Well I done got some schooling yesterday about painting and rust. We have a few boat yards around here, and one of the yards can service some big boats. I’m talking big ones that serve the rigs or big fishing boats. So I mosey on into the paint shop and got to talking to manager about my little project and how to tackle it.

They use two products, one from Sherwin Williams that is a two part system, not available to us mortals, and is custom mixed for each customer. And another called Zero Rust for the preparation/painting. As he explained the trick (and mainly allot of the cost associated with painting) is in the prep of the surface, and to note, once you have rust you’ll never completely get rid of is unless you grind it away. Even then like cancer it can come back!

That said this was the recommendation that should give me about another 10 years life on this trailer:

1.) Clean the entire surface get off all the lose rust, dirt, crud etc… this will make the next part easier as it will expose the problem areas. High pressure washer, wire brush, and a little elbow grease should do the trick

2.) Once you have cleaned everything go through and wire brush/grinder to clean out any real problem areas – areas were the rust was not blasted away.

3.) Once this is done, go through and circular sand any areas were the paint was not effected, rough up the surface a little bit and feather out any transition areas. Again pressure wash the entire project, let dry overnight.

4.) Purchase a product call Zero Rust Prep Step and apply per the instruction and let dry.

5.) Prime/Paint with Zero Rust and don’t be stingy on the application. Paint usually about two coats should do the trick – at this point he had mentioned there are lots of products available, but you need to by in bulk and for our intended purpose Zero Rust should suffice the need – and can’t beat the cost. All in all the materials can be had for less than $100.

Here is their website http://www.zerorust.com/

I’ll post some before, during, and after pix when the project gets underway.