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Rusty Car

 No more wussy paint
  (+30, -1)(+30, -1)(+30, -1)
(+30, -1) 		  [vote for,
against]

When I see a freshly washed Hummer, pristine paint gleaming, I know that car is no challenge. The driver doesn't want to scratch the paint. In fact, even the most rough and tumble of cars is turned out with shiny fancy paint that will get scratched if you look at it wrong.

The Rusty Car takes it to the other extreme. It is made of the oxidizing steel used for bridges and light posts. The whole car is rust brown. If the rust is scraped off, the exposed metal will soon rust as well. Vulnerable lights are set deep into protected sockets, like the eyes of a crocodile. Optional decoration would be long streaks and scrapes of red, blue, silver etc to simulate prior violent contact with other wussy cars bearing fancy paint. There would be no flat planes on this car, but rather dents and bumps, to camouflage any new dents and bumps.

The Rusty Car is perfect for petite females, the timid, and the chronically cut off in traffic. No-one messes with the Rusty Car, as it has nothing to lose.

—bungston, Apr 21 2005

http://www.abc.se/~...aporozhets/zaz3.jpg [normzone, Apr 21 2005]

Giacometti rustish sculpt http://www.hirshhor...ViewMode=&Record=26
Bronze-plating a car would make it very heavy... [cloudface, Apr 22 2005]

angel's SD1 http://angel.nomuta...emy.co.uk/Rover.jpg
of which I spoke. (Wife included.) [angel, Apr 22 2005]

Its predecessor http://angel.nomuta...y.co.uk/Cortina.jpg
which was even tattier, but less intimidating. [angel, Apr 22 2005]

the actual monkey http://images.googl...=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi
corten or cor-ten. some good sculpture and architecture on second page of results as well [oxen crossing, Apr 24 2005]


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Annotation:







       I drove one of these for a while. A 12-year old Rover 2600 (the SD1 shape). Metallic lime green. Plus rust. Lots of rust. And dents.
—angel, Apr 21 2005
   

       nah, he's talking about mine. red ford escort that looks like someone has thrown paint thinner all over it.   

       I could afford something a lot nicer but I would kill myself if I hurt something decent.
—po, Apr 21 2005
   

       No, definitely angel's. The SD1 and its ilk were known for their mighty ability to rust. They're not known for it any more, because there aren't many left.
—david_scothern, Apr 21 2005
   

       not much left of mine - anyone selling a good car?
—po, Apr 21 2005
   

       Bun for the simple reason that this prompted mention of the SD1. Still miss mine (a bit). Rust in peace.
—Basepair, Apr 21 2005
   

       There's something like this in William Gibson's third novel, I think. You should look into how they make sculpture that goes for this look. As I recall, the obsessed sculptor in the story was into the polished metallic rusty look of a shovel blade (for his killer robots)... There was only a graf or two about acid baths and polishing regimes. Analogy for his own work. This is a great color for the new century.
—cloudface, Apr 22 2005
   

       People do give you lots of room in beaters.
—Zimmy, Apr 22 2005
   

       My husband calls these "bad cars," particularly those that have CanAm class drivetrains but look so bad you change lanes to keep away from them.
—bristolz, Apr 22 2005
   

       [cloudface] That would be [Mona Lisa Overdrive]. In [Virtual Light] the same effect is worked on a high-end bicycle to make it less attractive to thieves.   

       There is a class of motorcycle referred to as "Rat-bike" where function is all and form is irrelevant. Some wonderful examples to be found, and the "sleeper" is one of the variations......a bike that looks like USD$20 and beat all the 10K machines....
—normzone, Apr 22 2005
   

       In a world run by robots, the rustiest car will earn the respect of all the neighborhood machines, who know it has street cred.   

       //In [Virtual Light] the same effect is worked on a high-end bicycle to make it less attractive to thieves.//   

       Reminds me of a story I was told during an University of Arizona tour. Apparently, there was a lot of dispute at the time of the UA's founding as to which Arizona city would get the UA, which would get the state capital, and which would get the insane asylum. Tucson got the university, of course. Flagstaff got the state capital and Prescott won the asylum.   

       Well, the City of Tucson was furious. They wanted that asylum, for the revenue it would bring in to the city. Prescott sympathized with their predicament, and the City of Prescott formally donated a beautiful golden gate to Tucson to put on the main entrance to the University.   

       The city of Tucson, fearing that it would be stolen, painted it black to look like wrought iron. High-ranking Prescott officials heard about this and stormed down to Tucson, where they supposedly read the mayor the Riot Act, went and yanked the gate out of the ground and took it back. The City of Tucson then replaced it with a wrought iron gate.
—disbomber, Apr 22 2005
   

       Look up.
Look waaaay up...		   

