How to age Caledon tubing?

[John Dayhuff]

Hi Everyone,
I'm going to replace a piece of gas line tubing with a new piece that I bought from Snyders but I want to give it that "patina" look of 50+ years old so that it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb next to everything else under the hood. Any ideas of what it's made out of and how I can age it without waiting another 50 years?
Thanks,

[wmws]

I made a gas line out of hydraulic brake line tubing. It was a darker color sort of dark green.

[Jack Shaft]

A friend used to soak his Vw parts in brine to "age" them

[chrs1961815]

You could try soaking in salt water which would do the job pretty quickly.

[1crosscut]

If it has a plating type coating on it a dip in muratic acid and water mix of 50/50 will most likely take it off leaving it bare steel. If you want it to have a rusted type look spray it with salt water mix and let dry. Spray and let dry. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Drying in between is important as steel needs oxygen to rust.

[dumb person]

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Yuck, use no corrosives or you might as well have used a line you found in a wreck in a forest.

I use linseed oil, leave item in the sun, or bake lightly after applying. You're not trying to cook it. Just dry it. I left a set of new keys dipped in linseed oil on top of the toaster for a few cycles. Dried ok.
It ages & goes brown rather quickly when heated.

[MikeK]

The original gas line was terne coated seamed steel tubing. Terne is an alloy of less than 20% tin, sometimes 1 or 2% antimony, and the remainder lead. It quickly aged to a dull 20% brightness gray color. The quickest cover up that is about the same appearance and that will hold up without damaging the new line is a rattle can of dull zinc rich 'galvanize'. Not the expensive shiny stuff, the standard dull kind.

Of course, if you are into fine-point or want the absolutely untouched, un-restored, all original parts look, you can get a long length of today's electro-zinc plated steel line, set up a fixture and profiled tool bit to cut the appearance of the original seam, mix up your own terne, use an acid flux and a pad like an old-time plumber making a wiped joint, and wipe the terne onto the tube at about 700F. Then if you want the aged look just wait!

[Ak Sourdough]

For quick darkening, you might try scuffing it with a scotchbrite pad and wiping some old black waste oil on it to get some carbon in the new scratches.

[John Dayhuff]

Thanks for the ideas so far guys, keep them coming.