Clear coat or not on the hitch

[Wayfinder]

It was time to touch-up the bulldog hitch. I used a pretty good Rust-Oleum flat paint, after wire bushing and cleaning well. 

Should I bother with a clear coat enamel on top? 

What would you do?

 

Thanks,

Chris

[Mike and Carol]

I just use Rustoleum black after cleaning the rust.  Clear coat may cause the paint to last longer.  Let us know if you try it.  Mike

[John E Davies]

I don't think clear coating flat black is necessary, nor IMHO would it look very good, I use Duplicolor Ceramic Brake Caliper Paint, gloss black, no primer is needed like regular spray paints, it flows out beautifully, is dry to the touch in five minutes, and after a week it cures rock hard. This paint is now my "go to" product for just about anything that needs one of the six available colors. Any good auto parts store should carry it.

https://www.duplicolor.com/product/caliper-paint/

I just painted the receiver area on my LC200 a couple of weeks ago. The "spots" are weld splatter, that doesn't look so great with a gloss paint.... maybe next time I will grind those all away. And use the Satin Black instead.

[Katjo]

We used Rustoleum black also with no clear coat over. 

[Steve Morris]

No trailer yet, but for jobs like this here in the rust belt, I use Eastwood’s original chassis paint. I see that there’s now an extreme and ceramic, but I’ve never tried them. 
 

https://www.eastwood.com/search/?q=Chassis

 Before:

After:

14 Years later:

[topgun2]

On 8/13/2022 at 11:10 AM, Wayfinder said:

Should I bother with a clear coat enamel on top? 

What would you do?

No, I would not clear coat it.  Given the wear and tear the hitch gets you are probably going to need to give it a shot of paint every couple of years anyway.

Having said this, I would not paint the hitch black in the first place.  A black hitch is difficult to see when using those rear cameras in most vehicles today.  This is particularly true if the road surface is dark.  For the past several years I've used Rust Oleum hammered silver on the front part of the hitch and Krylon satin black on the rear portion.

Bill