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Paint the Trailer


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I have a 1998 single axle painted trailer for my baby. It has developed several sections of rust that I need to fix and paint very soon. Never done this. I have very decent DIY skills. I have an air compressor with a paint sprayer attachement but haven't done much with it.

I'm looking for pointers for prepping and painting, please.

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Unless you know what your doing you will probably come away with orange peel and runs in the paint. If you want to do it right there is a lot that needs to be done besides just spraying the paint on there. You need to fix the imperfections, sand it, prime it, spot sand, paint, buff, etc...I decided to paint my jet ski once and it turned into a 50-60 hour project Cry.gif

I would take it to a bed liner shop (rhino or line-x) and have them do it. With the thickness and roughness of their products you don't really need to do any prep work.

If you want to be super cheap/easy, get 10 bottles of spray on bed liner!

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Check out POR-15 Rust Encapsulating Paint. (Out of Morristown, NJ) Had a guy who's done auto restorations tell me it's great stuff. If your trailer is getting the small area rust spots like my 99 SMP, that might be an easy touch up solution rather than sand blasting and a complete re-paint, although that's the route I'd take if the trailer were severely rusted.

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I've debated this a lot lately too. I've wire brushed spots and ground deeper areas and painted with Rustoleum. Its a trailer. The tool that gets your boat places. The BIG worry is not the rust on the outside, but the rust on the inside of the square tubes. If you think you have rust on the outside I'm sure you have LOTS of rust on the inside and that's impossible to treat unless you dip the whole thing. That's what I like about my buddies Mastercraft trailer. I-beams instead of square tubes so there are no hidden surfaces.

My debate boils down to bringing it somewhere to be stripped, dipped, and galvanized or to clean it up the best I can after each use and hope it doesn't crack in half before I replace it.

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living on a brackish water environment, i wrestled with this for the first 4 years. then i let the trailer fall apart, bought a galvanized, and have had no worries since. it doesn't look pretty, but who cares, the boat works great...

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Plus1.gif I deal with brackish water too and it's a painted trailer killer. Don't even know why they sell them here. I bought my boat/trailer in fresh water territory and introduced them to the salt. Lots more work...
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I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. Obviously the best thing is totally strip and repaint but very time consuming and expensive. I talked to a couple of paint reps I deal with and came up with a great solution. KWAL Howells (or Coronado depending on location) paints has a latex based rust encapsulating paint that is amazing and water submersible. You literally wire brush the big chunks off and start painting. I had the advantage that my trailer was white so it was right off the shelf, but the paint is tintable. It is a quick dry and I was able to get 4 coats on it in 4 hours, let it sit and cure overnight, and dunked it in the water the next morning. It was an amazing product. In the 4 months since I did it I had 0 deterioration of the material. I just rolled it on with a 3-4" foam roller to keep the stipple down. There also is a new Benjamin Moore rust encapsulating epoxy paint that comes in a spray can. It's a 2 component product that you just shake rigorously to blend the 2 materials and off you go. I'm not sure about the water submersion on this one since it's fairly new but we use it quite a bit on touch up and spot repairs on exterior railings and stairs that are showing rust areas. Most paint manufacturers will make rust encapsulating paints but the problem is getting one that is water submersible. Good luck.

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I'm looking for pointers for prepping and painting, please.

I'm planning on the same thing in the next week or two. My approach:

1. Wire wheel the rust spots down to bare metal. Most of the trailer is good, but some areas are not

2. Prime bare metal spots

3. Sand all surfaces quickly with 500 grit

4. Wipe down all surfaces with Xylene (or laquer thinner, etc.)

5. Paint 3 coats, 30 minutes in between. First one heavy, last two light.

This is assuming that when I remove the bunks and inspect the metal below them that I don't need any welding done. If you are painting, make sure all is perfect before hand (structurally).

Good luck!

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I just did the trailer in early June. Used the prep instructions on the por-15 can and applied with 3" foam roller. 1 quart covered the entire trailer. The por-15 recomends top coating as it is not uv resistent. The top of fenders are starting to dull already. As the trailer is 20+ years old I was not too concerened about finish but you can't tell the paint was rolled on. I was restoring the trailer so there were no wires or brake lines to paint around. Looks like I will need to scuf up the top of fenders and steps for top coat.

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Great ideas, thanks. i am even very close to Morristown, NJ so shoul dbe able to get that magic paint pretty easily.

The trailer is structurally sound ( I sure hope) and just needs to be spot painted in 8-9 places. Most of those places are covered when the boat is on the trailer, so all I will need when I sell it is someone moving up from a Bayliner and the sale will be made.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Step one: take boat off trailer.

That's all I've got, you're welcome!!

Step two: Haul trailer to paint shop.

That's all I've got!

Edited by 68Slalom
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