painting the trailer

[richrand]

Hi,

Has anyone painted their trailer? Mine looks terrible and I'm thinking that if I want to do something about it, I better do it soon, before my boat's on it. Rather than do it myself, I was thinking about trying to find an auto body shop to do it. Anybody gone this route?

Thanks,

Rich

[Mark Gutteridge]

When we built our trailer for Hunting Party we had an independant shop sand blast and paint our boat. If i could do it over again ,and had the time i would do it differentlyIt all comes down to how comfortable you feel about the people doing the work.How much do you want to spend ,how long do you think the trailer will last ; how long do you think you will last trailering the boat;do you want epoxy paint or tremclad primer;salt water or fresh;new sails or paint on the trailer?
I just retired and i could be tricked into sanding and painting your trailer.
I just need plane or bus ticket, a key to the boat to sleep in it and lots of 80 grit paper.

Chimo;
Guts

[@last]

Really depends on how fussy you are-mine was pretty rough when I bought it (steel trailer), I used carpet remnants from work to redo the pads and liberal amounts of sandpaper/orbital sander and rustoleum paint, of course it doesn't look like a shop done job, but I do think it looks alot better than it did and total cost was like 30 bucks. On the flip side I have another trailer that I had a welding shop sandblast and paint, of course that job looks more professional (as it well should have) and was like 300 bucks 15 years ago, so kind of depends how nicely you are looking for it to look.

[tpf]

I worked for a company that built process tanks that were lined with various coatings. The key to a quality finish is preparation. Virtually all coating systems specify blasting the surface to a white metal finish. As it sounds the surface takes on a rough white appearance. Unfortunately the surface is rough with lots of surface area so it will begin to oxidize almost immediately so most manufacturers specify a maximum time to apply the first coat is 24 hours.

Primer selection is also critical - I used a zinc/solvent based metal primer that adhered well and dried fast then I top coated with a rustoleum product.

I disassembled the trailer and blasted and primed the trailer in one day. Then I assembled and top coated. I painted a trailer once and followed the same practice and it came out very good and held up great.

I did it once and it lasted for as long as I owned the boat.

My recomentation would be to have it blasted and primed then you can top coat.

[dave]

tpf is right on. I have had very good luck using Pettit's Rustlock primer. They also make a similar product called Trailorcoat. Both are moisture cured Urethanes that are tough as nails and look very much like galanizing.
http://www.pettitpaint.com/catalog_browse.asp?ictNbr=76