Painting question

[Ranga]

I'm going to repaint a steel roofrack I have here. It's painted, with light surface rust in areas. I was simply going to sand it back and use satin black Killrust or similar.

The question is, how much do I have to sand it back. Obviously I need to remove the surface rust, but how much do I have to sand the paint back? Hopefully I don't need to sand it back to bare metal, as that would be a major PITA. If so, I guess I'd be better off having it sandblasted.

Any advice?

[CraigE]

Do you have a powder coater in your area? If so a much better option and should only cost $100-150. Good paint for a roof rack will cost you with undercoat $60-100 for the paint etc on its own plus labour. I have been down this track with bullbars only because there was not a powder coater near by.
What you ahve to bear in mind is if there is rust or surface rust there already there may be more you can not see. If there is no rust then yes you can just lightly sand back, but does it have a decent undercoat?
If you want it to last pwder coating is far more durable, but if you really have to paint I would blast or sand back, undercoat with a good gold galvanising and paint with a good top coat (Killrust is OK but products like POR are better though expensive), then maybe a protective clear coat.
Hope this helps.

[The ho har's]

yes power coating is good, a stop gap is to scuff a cleaning pad over the paint and bare metal, then rust converter over bare metal when dry, clean converter off the paint and spray with cold gal/ black

hohar