Does that work? And last?

What they should be doing is powder coating them at the factory, especially since, IIRC, these aren't inexpensive racks. IIRC, they don't offer them in plain metal finish either, just their crappy black paint. It's a real shame, because they are great racks, very durable, tough, and for those of us with heel strike issues (big feet or converting old MTB's to tourers), being able to set the panniers further back is very helpful. Luckily the bike I have it on, the beat up look kind of fits, but if this was on one of my clean and shiny builds it'd really be bugging me. Yeah, I'm like that.