So, he says the the gray paint won't match. I guess he thinks black does? What the heck?!?!?? by pooldv. Made me smile! He really thought that was a real fix. I'm a QC inspector and deal with painted or the painting of steel almost everyday. Taking care of rusting steel is a multi step repair if you are going to stop it cold in it's tracks. The spraying of the black top coat on the rust is a temporary fix and the rust will come back in time. it would be best to remove this black and treat the rust with a metal wash primer or some naval jelly if you can't find a wash primer. Then paint the wash primer over with a buff or epoxy primer. Then apply a top coat(gray Rustoleum) on top of that primer. Follow the paint can instructions and the rest of the pool might rust but that area will not.
Super job on the restoration! That had to be a lot of work but it came out very nice.
It would be fine if there was actually rust. There wasnt any!! Just brown stains where the water was running feom the unpainted edges under the fittings. We were trying to prevent any issues. Basically he painted over brown stains on top of paint. Not actually rust :-(. Makes it that much worse!!! He tried to "fix" (i use that term VERY loosly) the symptom but didnt do anything about what caused it!
i looked closely, he claims they "sanded" it but theres no dust at all so i know they just painted over the water marks. Grrrrr