Need advice on peeling vinyl on clothes rack

[Unionville]

I want to avoid buying a new clothes rack and tossing this one out.   

The problem: the vinyl coating has cracked and peeling off slowly and is difficult to remove.  I tried to peel off as much as I could because it just keeps flaking off slowly all over the living room floor.The white flakes don't feel like paint, it's more like some kind of vinyl coating.

Any ideas?  Should I try to seal it with something?   I'm also not sure if the metal is going to leave rust on my clothes.  Any ideas?

I think the reason the coating cracked is because I store it on the front porch, but we don't live in a cold climate so I don't know why it failed.  (see picture)

[luigi49]

Is it possible to just leave it alone?

[warfreak2]

Wrap tape around it, covering the cracked parts of the vinyl as well as the exposed metal?

[Russ]

I don't think OP would have posted this if they wanted to just leave it alone.

yes you have to cover it with something. tape would work (plastic, not paper, so it's water resistant), as would enough layers of paint, or a re-dip in the plastidip stuff that's already on it. The rust will get on your clothes if you use it long enough. It will also only get rustier, and will eventually literally fall apart

It wouldn't be worth my time to temporarily fix something that is obviously on its last legs.

I would get rid of it and either buy a new one or do what I do and put all your clothes on (plastic) hangers and dry hanging from the shower curtain rod. It's as little extra work as possible, since the dry clothes can then go straight to the closet.

[Greg]

Unless you have a friend who will sandblast and re-powdercoat it for you I think it's time to get a new one.

[Milspecstache]

What kind of metal is it?  Steel will attract a magnet.  If steel then it will definitely put rust stains on your clothes.  But steel should take a coat of paint like rustoleum pretty easily.

[Rural]

One roll of duct tape will fix the whole thing. You can even get a pretty color if you like.

[luigi49]

i vote for duct tape.

[Unionville]

What kind of metal is it?  Steel will attract a magnet.  If steel then it will definitely put rust stains on your clothes.  But steel should take a coat of paint like rustoleum pretty easily.

I does rust.

[Milspecstache]

Duct tape will be the cheapest and last maybe a year?  That's assuming you already have a roll.

If you have to buy it, a good roll will be about the same as a can of spray paint.  Spraying on several light coats of Rustoleum or Krylon will probably also fix it and should last longer than duct tape.

[Cwadda]

Take a wire brush and scrape off the debris. Then use white rustoleum quickly over it.