Trailer painting

[LD1]

So I finally purchased a trailer after 2+ years of on/off shopping. Its a 2015 24' 14k AMO bumper pull.

Trailer was overall pretty good shape. But I swear about every used trailer I saw of just about every brand.....its like they do minimal paint/prep work on the under side of the trailer. All the metal that can be "seen" going down the road...this trailer almost looks like the day it was made 8 years ago. But the cross members are pretty rusted. Nothing structural or rotten....just surface rusted and peeling paint.

So I pulled all the deck boards off and gonna paint. But that leaves the question.......how to proceed.

I have refinished a ton of old equipment and implements. And always had good luck with just a wire cup on an angle grinder.....knocking off all loose rust but not down to shiny steel. Then rustoleum primer....and either valspar or rustoleums "farm and implement" paint with their hardner. The stuff sold at TSC or rural king. I spray it with an air gun and its pretty cheap.....but even implements I painted 10 years ago still look real good and no rusting. But they also arent going down the road at 70mph getting water and road salt spray.

I have looked and stuff like por15 or similar are like $250/gallon and seems there are just as many people that say its junk as people who swear by it.

I know painting is all in the prep work....

I dont plan to grind the whole trailer. The outsides look good....I'll just do some touch up. Mainly concerned with everything on the underside. The 20-some 3" cross members, and the insides of the main channel frame that need attention.

Also open to better top-coat paints vs the rustoleum or valspar farm & implement stuff. Lots of "industrial" type coatings....or DTM type paints. Really want to find something readily available and not have to mail order.

Have also considered once I get the heavy stuff knocked off.....brushing on muratic acid then powerwashing. Muratic acid dissolves rust and leaves bare metal. And it wont effect the paint where the paint is still stuck good. (Makes rusted metal look like it has been sandblasted if you have never used muratic acid before). But that must be done outside or it will eat concrete.

So any of those of you that have stripped and re-done a trailer frame or similar.....what have you found that works the best? And what doesnt and not to waste time doing.

Given that I dont want to strip wiring, lighting, etc and the outside frame is fine....sandblasting is not really something I want to do.

 

[LD1]

 

[LD1]

 

[BravoXray]

If it were mine, I would get it sandblasted, then paint it with a good epoxy primer and paint. Otherwise, you are just going to be chasing rust on it until it falls apart.

 

[Hoss710]

I agree with the sad blasting . foe me I have had better luck with oil base paint then epoxy. but do ur homework and make the decision yourself. me personally have had issues with epoxy chipping if anything hits it or puts a decent amount of pressure on it.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Dont do the POR15 or equivalents. You have to be really clean to not have it pop later. And even then a chip will just allow rust to form under. At least in my experience. Its basically a manual Powder Coat (polyester)

Agree with the sand blast if you want it to last.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

One of mine was made in the late 1980's and has yet to be painted the first time. Still good, it's all the same color too. 23' bumper pull, 18 flat plus 5' dove tail.

 

[Buckeye Guy]

I painted mine 6 months ago with POR15. Still looks great, time will tell

 

[mrmikey]

I agree with the others re sandblasting. Yes it'll be a pain but you're into it this far you may as well do it once and suffer once. Using a grinder with a wire wheel you'll never get into the corners where the rust is gonna be. Good coat of paint and then undercoated to cover the spots that'll be missed and you're good for another bunch of years.

 

[2manyrocks]

Air needle scalers can get further into corners and a pretty effective at removing scale. Compact Air Needle Scaler

 

[JJT]

2 coats of Rustoleum is good, 1 coat of POR15 is better. As others have said prep is the key.

 

[stumblinhorse]

Wow, others seem to really want to spend your money . If I am spending my money, sand blasting is too expensive. Prep it the best you can with a wire wheel/cup and flap disk. Then spray and brush on something. Again depends on if it is my money or yours…. I would probably do a bedliner type covering. Project farm did a good comparison on the different brands to help decide.

 

[ibChaz]

POR15 worked GREAT and time-tested results. I lived in far northern Maine, where there is salt on the roads more often than there is not. So bad that I got a free frame replacement under my Tundra because it rotted through. You can imagine what my truck bed looked like underneath if the frame was shot! I could not find a salvaged replacement up there in any better shape than mine.

I bought a needle scaler from Harbor Freight and spent about 12 hours chipping all the loose rust off. Wire brushed the light stuff. It was 20 times worse than your frame. I washed it with strong detergent to degrease it, then cleaned it up with acid metal-prep. If it's not degreased, the acid won't work very well. If you use plain acid, it will probably flash-rust before you can prime it. Rinse VERY VERY well to neutralize and dry thoroughly. I used a propane torch to dry seams that looked like they could trap water.

After much research I settled on POR15. I used my go-to implement paint finish coat from NAPA. Three years later and no rust. We used a similar process with all of the equipment I was in charge of in Maine, except we used a quality metal primer instead of POR. We always used an automotive grade metal-prep or quality rust-converter on bare or lightly rusted metal. On frames and undercarriages, you will be doing some occasional, minor touch-up no matter what you do. The success of most paint jobs is in the prep. The devil is in the details. That it usually why it works for one guy, but not the other.

 

[kevin37b]

Knock the high spots off , powerwash and paint it . Primer is the key Kevin .

 

[ibChaz]

I would probably do a bedliner type covering. Project farm did a good comparison on the different brands to help decide.

Bedliner is not made for trailer frames. There are better alternatives. We did an undercarriage in bedliner, and when it eventually started cracking it was a disaster. Trapped water, salt, and dirt. Worse than nothing.

 

[ibChaz]

Air needle scalers can get further into corners and a pretty effective at removing scale. Compact Air Needle Scaler

I used the smaller HF scaler to chip thick layers of rust from under my salt-laden truck bed. It doesn't look like you have a whole lot of thick rust, but the scaler will take off you have in a heartbeat, they are cheap, and you can even replace the needles. Looks like a wire wheel will handle most of it.

 

[ibChaz]

Sandblasting will definitely get the job done, but it is a messy/expensive overkill. No matter how you prep and paint a trailer frame, you will need to do some occasional touch-up. Remove most rust, degrease thoroughly, acid wash (if needed) immediately followed by coating type metal-prep OR just use a rust converter, neutralize/rinse, quality primer, equipment paint. Good as it gets, not terribly expensive, DIY friendly.

 

[BoylermanCT]

I have a 6x12 dump trailer that needs some TLC. Got a quote from a local shop to sand blast it and paint it. $5800. We are going the wire cup on a grinder and paint with primer and marine paint route.

 

[77cruiser]

If you paint with Rustoleum get some hardener, paint sets up quicker & adds a bit of durability.

 

[timswi]

I generally use 3M clean and strip for rust removal. A little spendy but worth it imho.