Restoring a cast iron manhole cover - paint??

[anonymous-user]

I've finally managed to hunt down an old imperial-sized manhole cover to replace a caved-in galvanized misfit

The 'new' cover has some surface rust, which can be removed fairly easily, but I'm not sure whether any additional treatment should be applied. If it was round the back of the house then I wouldn't bother, but it's only a few feet from the front door - on a tarmac driveway (not, it must be admitted, in the very best condition!).

Would painting the cover (black?) be useful, or would it just draw attention to itself? If paint, then smooth Hammerite? Black bitumen? Some other colour? Or maybe just clean it up and let it 'weather' naturally?

[Uggers]

Try POR15, just make sure after applying the rust preventer you do the topcoat to protect from UV. I did a grate around my downpipe which is on on a public path for the town and it looks like the day I painted it 2 years ago.

Slowly doing all my cast iron guttering with it in the hope I can make them almost maintenance free for the next 15years.

[hobbiniho1]

if you pant it with hammerite you will need to add a layer of sand or some other aggregate as just paint will make it slippery when wet

[roofer]

Why not just get the covers you can infill ? and tarmac to match.

[hyphen]

Uggers said:

Try POR15, just make sure after applying the rust preventer you do the topcoat to protect from UV. I did a grate around my downpipe which is on on a public path for the town and it looks like the day I painted it 2 years ago.

Slowly doing all my cast iron guttering with it in the hope I can make them almost maintenance free for the next 15years.

Took a look at the site, and there are a lot of products named POR15. Which ones do you use?

[CrutyRammers]

I'm a fan of PQR 15, but it's expensive overkill for that I'd say.
They normally just left to weather off aren't they...I'd leave it tbh. It'll brown over with time.

Otherwise if you must, go over it with a wire brush in an electric drill, stick some anti-rust primer on it, and hammerite. But it will be more slippery probably as said above.