My mother would cringe every time she looked at our mailbox.It wasn't that we didn't want to replace it. We just couldn't find a mailbox we liked.

It occurred to me that until we find the PERFECT mailbox, we could just use the Loctite Extend to cover the rust and paint it with the left-over white paint I had from fixing the screen door.

The Extend changed the color of the rust and seemed to just dissolve and smooth it out.

You have to leave some of the rust on so that the spray has something to work with.

I covered the house number with painter's tape and then primed and painted the mailbox.
I painted the flag red next. We also bought new numbers to replace the faded older ones.
Ron of Hotel Waikiki just told me I didn't have to prime. Arrrghhhh! He's right! The Loctite Extend acts as a primer. Ah well... looks like we added an unnecessary extra step.

Now I'm wondering if I (or maybe my brother... if I can convince him to do it) should paint a snail on this side of the mailbox. I wonder if the neighbors would get the joke. (snail mail?)
Postscript: I was telling our fire fighter neighbor about the Extend this afternoon and he said the department uses Extend by the gallons. A small can is not enough to keep everything in shape. He says it does work well. We were very happy to hear that.
Looks like replacing the mailbox goes down to the bottom of the To-Do list.
Postscript 2: Mom just looked at the box, grinned and said, "Now we have the nicest mailbox on the street."