Need a bit of advice with peoples experience in using powder coat and paints.

My rear bumper on the vertical leading edges, of where the bumper wraps around the rear end of my truck below the lights. Along with some areas where the plastic step pad on top of the bumper inserts into it, has rust issues.
The paints bubbling in those areas obviously caused by rust.
I'm concerned that if I powder coat the bumper to get it all back to it's original condition, the pitting will still be seen, as I don't think the powder coat will fill in the pits etc.

So my question is this, Am I correct in this assumption?

Also, if I decide to paint the bumper as an alternative to powder coating and fill the pits, will the rust still become a problem in the future by coming back through despite thorough prep??

Cheers for the help guys.

Al.

 

the only way to get rid of the pitting is to grind it out, and hope it's thick enough to get rid of the pits before running out of material, such as grinding threw the metal. either powder coat or paint, it will have to be ground down. if you just sand it and do either one without getting rid of the rust, it will bubble and come back within a few months. to save yourself some time tap on the bubbled areas with a pick and see how much material is there, if the pick goes threw, its rusted from the backside and is now a rust hole. if it doesn't then it can be saved. i'm not sure if there is any advantage to powder coating over paint, besides powder coating will take more abuse than paint. both will succumb to the elements over time unfortunately.