Powder Coating vs Painting for seat frames (rust prevention)

[andyk_79]

I've been looking in to the merits of powder coating vs painting for my seat frames.  Pretty much everything I have found focuses on strength and finish, but given that they will be covered back up by new seat foams and covers I don't think either of those are the most important factors for me.  Given the rust that is on them I am more concerned with what will best prevent rust ?

 

I spent some time cleaning up and treating one of them (stripping, sanding, rust converter, etch primed) with the original plan being to paint it in Rustguard.  Now have been thinking about whether I should have just gotten it blasted and coated, but cannot find anything on what is going to best prevent/delay re-rust.

[reverendzed]

My opinion if you never want to see rust again is use POR-15

http://www.por15.com

 

cheers,

Rev

[gav240z]

Rust only forms with oxygen and moisture, or as Dr Google would say...

 

Rust Chemistry. Rusting of iron consists of the formation of hydrated oxide, Fe(OH)3, FeO(OH), or even Fe2O3.H2O. It is an electrochemical process which requires the presence of water, oxygen and an electrolyte.

 

Generally exposed bare metal is what causes rust to start, given that the frames will be in the car and putting items on the car may scratch the seat frames etc.. the best thing to do is use a paint that has a harder surface and won't easily scratch or come off. Powder Coating is meant to be a harder form of finish and therefore is probably the best option for durability.

 

However it all depends on how you treat the car and what you do with it. I painted my steering wheel with rattle can paint from Bunnings. It only had minor surface rust anyway - since it sits in the car it's less likely to be exposed to water and it only started to rust where the paint had chipped off.