Let's not become snobs like the "full classic" and "true classic" crowds. 
I think it's too late. There's already stratification in hot rodding. And it seems to go further than the hot rod vs kustom division of the 50s and 60s. Here's my take on the strata:
There are the "Show Car builders" like Chip Foose, Troy Trepanier and useta be Boyd Coddington and I've got a story about his Bonneville debut that's unreal...(and their rich customers) and those that build hot rods with everything chromed and won't fire the motors for fear of bluing the headers.
Then there are the "1-800" rodders. They're the over-middle-age guys who call a toll-free number and order a pre-built hot rod. They can usually be seen at car shows and cruise nites wearing golf shirts or broadcloth shirts with Corvettes and T-birds on 'em. If ya ask 'em about the car, they can give ya a list of stuff they ordered, but don't have a clue how it works.
Next is the "lower on the food chain" rodder who bought one of the 1-800 rodder's cars but still doesn't know a thing about the car. These guys might drive the car to a cruise night, but they'll hire somebody to detail it as it's being brought into an indoor car show...to which it was trailered.
Then there's the average "street rodder" crowd who used to build the cars themselves...and some may still do some of it. But most of these guys have signs saying "Paint by..." and "Motor by..." and so on.
The next level is the guy who does all the work himself and drives the car to the cruise or show. I used to be in this strata with muscle cars. After a while, I stopped entering competition for trophies, cuz I knew I couldn't compete with the fat cats.
Then there are the "traditional hot rodders" who insist that nothing newer than 1949 can be included, flathead motors for Fords, 235" six-bangers for Chevys, although Olds, Caddy and first-gen Hemis are ok. Billet parts will get ya kicked out of the show or cruise-in. For example, a big annual show is called "Billet-proof." I think these guys are the most discriminating. Some of this goes on at a show called, "Viva Las Vegas" (Rockabilly Weekend) which I've photographed a couple of times...but probably won't go again, because it's turning into a "gang war" thing...and as darkness approaches and those who've been swigging tequila all day start to get rowdy, the cops come in with their night-sticks and stun guns. Happened the last time I was there. I was happy to be on my way out. Anyway, there's always a group of people who bring their radical cars to the show (Paul Tracy was one of 'em a coupla years ago) who get turned away because their car doesn't fit the "show standards."
Some of the above rodders are into the kind of cars that might have been seen just after WWII and are sharp, nicely painted and upholstered, and some of them are what I call the "traditional rat rodders" who bring cars they've built themselves with what they had available. 'Course what's available now and what was available 60 years ago is a little different. But the traditional rats may be in primer, or rusty or "diamonds in the rough."
Then (for me) is the bottom of the barrel, the aforementioned "suicide rodders" who include skulls, (ok, I'll plead guilty to having had a skull shift knob on my 64 Chevy pickup that I called my "rat truck") hand grenades, ammo belts, chain saws, circular saw blades, switchblades and other implements of moderate destruction. This is also where the highest percentage of tattoo ink is to be found.
So in summary, the people at the top of the layers wouldn't be caught dead with those at the bottom (or maybe they'd end up that way) and vice-versa. It's kinda like what happened when the Corvette Club decided to attend the Rat Fink Reunion en masse. It was culture shock to the max. About half of the traditional pinstripers and airbrush artists packed up and split. The Corvette crowd seemed to be confused by all that was going on and the rest of the folks were moving their heads back and forth like fans at a tennis match, watching one group, then another, trying to figure out how to make sense of it all.
We don't have to worry about discriminating amongst the hot rod world. It's already happened. It started out with rod vs kustoms, continued through show rods vs street rods and now it's really outta control. A lot of the old guys at the "top of the heap" are getting too old to do this kinda stuff, or dying off...and it'll be interesting to see what it looks like after the "pig goes thru the python"...that is, the baby boomers die off/lose interest/trade in their hot rods for walkers and golf carts...and the younger folks take over. I'm 65 and I'm "moving thru the python" and maybe that's where my perspective comes from. So take it for what it's worth.
RtR
