I guess it depends on the state of the posts at their base. I'd hate to have
primed a gate only to find only the rust is holding the post together!

The last time I needed to do my font gate I knew a bloke who worked at a
plating company, and he immersed it in a bath and stripped all the paint of,
another to remove the rust then he had to fix a few dodgy welds, then dipped
it in some zinc primer stuff and I painted it Hammerite hammer finish cream.
However it does not after many years need to be redone, but do wonder if it
could stand it... grin.
Brian

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"John" wrote in message ...
On Sun, 12 Apr 2020 13:00:48 +0100, AJH wrote:

One of those jobs I've looked at and passed by for years is our front
gate. It's not been touched in 41 years and probably not before that for
a while.

The posts are steel square RHS and the gates welded mild steel with
scroll patterns. They appear to have been primed with a zinc rich paint
like galvafroid and then painted black. Now about 50% of the surface is
rusty.

I can wire brusk the rust and paint over with smooth hammerite but
wondered if it was worth applying some phosphoric acid based rust eater
and deterent first. If so what is a cheap source as those little tubs
for rust spots on cars are far too expensive.

I bought a gallon equivalent from amazon for around £20 it was called
toilet cleaner.