[TENNJP]

Hey Fellas. I'm pretty new to the trailer section of mud. But i have a few toyotas in the driveway. i have some questions if you could offer some advice.

I bought this out of a field in TN. all parts work and roll great. I re-packed the bearrings. and wd40-ed the cable to the brake. other than that its pretty straight. no holes. no deep cancer.

I want to get it prepped and painted before the salt is upon us here in NJ.
i will use this to haul my swampers to the trail with some assorted camping gear from time to time.

Part 1. I used a wire brush wheel and a craftsman professional grade grinder for 3 hours saturday. It ate the brush wheel so i switched to a grinding stone. it still took a minute to get through the 6 layers of army paint. wow. 180 minutes to be exact.

before and after photos attached. i think I'm 1/10 th of the way there.

question-- can i just knock off the rust areas and flaky paint and use a rust bullet or a rust encapsulating paint? any suggestions? does anyone have any advice. due to my wife observing my "honey lets buy it its only a 400.00 trailer build" i don't think i will be able to pay someone to blast it or have 30 hours to put into the paint of this trailer.

what do you guys suggest? if sand blasting it is not an option. what do you think?

thank you for the advice

[uberhahn]

My $0.00002 of opinion, not advice, cuz i'm in the same boat as you.

A lot of people on this site have taken the sandblast approach with spectacular results. They have made the trailers really nice looking, and protected them at the same time. However, sandblasting (at least in my area) would cost about $180-$250. If I was to restore the trailer, that's what I would do.

However, I'm not restoring mine. My trailer was built in 1967, and used in the midwest since the mid-80s. There is flaky rust, but no rot. My trailer, in its current form will outlast pretty much anything on the road. Given that I won't be towing it more than a few times in the winter, the salt exposure will be minimized (and MI uses the most salt in the US).

My plan is to grind, wire wheel my way to fame. I'm getting rid of the flaky paint, do as good of a prep job as I can, and paint it with the most durable paint I can. Appearance is a distand second in priority to durability and function. My trailer will haul gravel and topsoil, my garden tractor, bikes, furniture, and still be able to go camping.

I would feel horrible loading up a restored trailer with gravel.

Like I said, just my opinion. Good luck. I say stick with the cheap plan. If for no other reason than to please the princess, and avoid further financial scrutiny in future projects

[TENNJP]

I wish I could find a guy in my area to do a 200 dollar sand blast. I would jump on it. But I'm with you on this. My wife is really cool but if I put 400 into my 400 dollar trailer she will not be so cool for future side of the road projects. What are you planning on prepping it with once you get it ready? And what are you planning on painting it with? Rattlecan rustolem? I think I'm gonna have a few guys over and see if we can't bang through this prep. 200 on paint and Grinding wheels is ok spread out over 4 weeks.

[uberhahn]

If I can find a cheap source for Rust Bullet, that's what I'll use for the base layer. After that, rattle-can rustoleum in your favorite color. I don't plan on a clearcoat. My prep work will take place this winter, and paint in spring, as my garage isn't insulated, and it'll be too cold to paint.

[GLTHFJ60]

Take the tub off the frame at the very least, grind down all the loose paint and rust, sand remaining paint, prime and paint. Do the same to the frame, except with Rust Bullet.

[lowenbrau]

Around here I can go to a DIY sandblasting place and do a really effective job for about $90/hr. It is money well spent because that mill spec paint is really bad for you. If you are grinding/sanding/welding you need to be really careful not to breath it. There is a reason the the military just puts another coat on.

[Brian in Oregon]

Strip aqnd wire brush off as much as is possible. For those areas where you cannot get the brush to, have the sandblaster do it. This will reduce as much of the sandblasting costs as possible.

[d0ubledown]

my trailer just had surface rust. i just lightly wirebrushed/scuffed/sanded down (masked of course!) and brush coated with POR-15. turned out great. decided to go this route instead of blasting since the cost of blasting & priming up here would have easily been in the $4-500 range. not money i wanted to spend on a trailer thats meant to haul camping gear and get beat up on...

[TENNJP]

Thanks for the feedback. I got the lead paint test kit (which it passed) and the asbestos/lead protection breathing mask from home depot. Put on a protective tyvec suite and googles and went after it. I'm going to remove the bed a go after everything rusty. Then paint it with rustbullet or there is a product that Eastwood sells that has good head to head ratings with the rustbullet por 15 type encapsulators. I'm also researching sand blasting just the bed as well. Overall there is no cancer but some surface rust. I'm welding up some holes this weekend where the fender tangled with large stuborn object.

[marcovgv]

Sand blast is the only quick with good results way to go!