Dennis: funny you mention Rat Rods. Thats what El Plymino is going to be. I'm an "old gun"! Those are the kind of rods I grew up with and cruised in at A&W. Course, at the time we didn't call them rat rods.
My first race motor consisted of a flathead with stromberg carb and an manual choke that could be pulled out while cruzzen thru the drive thru. With the glass packs and choke at 1/2 throttle it sounded like i had a full race motor. Dem wur happey daze!!