Miniature Version Abandoned Car

Hi friends,

This is my first Instructables. It is a miniature abandoned car model made with a toy Volkswagen Beetle.

Supplies

You just need:-

1. Any metal toy car

2.Ferric Chloride https://www.amazon.in/Ferric-Chloride-PCB-etching-...

3.Plastic Tray or bag

4. Safety wears (Gloves, Mask)

5. Sandpaper (optional)

6. Cement

7. Fish Bowl

8. LED, Wire and Batteries (Or 3V DC power supply)

9. Cotton

10. Algae Plant

Corrosion Process Day 1

My 1-year-old brother spoiled my favorite beetle toy car but I don't want to throw it away so I thought to make an experiment with used (after PCB etching) FeCl3 solution.

The above images are the condition of the car in the initial stage and FeCl3 treatment.

Its wheels were separated, the doors and windows were partially broken. I took the car and dipped as-it-as into the solution and kept overnight.

Corrosion Process Day 2

This is the first stage of corrosion after 10 hours of reaction. I was really excited and the corrosion detail was looking so realistic. It needed a more rustic effect so I moved into the second stage of the reaction. This time I have used a fresh solution of Fecl3 and kept it again around 5-6 hours. Normally for PCB etching, we need to shake it rapidly to get it etching process fast but here I am just dropped into the solution and left it.

Corrosion Process Day 3

After corrosion of 5-6 hours again, when I take out the car from the solution it looked like this. Yeah looks more realistic. The windshield was covered with a Fecl3 brown layer, that looks so real and corrosion details come out excellent. Some air bubbles had appeared on the car surface during the reaction and I removed it using sandpaper and again subjected to reaction for an hour with a fresh solution of FeCl3.

3rd Corrosion Process Result

This the result of the 2nd stage reaction and it looks cool, I got enough rustic detail and ended up the reaction process. but the mud texture has disappeared after this step.

Natural Corrosion Process

At first, when we expose a metal in an open environment, the moisture(h2O) and oxygen(O2) particles in the atmosphere come in contact with the metal and form iron oxide (Fe2O3). In this way, we see a red-brown color on the corroded metal.

So I tried to get natural corrosion on the car, so I bought the car outside and exposed it in an open environment and kept for four days. In these four days, the car is exposed to both sunlight and rain, after four days I got the disappeared mud texture back.

Making Cement Base

I want to keep this in my showcase so I thought to make a landscape base for this. I used a small fishbowl to mold the cement base and provided a small space to store the water for plants. Also inserted a small nail to mount the electric post and kept the cement the whole day to solidify.