painting bare steel lugs

[tronlawong]

stripped my harry hall frame and forks down to bare steel so i'll be getting all the grease and shit off, priming it, few coats of the chosen colours then laquer laquer laquer but i want to keep the lugs bare steel with a clear coat of some sort of paint to stop them rustin so my question is, can it be done? and if so then, wat clear paint wud be good for the job?

 

[dirttorpedo]

I've seen a couple of bikes that were stripped to bare metal and clear coated. From what I gather it only offers partial protection as one example I saw had lines of corrosion form under the clear coat.