My 1953 house has a small cement front porch with wrought iron

[schmuls]

railings. The railings have rusted on the bottom and and dripped rust down on sides of the porch. It is very unsightly, and this spring I want to do something about it. Will painting rustoleum all over the railings prevent this? Also, I'd like to paint my porch with a shiny enamel to improve the looks of it. Any ideas on how to proceed with that and what the cost would be? Thanks

[Warpy]

1. You may need to replace the railing

something which may become apparent when you're out there with the Naval Jelly and the wire brush, trying to remove all the rust and get the wrought iron down to bare metal so you can prime and paint. You may find that there's not much metal left where it's in contact with the cement.

Painting over rust doesn't work, no matter what it tells you on the Rustoleum can.

Several options exist for painting concrete, and porch enamel is only one. There are also concrete stains and waterproof epoxy paints, as well as glued down coverings. A home improvement store will help you decide on which option.

[Jersey Devil]

2. If they are rusted on the bottom you should remove them

and check to see if there is anything left holding up the railings. If they are original railings from 1953 my bet is that there is nothing left to hold them up and everything below ground has disintegrated. If so, they may be dangerous and likely to just snap off at the base if anyone puts any weight on them. 53 years is a hellova long time for railings to last. Last year I replaced my 25 year old railings with powdered aluminum (no maintenance). Originally I wanted to repair the wrought iron ones there but when I removed them there was so little metal left it would have cost almost as much to have a welding company fix them by welding in new iron where needed than to just completely replace them.