Originally Posted by
cyclotoine
I agree with some points but I would disagree on the just powder coat it part. I would either treat the rust locally with naval jelly or bar keepers friend or whatever and touch up the paint there (yeah you can use crappy spray chrome paint too) and just make sure you keep all the decals etc intact. It won't look good but you are just trying to stop the rust and preserve what is there while you use it. The other option of course is a full professional restoration. Figure on spending at least $1000 on this. Others will say it can be done for less, but if you want the real deal I would be very careful about who you choose to chrome it and paint is and then add in shipping cost and decals (not to mention time)... you're looking at $1000 easy. Of course we would all love to see photos so please please do share.
Not sure if you're implying that you can powder coat over the rust or not with this statement, but all the rust and flaws and paint in the chrome etc would be removed before the powder coating took place. I've done some small (jewelry scale) powder coating (looking to make an oven to do frames this summer), and even just a little bit of surface flaw/dirt screws the whole project up.