This one is hard to categorize, or even name. What is it?! It’s a 1948 White Super Power cab that’s married to a 1960 Buick Invicta sedan rear and it’s powered by a 1953 Studebaker engine. Whatever it is, it’s cool and creative and it can be found here on eBay in (speaking of marriage) Niagra Falls, New York. There is an unmet opening bid of $3,600 and this is a lot of cool for $3,600! A lot of cool. Thanks to Fred H. for submitting this tip!
I automatically go into Johnny Cash’s “.. Well, it’s a ’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58, ’59 automobile…” but there’s no Cadillac in this one as far as I know. I love the cow-catcher grille, or radiator shell, that’s an unusual and over-the-top touch, just what this vehicle needs to balance out that crazy Invicta rear end.
Some folks may laugh and think, what a piece of junk, who in their right mind.. yadda-yadda. And, then they go back to being an armchair quarterback for everyone else’s projects and dreams and baseball playing and music performing, etc. The builder of this truck had a vision and they went nuts on it and it ended up somehow working. And, by working I mean it seems to fit, and it actually works, as in it’s a functioning road-worthy vehicle that gets driven. The faded paint and white walls and side pipes and just everything seems to work. A pickup bed would have been nice for hauling, but it’s more unique this way and there’s still room to haul things in the trunk. But, you’re going to want to clean that up a bit…
The blue bungee cord isn’t super awe-inspiring, but the rest of the interior looks doable. The seller drives this White BuickBaker, or White StudeBuick on many road trips and they say that it works great. One thing: there is no door or rear window glass so you may want to work on that, and a few other things.
The Studebaker portion of this rad ride is a 1953 Studebaker 232 cubic-inch V8 which would have had around 120 hp or so, give or take. There’s no word on what this one is putting out but they say that it runs great and I’d love to hear it with those side pipes. Studebaker made some of the best V8s of all time, rock-solid and tough. This one runs great and it’s titled as a 1948 White so I guess we’ll go with that. Any thoughts on this creation?
It may take a while to come up with thoughts on this one….
It needs an Orthodontist.
Put a real pickup bed between the Invicta rear quarters and you’d really have something!
It is super cool and runs and drives . What more could you ask ? ))
It’s worth 50% of the value of its parts.
Steve R
That is like throwing crap at a wall and seeing what sticks
I can’t say anything nice about it💩
A well done front seat upholstery job; clean up the rough edges, remove all of the skull & bones items, better integrate the font end and this could really be sharp. Right now, it has more of a “hold my beer” vibe! :-)
I think the builder hit his head a little too hard when he went over the falls in a barrel.
Niiiiaaagara Faaalllls…
(Slowly turns…)
like it in a strange kinda way… Rework that grill and….the rest of it. I think that bungee is an automatic drivers door closer :))
Looks like there is plenty of room to lower the engine down and put decent front bodywork on it. Lot of old trucks out there to supply stuff like that.
For the longest time I’ve wondered what a ‘rat rod’ was. Now I know.
No! No! No! This is more what a rat rod isn’t. This is more like get all the free parts you can find and put them on a frame with no regard as to what it looks like. “Let’s make something that will look totally ridiculous and call it a rat rod and get rid of the junk parts we had cluttering up the yard”. Building rat rods is an art all its own and can go south really easily. This one went WAY south.
I want what they were drinking.
Oddly enough I looked up ugly at Google and no surprise they had a picture of this beast. And I thought the Corvette was weird.
This very high on the “Stupid-est Things I’ve Ever Seen” list…
As Rat Rods go this is pretty much a show winner given the Art Deco mix and design profile. The guy that built it has Rat Rod talent & Rat Rod credibility just by the added Rat Rodding touches he has on display. For starters, this rod has the appropriate AM radio speaker installed in the dash with the perfect design added with respect to the grill. Second, the motor is black which is correct for heat distribution & cooling after runs. The whitewalls are standard, and so is strategic rust that shows all in the right places so that you get points for ratty appearance which is standard Rat Rod protocol at any swap n’ shine.
I’ll give the car points for originality & character period add on exhaust like the lake pipes which were all the rage 50’s & 60’s. The steering wheel is incorrect for the Art Deco design so it has to go to be sure as most Rat Rodders would scrap the steering wheel right off the bat.
It’s a real 6 points out of 10 for Rat Rod design.
I like it enough to give it a 6.
Bob
You nay sayers putting down this fellers artisticle work should be ashamed of yourselves..this here is a genu wine bonafide….umm… what the hell is that?
Rat rod seems like a stretch goal on this one.
If this turd had a serious makeover it MIGHT be elevated to ratrod status…..I am put in mind of what Nancy Reagan said….” JUST SAY NO!”
Remember what Brad said to Lester Burnham during the exit interview in the movie American Beauty?? (and I quote) “You are one twisted f@ck”. He was actually talking to the guy that built this buck-toothed monstrosity. They would ban this car from Houston. Harummph.
I’m not a rat rod guy and would have “0” interest in this car or what ever it is, the thing that concerns me about this rat is the build quality. I think based on what I can see in the pictures this thing is sketchy. I’m going with death trap not because it’s a rat rod more because it’s a poorly built rat rod. I’m not going to pretend I understand the culture of the rats, but when ever you heavily modify a vehicle you still have to make it as safe as possible, this does not qualify as safe in my books. Good luck to the new owner and try not to kill anybody…!
I think this may have been a custom built way back that has been bastardized by changing the front end sheet metal. Too bad. It probably looked much better before.
Have to agree that this is not really a rat rod, more of a junk yard special. Go through the junk yard see what you can find, put it all together and drive the crap out of it. If it breaks, back to the junk yard for more parts.
Maybe the builder was in some sort of Brewster’s Millions (the Richard Pryor movie) type scenario….
He had to use EVERY single part in the smaller junkyard; in order to win a much, much bigger one!
AAWWW, geez!!! I didn’t ever read the BF story nor the listing… You gotta be kidding me! This is just about as UUUGly of a car as I believe I have ever seen. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to say so. Usually,, I leave it alone.