so covered in rust. Rust is everywhere! Rust is just in my SOUL!! I even cough and rust comes out!!! Q:We hear it all the time that traditional hot rods are considered rat rods. What is your definition of a traditional hot rod? A:Traditional hot rods are more stock! If you look at 2 cars both chopped and channeled... one of then is has the headlights changed and little things but mainly all Chevy or Ford... That is a traditional hot rod. Now you take the other one beside it that has missed matched parts put together, like a dodge grill with chevy engine on a ford frame...This is more rat rod style.. Hot rodding has no rules!! Its all up to the builder in his eyes!! But sometimes we have blurred lines when creating our hot rods.. A mix of both. Q:Over the years, what is a hot rod or rat rod that has caught your attention and just pops in your mind all the time? A:Steve Darnells D-ROD!!! Just love that car!! All of the tour rats that have been built are just amazing!! Q:What is your daily driver car? A:Piece of shit Mazda!! Its a beater but I like to drive junk!!! Q:What is your rat rod? A:We share all our tour rats!! I love everyone of them! They are fun to drive and I can pack up and drive them anywhere and not have to worry about them breaking down!! Q:Do you have any goals for Rat Rod Magazine? A:Keep it alive!!! Conquer the world!! LOL Na we just want all the haters to see us everywhere!! So the more people know it exists, the more people we can go meet us at shows!! Thats why we are doing the build off.... We love all of our rust family!! Q:Where do you see rat rodding in 5 years? A:I see this scene growing huge! TV has been great exposure to the cars and just makes more and more people want to come and look at the cars!! As it expands the creativity of people, all of them want to get more involved!! Q:Been brought up that we could see more 60s, 70s and 80s rats being built in the future? What are your thoughts on this? A:We are already using newer parts for drive lines.. The modern parts helping the reliability of these machines. So modern drive line with vintage appeal is very good!! I see more and more of this everyday. Q:Do you read any hot rod/rat rod magazines? A:Yes!!!! Its how I learned to build my magazine! Looked at the others ones that I didnt like so I could do something different that people would enjoy. Seems like people like to see creative stuff put together to make a cool car. Q:Do you watch any hot rod TV shows? A:I cant stand the fake crap!! I do watch fast and loud, American Top Gear and Power Block. I love reality shows. Love Documentarys.. Q:We have a lot of people always on the group asking about wheels? Rusty Billet Chrome... What do you think bout this? A:Dont care, easy way to personalize a ride. Tells who you are!! When posting rods, any types are great!! When we run a car in the magazine you will see all kinds of rims and tires in there... Q:What do you think bout our little group? A:I endorse the group! Love that the crap is staying away from the posts!! Love that there are some really great people on the group. You and Brian are doing a great job!! While talking with Steve, after almost 5 mintues I could relate to everything thing that he was saying. Rust is just more than our cars! Rust is our life! Rust is our family... Ya know we talked about tons and tons of stuff! And man could he talk!! WOW!! Cant wait to meet him one day.. He did say something that really hit me. When he pulls up to a show and he starts talking to the people, he is greeted with a hug. And when he leaves he is given a hug... Guys that means tons in my book!! That is a true rust family right there!!! I want to thank Steve for taking the time to talk with me. I read his magazines all the time and love the last Build off DVD that was done!! If you have not read his RAT ROD MAGAZINE, you might wanna go check it out??? Very helpful and full of great people and lots of good information!! Now since this is a Memorial Day post. I would like to thank all our people who are active in the military right now and who have served our country!! I would like everyone reading this to say a prayer for our loved ones and the ones that have lost their lives serving this country for us!!! Sometimes we take if for grated that we live in an amazing country!! God Bless everyone and hope everyone has a safe weekend!!
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 14:43:00 +0000