DaySailer.org Forum

My trailer was looking pretty bad with peeling paint and rust, and hardware that was starting to rust away. I dropped the boat in the backyard and got to work.

I've already done some stripping on the gooseneck here with a cup wire brush on an angle grinder;


You can see how rusty the frame was;


Rusty metal primer on after a few days with the angle grinder;


Rustoleum on top;


Frame reassembled;


Finished product;


Took about 2 weeks of hard work and a total cost of under 200, including a new winch, all new hardware, new lights, paint and supplies.

Wow! Really nice!

Where did you find rusty metal primer? I bought Rust-Oleum marine paint (alkyd enamel) and Rust-Oleum regular metal primer (which is white, not brown), at Home Depot for $69 for a case of four quarts. When I went looking for rusty metal primer I couldn't find it. I have about half a spray can, but it's old and wouldn't be enough anyway.

And, what did you spray with? I've got a Krebs (aka Krea Swiss) airless sprayer, because there's no way a compressor will fit in my garage.

The nice thing about trailers it that you can take them apart so easily - makes it much easier to sand and paint.

For a similar project I used Hammerite from a spray can. It's a bit forgiving in terms of traces of rust and the result is a bit patterned which helps hide runs and other imperfections a bit. My efforts are not in the same league as this project, hats off!

Alan wrote:Where did you find rusty metal primer? I bought Rust-Oleum marine paint (alkyd enamel) and Rust-Oleum regular metal primer (which is white, not brown), at Home Depot for $69 for a case of four quarts. When I went looking for rusty metal primer I couldn't find it. I have about half a spray can, but it's old and wouldn't be enough anyway.

And, what did you spray with? I've got a Krebs (aka Krea Swiss) airless sprayer, because there's no way a compressor will fit in my garage.

Found the primer at Menards (Midwestern Home improvement chain for those of you not in the midwest, I'd never heard of it before moving to Wisconsin) for $9 a quart. Plain old rustoleum exterior paint, sunset red, for the topcoats, for another $9/qt. We'll see how it holds up.
And it's all brushed on- 2 coats of primer and 3 topcoats.

Looks a lot better than my Mariner trailer I just repainted. Your trailer looks new.

Fortunately my Day Sailer trailer is galvanized and holding up well.

John

FYI--
Following a mishap last year with one of our cars, I purchased an auto body repainting kit. Can't recall the maker, but it was not hard to find.
The site had all sorts of primers -- rust sealers, paint primer, plastic primer, plus topcoats in vehicle-matched colors, polishers, gloss coat. You could not only seal your trailer, you could paint it to match your car.

I have found there are a lot of issues that come up in boating that have been totally solved in another context, and vice-versa. You have to look at the differences in context, because they could be important, but in the case of a trailer, I would think automotive refinishing would be about as close as you could get.

Totally agree with most of that. When it comes to boat trailers, the one area where they differ is that their hubs get dunked. So, things like bearing buddies and marine trailer grease do make sense. As does creating a "light bar" that you attach to the boat and can take off (I've done the former two, but not the last, but most of my friends have that). Cuts down on the need to change rusted out light fittings....