Another vote for the powder coat. My one Harley is out year round in the rock salt and everything else. Most of the chrome, as it rusted, I had powdercoated; same with the side cases. Seven years and much abuse and neglect later and it all still looks like it was done yesterday.
YES
I learned yesterday that welders don’t fabricate wrought iron parts anymore. Every piece is ordered from a catalog and the welder assembles it. The skill is how cleanly everything is welded together. They test fit the railing and make any adjustments. Then take it to the powder coating shop.
The shop I’m using opened in 1962. Decorative railing has always been one of their specialties.
He said it would take about a week to get the parts for my railing.
Yeah, if it’s real wrought iron you buy the pieces. See here for example.
Local shop made some wrought iron support columns for me back in mid 80s.
I watched them make some of the parts. So at least back then some stuff was locally produced.
What’s meant by wrought iron these days is a low carbon steel. It may not show any grain from slag in the metal. The ‘wroughting’ is just the hot rolling process and then the manual or machine bending and shaping. A lot of such stuff is just the same mild steel used by welders where non-hardening material is suitable. Since there are more people blacksmithing today than ever before in history I’m sure there are plenty of craftsmen who would find or produce puddled steel with slag inclusions and work it themselves but buying pre-formed components would keep the costs down considerably. I don’t know where these piece come from but I’m guessing it’s overseas, and as I mentioned already the cost of the steel is going up already as a result of new tariffs. Even existing stock is likely to be priced higher because it’s scrap value has already increased.
That’s way less than I’d have guessed. Easy choice, go for the powder coating.
Just another idea for a cheaper alternative; Caliper paint. It’s thick enough and will fill any small voids and pits and leave the surface extremely smooth and glossy. Resilient enough to use on brake calipers and even engine valve covers, heat and abrasion resistant.
EDIT: VHT brand. No gloss or other stuff needs to be added.
I prefer this stuff where powdercoat is recommended since powdercoating doesn’t leave much of a shine and will wear off a bit faster.
I saw caliper paint used on an electric guitar restoration. Came out great.
I’d definitely consider it on various projects.
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Now that sounds like good stuff. I suppose I’ve seen it at the auto parts store but never painted my calipers and it didn’t really register. If it works as advertised, and I’d try it out on some scrap material that the welder provides, then you really should go with two tone paint job, I think it would look great as you describe. I assume the top of the rail will be subject to direct sunlight, precipitation, and hot/cold cycling, so you want the toughest coating you can get on that.
All of the iron railings I’ve ever seen that had durability problems of any kind, it was either the type of paint they used didn’t hold up well in general, or the joints weren’t well made. I haven’t noticed one where the difference in weathering between one area and another really made much difference (i.e. if the paint wasn’t very good then all the paint went, not just that along the top).