Its a good point you make and it had certainly crossed my mind whilst the car was at that stage. Re-doing a galvanised coating on the exposed metal was not feasible so the paint is providing the protection there. By stripping the paint so thoroughly on the car I have been able to verify that there are no hidden spots of damage so I am confident that the properly applied fresh paint will provide adequate protection. Of course there is also the fact that this will be a garaged / fair weather P car only! I havent worked out how I am going to get it dry cleaned yet.
Wayne