Rusting a license plate

[KMA]

I'm am putting a truck license plate in a farm scene with pheasants and it is much too new looking. Does any one have a method they are willing to share on how to rust the plate to look older?  Thanks - Fudgy


 

[elkevo]

most any metal you leave in a 5 gallon water bucket for a week or two will rust, but if the license plate is one of them new aluminum's I don't  know what you can do, maybe paint remover etc. I really have not tried this yet.

[show me]

My mom did antiques years ago and I took an old steel plate and used some steel wool and a screw driver around the edges and around the drilled holes and the couple .22 holes I out in it and then put it in a solution of salt water for a day and then air dried. It took awhile but turned out aged.. BTW I don't know about your plate but our new ones in Missouri don't seem to rust as easy as the older ones...


Good Luck,

Rob

Show Me Taxidermy

[Jim B]

Elkevo is right.If it's aluminum,forget it.I haven't done it but I bet if you "wore" through the paint with fine sandpaper,on the high spots or wherever you thought rust should be,and soaked it in vinegar,it would rust up pretty good.I don't know how long to soak but I'd keep an eye on it.It shouldn't take too long to rust.

[RoyalOaksTaxidermy]

Well judging from how fast my table and fleshing blade rusts Id say paint some Krowtann on it   As long as its something that can rust It will...

[Ravenson]

I do not know about rusting a license plate but in collage I was rusted a galvanized hinge in less than a week by putting it in coke a cola over night then letting is set in the sun till it was as rusted as I wanted it. LOL

Jeff

[DDavis]

I read somewhere that you can age and rust metal by putting it in muriatic acid for a while . same acid that you clean brick and block with . You can get it at lowes . I also saw some rust paint you can try that .

[bullwhacker]

Royal Oaks is right, but it is the salt water that makes it rust. I rust new traps to hold dye in saltwater and it does not take long at all. If it is aluminum you are going to have to fake rust with paints.

[duxrus]

Ebay.....I use old lic plates in turkey shadow boxes to show what state they were harvested in. You can find some great old rusty ones for about ten dollars.

[PWS]

http://design.stanford.edu/pd/kbase/rust.txt

GOOGLE!!

[EastonWest]

SALT WATER. Will rust stuff up fast.

[Beaumont taxidermy]

try the salt...  the krowtann idea might have more merit to it..  I have a Ga plat that has been flooded at  least 3 times...  still looks pretty good,   but this has to do with the aluminum content...keeping it as it might work in a yr or so...

[Becky P]

Scratch it up and add saltwater.

[KMA]

I put a magnet on it today....it's definately metal....soooo, the rust experiment will start tommorow.  That e-bay idea and the googled article on rusting are great! Again, thanks for all the tips!