On Wed, 11 May 2005 23:18:38 +0100, "Suz" wrote:

Gates are handmade and aren't thin

If you can move the weight, they're thin! Hammerite is _rubbish_ stuff,
that has never worked anything like as well as its reputation claimed.
Smoothrite is little better. One particular defect in it is that it's
very stiff and has poor adhesion - so any bending of the substrate
(which is pretty inevitable on a gate) encourages it to crack off.

Any ideas on the dulling?

I hate powder coat - I've never seen it look good when it's more than a
year or two old. This crappy "matt" finish is even worse - it's just not
leaving it in the fuser for long enough. Unless you've done the
ironwork carefully and either broken all the sharp edges or made it from
hot-rolled, you can see problems with splitting along the edges too.
Then you get the usual powder-coat problem, which is rusting underneath.

But you could try silicone oil pervert polish - as used on rubberwear.