Trailer painting

   / Trailer painting #11  
2 coats of Rustoleum is good, 1 coat of POR15 is better. As others have said prep is the key.
 
   / Trailer painting #12  
Wow, others seem to really want to spend your money :ROFLMAO: . 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.
 
   / Trailer painting #13  
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.
 
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   / Trailer painting #14  
Knock the high spots off , powerwash and paint it . Primer is the key Kevin .
 
   / Trailer painting #15  
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.
 
   / Trailer painting #16  
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.
 
   / Trailer painting #17  
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.
 
   / Trailer painting #18  
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.
 
   / Trailer painting #19  
If you paint with Rustoleum get some hardener, paint sets up quicker & adds a bit of durability.
 
   / Trailer painting #20  
I generally use 3M clean and strip for rust removal. A little spendy but worth it imho.
 
 
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