[Eilif]

Anyone here tried weathering with a vinegar rust solution?

I recently used vinegar to remove heavy rust on a couple rusty railroad spikes. I sifted it for chunks and the leftover result was a neat heavy orange rust solution. I'm wondering if it would be worth trying to weather railcars with this liquid. I seem to remember seeing something in the past about weathering with "real rust" but I can't seem to find it.

I'll probably give it a go on a cheap car anyway, but I thought I'd ask here first.

If vinegar is safe to use on trains, it seems very promising since vinegar has a fairly low surface tension, is cheap and rusty railroad spikes are easy to come by here.

Lastly, if vinegar left to dry is going to be harmful to paint/plastic/etc, perhaps first neutralizing the solution with slow application of baking soda to get a neutral mostly-water rust solution?

 

[Aard D'Vaark]

vinegar can be used as a rusting base, but needs to be neutralized, especially on ferrous metals ...
store bought rust solutions are usually better, and faster ..

 

[Eilif]

Thanks.
To be clear, I'm not looking to cause the surface to rust but rather to paint the rusty vinegar solution onto a car like a wash.

 

[Aard D'Vaark]

if you want to ;paint' it, why use vinegar ?? use water [or alcohol] instead ??

 

[Eilif]

Vinegar is what I used to remove the rust in the first place.

Would alcohol work as well?