holes in powder-coated steel parts

I've seen this discussed before, and the answer was "don't worry". Well, I'm new and I worry. So: what are people doing to protect the bare steel after drilling out holes in powder-coated steel parts, e.g. the empennage hinge brackets?

I figure the ones for rivets may be OK. The expanded rivet will seal out any moisture and the rivet is passivated. I can also prime them.

How about the bolt holes? Can't really prime without affecting the close tolerance for the bolt. I saw a suggestion in the Matronics archives to use gun bluing. Seems like a great idea - a conversion coating for steel with no thickness, similar to what Alodine does for aluminum. But, like Alodine, it doesn't provide significant protection by itself.

Maybe spray some WD-40 or similar lubricant in the hole? I think AN bolts are supposed to be dry, but as long as I clean the threads before torquing, any reason why I shouldn't oil the hole?

Thanks,
Boris
-7 empennage

Holes.

IMHO.....Lets take this to an almost molecular level if you will. No matter WHAT you coat these exposed parts with, there will be scratching, chipping, and HUGE localized PSI (read chipping again) where bolts, rod ends, etc will touch both powder coated and/or proposed treated parts. Please read and note..., here...YOU WILL NEVER get all parts sealed to 100% resist corrosion.... ergo, IMHO, a wonderful lubricant/corrosion inhibiter such as ACF-50 applied at each conditional inspection, will solve most lube/corrosion problems, and get you flying YEARS faster.
You probably should spend your corrosion prevention thinking (I am paranoid too!), on areas where it will get you in trouble, like structural areas made out of highly corrosive and THIN aluminum.
Glen

Wet Primer...

If you are really worried, the technique is to apply the hardware (rivets or bolts) into the hole while wet with zinc chromate paint (or it's modern equivalent primer).

Unless you intend to operate in a swamp, this isn't usually done or needed.....

gil in Tucson