[Bassman/NZ]

This is a can of worms. Not the restoration vs the hot rod, but rather the hot rod vs the rat rod. To many, they are one and the same thing, but nothing could be further from the truth. The truck in the pic is a rat rod. A rat rod is a collection of rusty parts thrown together with extremely dubious engineering practices, and scant regard for aesthetics and design. There is very, very little in the way of art involved. A hot rod is a well thought out vehicle constructed with good engineering practices, much thought and consideration given to stance, flow, proportions, colour scheme and reference to tradition.
Therefore, I question the use of the term "art" in relation to the rat rod. Any dimwit numbskull can throw a collection of worn-out, rusty, mismatched articles together with some highly dubious bird-poop welding. This does not make it art. Due to the dumbing down of a very large section of modern society, most of whom would prefer the spanish lady painted on black velvet to the Mona Lisa, it is unfortunately the case that a piece of crap gets more attention than a fine vehicle.
If the vehicle parked next to Old Henry had of been the Bishop/Tardel hot rod, Pat Ganahl's hot rod, or a Brizio built hot rod, I would say yes, this is art vs history.