Unveiling the plating process of the world’s first 24-karat gold Cybertruck

The world’s first 24-karat gold Cybertruck is as real as it gets, and it’s not a wrap but an actual layer of pure gold sitting on the exterior’s surface.

As cool as it may sound, a great deal of effort went toward creating something like this.

Not only that, but the entire process came with a massive price tag, too.

So, how do you create a 24-karat gold-plated Cybertruck?

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How to create a 24-karat gold Cybertruck

Popular tech YouTuber JerryRigEverything unveiled the world’s first gold Cybertruck a few months ago, and it took the pickup truck’s fanbase by storm.

The Cybertruck’s distinguished stainless steel exterior was already quite controversial, and if anything, the gold variant stirred it further.

JerryRigEverything — or Zack Nelson — decided to pursue this project only for one reason.

He was asked to do it by his subscribers, and the idea seemed like a scientific question he wanted to answer.

To cover the Cybertruck in pure gold, he went through three stages.

Before getting into the details, note that the way to do it is through something called electroplating.

The process uses electricity to deposit a layer of gold on top of the stainless steel layer.

An excellent example of something similar is the making of gold jewelry — but in that case, the jewelry goes through an electroplating bath — and is dipped into a liquid solution to get gold all over it.

However, you can’t fit an entire pickup truck in a big enough bath, and the electronics would get in the way, too.

That’s why Zack decided to go with electroplating here.

Firstly, he used an electro cleaner — an electric anode cleaning rod to make the Cybertruck’s surface hydrophilic.

In layman’s terms, this part allows the surface to react with liquids like water.

Next up, he used the TriVal 24K Acid Gold Strike, which is an acid that is the core building block of the eventual gold layer.

What this does is disrupt the stainless steel’s oxidation layer and deposit an extremely thin layer of gold on top of it.

It is also the layer to which the actual 24-karat gold layer will cling, so this is an essential part.

Adding in the gold

Finally, Zack used an electrified anode brush to deposit pure gold into the vehicle.

It didn’t even remotely look gold — because it was a purple gooey-like liquid.

However, this was again due to a scientific reason.

You see, this form of gold basically had missing electrons, hence giving it this form and shape.

When the purple substance reacts with the metal on the Cybertruck surface, it gets its electrons back and takes its ‘normal’ form.

After all these steps, the gold plating process was complete.

The only catch here was that Zack had to repeat all the steps for each distinct part of the truck.

It was a long process, but the end result seemed worthwhile.

You can always wrap your Cybertruck with a cool-looking finish, but real gold is something else entirely.