       Nice pictures [angel], particularly the first one which (maybe because of the photo's age, dirt and colour deterioration) has a lovely atmospheric quality.
—hippo, Apr 22 2005
   

       [disbomber], maybe I am inept but your Arizona anecdote makes no sense or, more properly, has no significance to me.
—bristolz, Apr 22 2005
   

       Is that angel in the picture? for some reason I have difficulty imagining the gender of people by reading their ideas & posts. I was thinking of the pronunciation ahn-hel as I thought angel was from S. America.
—Zimmy, Apr 22 2005
   

       //[disbomber], maybe I am inept but your Arizona anecdote makes no sense or, more properly, has no significance to me.//   

       1. Tucson wants a nuthouse because they think it will bring money into the city.   

       2. Tucson gets a university instead. Prescott gets the asylum.   

       3. Tucson is pissed off. Prescott sympathizes, and donates a golden gate with the university logo on it.   

       4. Tucson installs the gate and paints it black so it doesn't look like gold and won't be stolen.   

       5. Prescott is pissed off at Tucson for defiling their gate, and city officials come down to Tucson, rip out the gate they had donated, and take it back.   

       6. Tucson installs gate that's actually wrought-iron (black).   

       7. Irony ensues, because Tucson's doing much better than Prescott today (money-wise and size-wise), almost entirely because of the university.
—disbomber, Apr 22 2005
   

       //Is that angel in the picture?//
I actually made a point of adding "wife included" in the link text. No, [Zimmy], that is my wife.
—angel, Apr 22 2005
   

       Sorry. I must learn to read the entire text.
—Zimmy, Apr 22 2005
   

       [hippo]: that's mainly dirt (and rust, plus a few scanner artifacts).
—angel, Apr 22 2005
   

       // Prescott was the territorial capital a couple of times: once moved to Tucson, came back and was later moved again, this time to Phoenix. I've seen no gold gates in Phoenix, though I have visited the emergency psychiatric facilities at the state hospital. I assume they had iron gates there. The University's downtown learning annex is located in a complex that has many iron gates.   

       There, all tied together nicely, I'd say.//   

       Phoenix has nothing to do with the story, BTW. I don't know if you're talking about ASU or UA; I was talking about UA. (There wasn't much point of me ever going to ASU--I already knew how to read.)   

       I didn't live in Arizona for long (one semester), and I always get confused about which city was the capital when. The one in the story was, I'm pretty sure, Flagstaff, but I think Prescott and Phoenix have also been state capitals.
—disbomber, Apr 22 2005
   

       This is definitely a Ford product.
—Mr Burns, Apr 22 2005
   

       I would buy this car, and I was thourally amused by the Arizona story.
—Cheekio, Apr 22 2005
   

       I think the idea is to make a car designed to look good while rusty. as opposed to rusting a current car. i like it.   

       may i mention the stupidity of the modern style of bumpers covered in painted fiberglass. can the world get any stupider?
—RBStimers, Apr 23 2005
   

       So, what happened to the golden gate?
—FarmerJohn, Apr 23 2005
   

       They eventually put it in between Marin and San Francisco.
—bristolz, Apr 23 2005
   

       /can the world get any stupider?/ I guess I will refrain from posting my "lead crystal bumper" idea.
—bungston, Apr 24 2005
   

       I good idea, in concept...HOWEVER, it would be seriously aesthetically dis-pleasing, and non-aerodynamic. The lack of 'flat planes' and instead, the presence of 'dents and bumps' would be counter-productive to its performance and stability at speeds over 40 - 50mph, making it rather dangerous. Nevermind though, as I highly doubt it could pass any road/performace tests and make it into production anyway.
—shinobi, Apr 24 2005
   

       [ub] didn't landrovers have aluminium panels? I can guess bimetallic corrosion, but not rust.
Baked by all Italian cars of the 1970s.
—TolpuddleSartre, Apr 24 2005
   

       Aluminum alloys corrode. Either dissimilar metal or intragranular (salt exposure). They also oxidize (rust) but not with the same charming character as ferrous metals.
—bristolz, Apr 24 2005
   

       /the presence of 'dents and bumps' would be counter-productive to its performance/ - BUNGCO engineers used golf balls as their role models - well known to benefit from many dents as regards aerodynamics and laminar air flow.
—bungston, Apr 24 2005
   

       Wow!! This idea is good [bungston]!!Ah, it's one of those that make me remember why I miss the bakery so much when I'm not around. +++
—Pericles, Apr 25 2005
   

       They're looking for control surface effectiveness at low speed, not general turbulent airfoil design.
—bristolz, Apr 25 2005
   

       There's a whole section of old VW subculture dedicated to exactly this, they call it "Rat Look". Well maintained classic Campers/Bugs, typically lowered and with fairly obscene engine setups, but nonetheless smothered in rust so as to look as bad as possible. The fun starts when the BMW/Mercedes/Audi driver in their exec. shark goes to overtake what they think is just a crappy old Mystery Mobile and find themselves left eating dust.
—DocBrown, Sep 27 2005
   

       For some reason Isee this being done to a 1974 plymouth duster, except without the dents.
I have no idea why.
—andrew1, Sep 27 2005
   

       Don't all '74 Dusters have dents?
—angel, Sep 27 2005
   


 

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