Its Rust we lust... (Or not!)

I don't get the pre-ripped jeans thing either. If I want jeans that look like they've been worn on a building sight for two years I'll buy new ones and wear them for two years myself. The pre-ripped, pre-faded ones never look quite right anyway. The damage is always in the wrong places and they often cost more than new looking ones anyway.

Still waiting for someone to do a rusty reliant scimitar ....

I generally don't like a lot of the rat look modern stuff with the hazard tape and roof rack of tat look but occasionally things surprise me

All my cars are pretty much show and shine and i got offered a rough caddy van cheap in primer so rather than let it go to waste i created this:





It is quite nice to have something i don't need to wash and can leave anywhere. Its pretty cool for camping in so ticks the boxes for me.

it proved to be a valuable asset at retro rides last year for camping, no set up time and i didn't get wet!

It gets a lot of different reactions and is never a boring day driving it

Will be showing it outside at ultimate dubs this year so will see what people think

Don't worry about slagging it off if you don't like it, i can take it

I see, so basically its this:-



But applied to a car? (yes it is Nigel Farage, no, i'm pretty sure it's fake!) So the basic concept is to maybe not offend, but to shock? It's the shock factor, obviously to get attention. The other end of the spectrum to the highly polished feature creature. This makes sense, although, sanding all the paint off a car must take nearly as much effort as painting one. Speaking of painting one...

So, if i've got this correct @automatik , this, on your car is not rust at all, this is a paint finish? I must also say that i agree with what you say, everybody should be allowed to do with his property what they want to do! I'm not wholly against the idea, on cars that have naturally aged i quite like it. But what i was trying to do is get an understanding about the point of it on a newer model, as i think it looks out of place, because obviously the vehicle is not old enough to have aged in such a way, a bit like igor said about pre-ripped jeans, whats the point, the rips are always in the wrong place, so they look kind of odd, and fake. But like i say, i'm happy that people personalise their cars in whatever way they want, from, stripping the paint and letting it rust, to painting it shiny, it's all in effect customising it to the owners preference, i was just aasking why, as i just didn't get it, although the punk attiude applied to cars makes sense to me.

Now then, this:-

I have to say i have seen this on this forum, and had a good look at it, and to be honest, this i like. I even commented on it in your build thread:-

This works for me, unlike the lad in his 2005 Fiesta, and here's why. The lad had sanded all of his paint away. Whereas, unless the car is left in the desert to be effectively sand-blasted, this is not how cars rust, and age. It's the top surfaces that get the paint effectively baked off by the sun, and then they rust. Much like you have done to your van, but also, your van has a great deal of paint left on it, and even though it's been aged, and distressed artificially, it actually looks like it could've happened over age, even though of course the vehicle is probably too new to have aged like this. But it sort of works for me, it's convincing. I would probably have something like this if my OCD would let me, but, how do your prevent the rusty areas from rusting further? Or is it like @automatik s Golf and infact not rust at all, but paint?

I find it funny that a car you chose as a good example has its own twin in a style you don't like

I don't mind a car with a 'lived-in' look and I get the bit about people wanting to make their cars look different on a budget, it's just not for me, personally. It is not even the deliberate rusting so much, I just don't like all the additional tat that gets thrown onto some cars. I include everything from 2005 Fiestas, through air-cooled VWs to big money, all-steel rat rods in this sweeping statement.

Having said that, in 90s, when I was a poor student I bought my Splitscreen bus (which I still have). I used to attract a lot of attention due to being what would now be called 'rat look'. It was in grey primer, with bits held on by tape and slammed on steel wheels. The main reason for this at the time was that I knew that to make it decent would cost a huge amount of money, which I didn't have, only to make it into an average looking van. Leaving it as it was not only made it distinctive, but cost nothing. I have to say, though, that nothing was faked or made worse. It just looked rough because it was rough... It is painted now.

If you clear coat it then it may look shiney, i would do some research as to what to use. Some people have recommended anchor wax to preserve the finish without it looking to shiney. not sure though

There is a matte clear you can get from Montana. I think that will be the way I go.

Screeching weasel you say? I think this sums it up pretty well