Who says having a fun hot rod has to be expensive? While every build has a budget of some kind that budget does not have to represent the total sum of a second home, or your kids college fund. Some builds have a modest budget and some have nearly unlimited cash resources behind them, but the budget shouldn’t deter you from having fun either way!

As the Rat Rod movement has gained popularity so has an invasion of rods and customs that endeavor to have that low-buck look and feel, but were done at tremendous expense to the owners or builders. This is not the case with Rodger Hoyt’s Scrap Rod. Taking the Rat Rod mantra back to it’s roots Hoyt’s ’34 Ford pickup truck is built from mostly spare, used, swap meet, or just cheap parts. Constructed with a plan of only using what was already available to him or could be gathered cheaply, Hoyt has built a cool and fun to drive rod that nearly anyone with some basic fabrication skill could mimic.

In the video description above, Hoyt outlines his eight guidelines for this build as follows, and we’re quoting directly from the page here:

• Utilize whatever parts I already had on hand (hence the name “Scrap Rod”).
• Fabricate everything possible.
• Perform all the work myself, with hand tools only – mostly just a welder and a grinder.
• Buy as little as possible. Nothing new, everything used or swap meet.
• Use available parts instead of exotic.
• Always choose the least expensive option.
• Eschew trendiness.
• Avoid the “Evil P’s”: Perfectionism and Pretension. Nowhere on the truck did I attempt to “show off” my fabrication skills with elaborate bracketry or anything else pretentious. Nor are there any expensive vintage parts. I tried hard not to fall into the trap of spending big bucks to look low-buck. This truck is intended to make people smile, not envious of how wealthy or talented I am.

Hoyt also includes a long parts list in his description, many of the parts are listed with their prices. While the list is long in it’s entirety, we can certainly give you the highlights. The engine is a used 307 Chevy, it’s fed using a tri-power setup that Hoyt says needs rebuilding, but still works. The transmission is a five-speed from an S-10 with a shifter that is only described as a twelve-inch long bolt. The exhaust is made up from two cherry bombs and a pair of Semi truck stacks that were found after digging for hours in the scrap yard. The paint is simply seventy plus years of patina, where others have tried to pretty up the truck in the past or whatever time has done to the paint to take it’s toll. Wheels and tires are Craigslist take offs from a ’65 Mustang that Hoyt says he scored for $125.

Some of the suspension and steering parts are listed as being fabricated using left over plumbing parts. We’re not sure we condone that as we’d like to see safety take a front seat to budget any day of the week. However, we’re also not sure of what type of plumbing parts these are so if it works and it’s solid enough to hold up then we can’t fault a guy for trying.

Scrap Rod is proof that you don’t have to spend a lot of cash to have a fun hot rod. What do you think? Leave comments below and discuss:

The bed floor is made from scrap plywood. An old Craftsman tool box holds the Wally World battery.