Originally Posted by
ramzilla
Back in the day "rat bike" described a motorcycle stripped down to bare bones controls. The traditional paint coating was always "wrinkle finish" black.
Wrinkle black sounds like a better idea.
I recall a people trying the clear coated bare steel frame thing. It's really not enough to keep it from rusting further, and the bikes ended up getting painted out of necessity.
More than likely you could achieve that rat rod look other ways, like red oxide primer, wrinkle black, etc.