Paint vs Powder Coat

Hi all,

Just purchased a used / older RV-6 kit.

Workshop is still being built and I am looking for something I do on the kit before setting up the shop.

In my pile of airplane parts I see lots of steel parts - control sticks, rudder pedals, flap actuator, engine mount reinforcements, spar splice plates. Being an older kit, they were provided raw and have superficial surface rust.

Can I go ahead and clean these up and apply finish?

If so, I would love opinions on painting vs. powder coating

Thanks in advance

I was in the same boat with an older RV6 kit. Make sure that you thoroughly inspect the parts that are already powdercoated. I found several parts that had small rust blooms under the powdercoating. I stripped them and painted. Powdercoating is very desirable but for me the shops that were close to me were very expensive. Also, it never fails that I would have to perform some minor alterations to the part and would have to take part of the powdercoating off. It was easier and more cost effective for me to paint them myself. At least the touchups were not a pain.