When the vault is opened after the fire sprinklers have sprayed water everywhere, the gold bars are partially dissolved revealing them to be clay inside. The exteriors of the bars are painted to look like gold. Paints do not dissolve in water except for watercolors and watercolors would not look or feel like gold, so that cannot be the paint used.
Point of fact. In order to get a surface hard enough, and shiny enough to look like gold, and also be resistant to minor scratching, the paint would have to be a catalyzed epoxy, or catalyzed urethane, and those do not even dissolve in paint thinner.
Point of fact. In order to get a surface hard enough, and shiny enough to look like gold, and also be resistant to minor scratching, the paint would have to be a catalyzed epoxy, or catalyzed urethane, and those do not even dissolve in paint thinner.