sail shades for home...

[chris fox]

I have a couple of triangular Coolaroo sail shades in our back yard which provides some shade for yard area and pool. For those who are no familiar of these, they are a low cost, contemporary design solution for providing shade here in the desert.
Currently I have a them hung by aircraft cable to a wall and reinforced fascia boards on the home. My plan is to not have them connected to my home, our monsoons can be damaging, however no problems yet. So my plan is to mount them off steel pole(s) cemented in to the ground. I will go to a steel salvage yard and buy the tube by the pound,etc.
Letting them rust would give a earth tone, desert look but dont want my son exposed to rust when hes out playing.
The questions is what to coat these with?? Dont want to powder coat$$, paint is not the best(BTW. Rustoleum Hammerite is suprising good for outdoor), applied etching or clear coat the way to go??

thanks for the ideas...

[Kyle Kraft]

Living in Michigan, everything I played with while growing up was/is rusty. Has rust been declared carcinogenic, harmful, causing global warming, et al by the Peoples Republic of California or the like?:D I've used primer, and a good alkyd oil based paint which holds up pretty well for outdoor stuff. You could also have the pipes hot dip galvanized which will weather to a nice gray patina a la windmill.