Chic and shiny was yesterday, today cars have to be rusted to be cool. Or thinks you’re particularly cool. Or if you just have a sense of humor and take your own car whimsy on the shovel. The grate must of course be placed intentionally – and that’s exactly why you can now buy really rusty parts to mount on your brand new car.
This hipster grill is of course not available from Forstinger or the workshop around the corner, but from Heritage Customs or Nils van Roji Design in the Netherlands. There they developed a special metal-containing coating that should adhere perfectly to the substrate for 20 years and should not change its bending properties.
This layer can be made of aluminum, brass, bronze, titanium, zinc or even gold. The finish can then be freely selected, brushed, sanded or oxidized. If desired, the coating can be rusted and fixed on site. You can also leave the parts to their own devices and later, when they have reached the desired level of corrosion by themselves, stop the oxidation process.
Of course, you can always pick up rusty parts from the junkyard – but they certainly don’t make a new car more valuable. And probably not safer either.