Hatz Biplane Association

I recently purchased a CB-1 project started in 1990. The fuselage and tail welding is mostly finished, and my plan is to complete the wings next. There is a fair amount of surface rust on the fuselage and I probably won't get to it for a few more years, so should I do something to prevent further rust while it is sitting. I live in Houston, so the humidity is always high, leading to more rust. I have read older posts on this subject, but the question was never really answered; is it better to just let it sit, or grease it up for the time being?

Clean up the surface rust and then wipe a coat of oil on it. Do not use WD-40. It contains silicon materials that are hard to get off before painting. A car painter recommended to me to do a final cleaning with PPG DX330 Acryl-Clean before painting any steel parts. It is available at auto supply shops.
John Hanson HC-012

Good tip there John. I'm wondering about powder coating the fuse. I wonder if anyone here has done that and how it was accomplished.

Jeff and I considered powder coating but figured it would be a problem if we needed another little bracket welded on late in the project. We did powder coat the seat frames because cleaning them up after welding and painting them would have been too much work with all the pierced steel welded to the seats. The company that powder coated them did the clean up. Powder coating is a very tough finish and would take some work to remove to add a weld. We used Sherwin-Williams
Tile Clad Hi Solids Gloss epoxy paint and it worked very well.
John Hanson

So that makes one for sanding and oiling, any other opinions?