What should I do with my swinger and axle. The axle has surface rust on it and the swinger really needs cleaned up and buffed. Is it ok to powder coat an axle or should I just sand it and rattle can it or maybe bed liner? Curious for suggestions. Picture below

Zinc plate it... i've done a bunch of axles and all came out beautiful... if not that, then polish it w/ some sandpaper
Got this from GRK...
Find a drill bit that fits tight in hole at end of axle.... run the drill w/ one hand (in the carrier, in the swinger) and hold some 220 sandpaper on it...then go 400, then 600, etc as high as you want.... sort of like a lathe w/ the drill
That will clean it up pretty good, but it'll still get surface rust w/ time... just have to keep up w/ it

here are a few I had Zinc'd...

if you polish a swinger is will get dull unless you keep up with it.  they were coated with a clear when new.  i've wire wheeled one, looked good for awhile, now its oxidized, and dull, doesn't look as good anymore, needs to be gone over to clean up. 

i don't care for that huge hole on the top of your swinger.  just gonna collect more dirt and crap.  grease zerk should have been in the middle of the back of the carrier and drill a 1/2 inch or so hole in the adjuster plate for a grease gun to fit. 

any coating you do to an axle will eventually get nicked and chipped.    spray can won't last, bare will rust unless you keep up wth it, chrome and nickle will ding and chip eventually.  i've tried different ways, chrome or nickle will look better longer.  my durablue axle lasted a few years now it has dings an rust spots.  my buddy bought a trx450r that had black tape on the axle. 

I think I'm gonna sell my extra Zilla one (top one in the pic, still looks exact same, only sat on shelf).... PM me if your interested in it, then you can keep yours as a spare or coat it down the road and keep this as a spare...

Shawn I didn't even know that hole wasn't stock. So basically my swinger has been modified at some point?

Is that hole a bad thing?

It will collect dirt. The swinger will collect dirt in the carrier with or without the hole. The sides are
open. And it's huge.
I had a smaller hole in my old 250 swinger. I took a file and made it even and neat. Every time I
washed the quad, I made a point to hose it out.

You can see it my original post PCS, I'm working right now and the swinger is locked up in my brothers shop with all my other parts. I will post more pics as I'm able to tear the swinger apart and take the axle out.