The crew is finishing up my fence at our property this week. All the H braces and entrance are pipe and sucker rod. Being the cheap @ss I am, I didn't have them paint it.

Anyone have good tips on priming/painting it? Obviously I'm going to have to let it cool down a little outside first anyway.

I used a paint mitt with rust-o-leum paint on a pipe entrance at a place we used to have. I didn't prime it but it was new pipe. We only had the place for a couple years so I don't really know how it held up

The paint mitt is a life saver. I don't remember the paint brand, but we did a primer and another coat, I think he bought the paint at Mueller Supply in Ballinger.

This ^^^^^^^^^ worked well for me. We had older rusty pipe though so we put Ospho the pipe in the cleaned that up the next day with paper feed sack to help the paint stick better. A fence builder told me about adding Penetrol to the oil base primer. It seemed to really make a difference how well the paint stayed on the pipe years later compared to pipe or gates we painted that we did not add it to the paint. I think the Penetrol made the paint stay glossy looking a lot longer also. Painting with the mitten was really fast. The cleaner the pipe the longer the mitten will last, rougher or scaly pipe will eat the glove up in no time. I bought several and then wore a plastic glove inside since the plastic liner in the mitt did not hold up well. This was 25 yrs ago, so they may be better quality today. The last ranch I was on we found a paint that lasted longer than the Rustoleum did on metal. It was BLP Mobile Industrial Paint IIRC.

I’ve had a tower or two painted. They use cheap plastic gloves under a mitt. I learned that they go to Pro paint store and buy the good paint. It might only come in white and aviation orange though.

Mitt and one of the high end enamels from Sherwood Williams. We have been using their sher-kem and Kem -400 quite a bit lately with good luck.

I'll second the use of OSPHO, great rust killer/primer/ sealer.

Go to Sherwin Williams (or call in case they need to order it), tell them what you are doing and use what they recommend. And use a mitt like others have said. Penetrol brushed on alone if pipes are rusty, (great rust inhibitor) then let dry 24 hrs and paint. no need to add penetrol to the paint, it helps when brushing but would serve no purpose mixed in paint you are applying with a mitt would just make it dry slower.

I used a 3" paint roller with a small brush for joints. I used black semi gloss Rustoleum.

Paint ours with rustoleum. Wire brush to knock of loose rust and just paint it. It seems to me with light surface rust the paint adheres better than clean metal.

Mitt uses way more paint than necessary, makes a mess, and leaves mitt material in the paint. We went to rollers years ago. There are vee shaped foam rollers that would do a good job on the sucker rod. Regular ole 3" flat roller does great on the pipe.

Rust-not red brown primer is what I put on anything I actually apply a covering to. The last three years, I've just let everything become its' "natural color".

Sherwin Williams $50 a gallon. Hire it done. Life is too short to do it yourself. I'm an expert...

I did a similar thing. At first I was careful with the mitt, 30 minutes later I was dipping my entire hand into the paint bucket and getting after it. Prime and then paint.

Leave it unpainted. Our pipe fence has never been painted. Its rust colored, looks great!

Rubber glove and a couple old socks work great.

The guys that put my fence in used a primer+paint all in one. I think it was a PPG product. They used mitts for runs and brushes at joints. They even came back after a week and touched up all welded joints. I believe the cost to paint was less than 5% of total job.

Do they paint existing fences?

I have 2-3000 feet that needs repainting.

The best paint I have found is Rustoleum. I think it is called "cold galvinizeing" or something like that.Only problem is that it is around $135 a gallon. I had bought a spray can of it and painted a gate. Amazing how it has held up.

This is what we did it's lasted 25 years and counting with no touch ups..

The mitts are the way to go. I’ve got 600+ feet of 5/8” 4 pipe fencing. Used to do it myself but now just hire it done with cheap workers. Since I have so much I just use cheapo asphalt fence paint and do it every 5 years or so. I also happen to like the dull look of the asphalt paint and it doesn’t show every little chip and/or rust spot like glossy paint does.

Now spray it with phosphoric acid.

This is what I used, have painted all the pipe fence and all three corrals here at the ranch, have done it 3 times. Expect to do it every 5-6 years.

Another vote for not painting it. Once you paint it... you have to keep painting it. A rusted pipe fence looks great to me... nice and uniform and it'll last your lifetime.

Pair of latex gloves, pair of brown jersy gloves, done throw em away!

I just did 800ft of pipe fence myself. Day #1 - OSHPHO in spray bottle (WOW!! Great stuff). Day #2 primed with Rust-Oleum Professional "Rusty Metal" oil based primer. Day #3 painted with Rust-Oleum Professional enamel in flat black. Used heavy duty PVC glove under paint mitt and it worked great! Bought 2 cans of Rust-Oleum flat black spray paint for touch up and bottom of posts so as to not get mitt in dirt. Went thru 2 or 3 mitts each day, the pipe eats them up in a hurry, but they were well worth it. Fence turned out great and I couldn't be happier.

POR-15 is excellent over rust, but has to be covered if exposed to UV light. So painting over it is absolutely necessary. It’s been used on vehicle and trailer frames for years

POR-15 makes a lot of products. Their gas tank sealer is great. But the rust treatment stuff is probably just phosphoric acid solution. When phosphoric acid meets rust it changes to iron phosphate, a very good rustproof primer. HD has it in gallon jugs, cheap. Just knock the loose rust off and spray. POOF! You are rustproof and ready to paint. But you don’t have too. The acid treated fence can stand for years without paint.

POR-15 is extremely expensive. Rustoleum would be better if needed.