Let it rust then stop it

[pylofm]

Hi guys...this is my first post...done a bit of lurking but no posts so far...

So I am trying to source a decent donor xs650 here in Holland but am finding plenty of pigs that were once princess's...

Any how I will be hardtailing it but I have the idea of letting the bare metal on the tank, frame, rear fender, battery/oil tank combo, bars rust but I would like to stop the process...do you know how this might be achieved?

Also another idea is to galvanise the bit...would this work?

Cheers for the taking the time to read...

Cheers
Dave.

 

[Steve2]

Hi Dave

My first post too!

I have seen this done in the volkswagen scene where there are a lot of people who like the rat look/hood ride look.

pretty much you get the metal bare, leave it for as long as you dare or untill you like the effect then spray a clear laquer over it to seal it.

cheers

Steve

 

[CorradoG60]

I have seen this done in the volkswagen scene where there are a lot of people who like the rat look/hood ride look.

pretty much you get the metal bare, leave it for as long as you dare or untill you like the effect then spray a clear laquer over it to seal it.

A lot of people used to do that around where I live in the VW scene. We just sanded down the hood to bare metal, got sea salt and mixed it with water and let it sit on the hood. Let the weather in New England do the rest. Never sealed it.

 

[Ironsled77]

Clear wont stop it. Might as well let it rust and run it .

Posted via Mobile

 

[Teebs]

If you want to speed up the rusting process apply wet plaster (highly diluted) to the raw metal, you'll have plenty of rust in a day or two. Once it's where you want it, wash it off and rub down with penetrating oil. Any oil will work, but I've used penetrating oil with good results and it's thin enough so you can rub it down to nearly nothing (little oily residue). Rub it down with oil on a regular basis because, as Ironsled said, once you start it there's no stopping it, but the oil coat will slow the process drastically. This will also give the rust and metal an aged look, darker steel, and dark brown/orange rust rather than bright orange.

 

[sgt sleazebag]

i ground my tank down with 36 grit on a da,and its now finally starting to get a little rusty after 3 months and i leave it in the rain

 

[Teebs]

sleazebag, try the plaster. you'll have your rust in no time, especially with the tooth you have on that tank to hold the plaster on.

 

[gggGary]

You guys are TRYING to make it rust? I can tell you have never lived in Wisconsin! I am already doing rust repair work on my low miles 2004 (from California in 2006) van! Grrrr.
Make rust? sheesh. Every bike I have ever bought had at least some rust somewhere.

 

[remmy1101]

I agree with gary i hate rust! I've repaired the cab corners on my truck about a year ago and its just starting to show signs of rust again! wtf!
although i have seen some sweet pics of none painted rusted up xs650s but personally i would want it

 

[weekendrider]

gggGary, lol makes you wonder what they are thinking, huh.
I'm waiting for one of the younger set to "discover" the next step in this process.
A true "gun metal" blue on tin may look pretty cool.

Stolen from wikipedia:
Rust bluing was developed between hot and cold bluing processes. It was originally used by gunsmiths in the 19th century to blue firearms prior to the development of hot bluing processes. The process was to coat the gun parts in an acid solution, let the parts rust uniformly, then immerse the parts in boiling water to stabilize the rusting process by removing any remaining residue from the applied acid solution. Then the rust was karded (scrubbed) off, leaving a deep blue finish. This process was later abandoned by major firearm manufacturers as it often took parts days to finish completely, and was very labor intensive. It is still sometimes used by gunsmiths to obtain an authentic finish for a period gun of the time that rust bluing was in vogue, analogous to the use of browning on earlier representative firearm replicas. Rust bluing is also used on shotgun barrels that are soldered to the rib between the barrels, as hot bluing solutions would dissolve the solder during the bluing process.

 

[Teebs]

lol, Well, coming from New England, I've definitely seen my share of rust. I've never tried to make a bike or car more rusty, but I've used the aging technique above in a number of sculptures that I've done. It definitely goes against the grain to try to make a vehicle rust, when you seem to spend most of your time trying to fight it off as long as possible, knowing it's a losing battle.

 

[gggGary]

I have an excellent collection of premium "rust applied" parts, this stuff is really valuable, but just for you guys I might be willing to let some of it go reasonable.

 

[Teebs]

See now, that's thinking glass half full!