Trailer painting advice

[WinterDeere]

I'm making some more modifications to my log-hauling trailer, and also replacing the decking. Trailer is a 2016 model, or thereabouts, and has always been stored outside on dirt, under shade of trees.

It's actually holding up quite well, only very minor surface rust where the old PT decking contacted the metal, and wherever I've managed to scrape or scratch it in the course of use. I could easily just hand-sand the few areas with a bit of rust, hit with some Rustoleum or Valspar alkyd rusty metal primer and then re-shoot some gloss black enamel. Quick and done.

The only really bad paint delamination I found due to rust was the forward marker light housings, which are shaped like a bell and probably pick up road salt off the truck tires:



Again, I could needle-scale those few areas and re-shoot with fresh primer and paint... or I could just haul the whole trailer to the local sandblaster who will strip and re-paint the whole thing, although I suspect this would come with the added chores of removing all lighting, wiring, winch, and then later cleaning and re-greasing the hubs and cleaning out the brakes. Not a small job.

But I'm noticing areas where I made mod's in the past, and re-shot those areas with a feather out, that the enamel I've applied has gone from gloss to matte, and is peeling off wherever it feathered onto the original gloss. Some of these areas may have been done by HVLP, but probably more of them were rattle can, I do both so can't remember which was used where anymore.



What would you guys do if this were yours? I wouldn't mind if the feather-out flaked and peeled after several years, but the way it tends to go matte after time is making the whole rig look a little more Sanford and Son than I'd like.

 

[WranglerX]

Feather sanded the rusty spots, masked off all wiring and lights, covered wheels and shot with Rust-o-leum primer and satin black paint.... Good to go, did it several years (6-8) ago and it sits out outside 365 and no rust bleed through yet.... Maybe next time if there is one a tractor/farm implement/chassis paint that has more durability than the Rust-o-leum... Only thing I did not do was replace all the reflective tape I peeled off....

 

[WinterDeere]

That's the challenge... this trailer is OEM'd in gloss black. So if I'm going to switch to satin, it means a full repaint

"Feather sanding"? Gloss is either removed, or not removed. This isn't a clear-coat finish.

 

[WranglerX]

Gloss coat does not need to be removed, just scuffed with some sanding to give tooth to new paint..... Feather sanding is to smooth edge where your repairs took rust off to bare metal....

 

[WinterDeere]

Yeah, if I'm painting the whole thing, that's the route I'd be going.

At this point, I'm leaning toward doing my mod's (some welding and cutting to move battery boxes from tongue to aft of fenders), sanding and spot-priming those areas, and then hauling the thing down to the local heavy equipment sandplast/paint shop to get pricing, before deciding on how to finish.

 

[jaxs]

Parden the pun but you are using a large brush painting these comments. There's a bunch of difference between spot sand and touch-up vs sand blasting whole thing. You will get recommendations to use 2-part primer and topcoat but imo Rust oleum is best bang for buck. If you are worried about fading in places you touch-up, what makes you think the whole trailer won't fade?

Whether you spot paint or sandblast then start over, wipe a light coat of rust converter on bare metal. If there's rust, there's pits hiding rust plus bare metal begins to flash rust the moment it's exposed. Cleanliness is paramount be-it wood or metal. Odds are that's why you had peeling. If it has been through a carwash or had some diy soaps used to wash, there's silicon and dish soap will not remove it. If in doubt,get cleaner from an auto paint store.

To address fading,either put a clear acrylic over new paint or in case spots fade, shoot them with rattle can clear acrylic. If you do 4 rattle coats of black or 3-4 hvlp (first being tack coat) it will stay nice quite a while without clear. Good luck with whatever you go with.

 

[BlueKnife]

What would you guys do if this were yours?

I'd leave it alone, but I tend to be very "utilitarian" in my tastes on such things. It's going to be nearly impossible to get a rattle can job to match paint like that long term.

 

[WinterDeere]

Yeah, whatever gets painted this round will be with HVLP. I'm not beyond using a rattle can for a quick touch-up or for getting paint on a small mod, but as soon as I'm working an area bigger than a square foot or two, it's time to pull out the HVLP rig and set it up.

And note there's been no "fading", it's just a loss of gloss on most of the repair work, that the OEM enamel hasn't suffered at all in 10 years. I suspect the areas that have lost gloss were mostly rattle can repairs.

It also seems some have misunderstood the peeling issue I described. It only occurs in areas where I'm feathering out the coating of a repair onto the OEM finish. It's the classic problem of not wanting to paint all the way to the next seam, and trying to feather a new finish onto the old. You can't really sand the old, unless you're completely coating with the new, and thus adhesion between old and new finish in the "feather out" area is weak. So, the new finish peels at bit at the edges, where it's feathered onto the old. I think I just need to bite the bullet and sand/coat all the way to the next seam, in these cases.