Well now the new boat is back in shape and will be residing on Leadbetter Beach in Santa Barbara from the remainder of the summer my next project is getting the trailer ready for road trips next year – needless to say I have some work to do. Along with replacing the lights, wheels, hubs, springs etc… I am going to look at cleaning off the surface rust and repainting the trailer – has anyone undergone this project? If so what have you used with regards to paint and the application process?

My initial thoughts are: jet clean the whole trailer, sand/wire brush off rust, jet clean again, and then prime and paint using the Rusoleum products. Having not done this for a while are there any other products recommended that are better that can be applied with a roller or a brush? In the future this trailer will be getting dunked in both salt and fresh water.

I used Rust Bullet (www.rustbullet.com) on my new trailer because I was given a couple of cans of the stuff for free. It goes on nicely with a roller, but I'm not enough impressed with it that I would pay a lot more for it than rustoleum.

Use Rhino lining (a rubbery coating used for truck bed liners)- it's a bit heavy but it is a very durable finish. Zander did his that way an it looks great.

Does not matter what paint or coating you put on the trailer frame if they prep is not done completely and correctly, because any rust overlooked will spread and ruin your hard work.
If you're going to go to the trouble of stripping the springs and all other items from the frame, you might want to consider sandblasting or glass beading. Not only will these remove all paint, rust, etc, you may find welds that need repair. And the surface of the frame will take primer and paint very well. (I wonder how expensive power coating may cost. Would look great!)

Line X spray on bed liner

Costs a bit more, but much better product

If sandblasting is not an easy solution for you, perhaps renting an aircompresser and grinder is. I am sure you can rent this from any tool rental shop.

I am sure this would do a much better job then a water jet.

This is what we used on weapon crates in the military to prep them for primer and painting.

Cleaning steel with water means that you'll have rust starting to form by the time you turn the sprayer off. Try to keep bare steel protected from moisture as much as reasonably possible.
Sandblast or glass bead, blow and wipe it all down and primer the same day. The primer is very porous, so you'll want to apply paint over the primer as soon as you can, once the primer is preped.
For a good looking and even application, consider spraying the primer and the paint.

If you aren't into the rhino liner/line-x/whatever pickup bed coating idea. I'd drop it off anywhere that does powdercoating. They'll acid dip the frame and clean it. Powdercoated finishes are also very durable. I debated last year when I had an aluminum trailer built to do this, the other idea was anodizing it, but that won't work on steel.

I bet a new galvanized coating dip would be cheaper than powder coating....but I don't know for sure.

I agree with powdercoating the frame, although it may be pricey.
Very durable and will look great. Wide choice of colors, too.
You might be able to rent a sandblasting unit, but the sand, and do it yourself. Just be ready to apply primer once you're done with the blasting and prep.

Actually I went the cheap route, I couldn't afford line-x or rinoliner. the stuff I used is called Herculiner and is available from PepBoys, or Northern Tool. It was about $100.00 a gallon and comes with a "special" roller. I found it works best if you kind of dab it on with a brush. it goes on thicker and holds up better. It's not as tough as rino or line-x but it should hold up well to chemicals and salt water.

If it is galvanized that you are working with, West Marine sells a Galvanized spray coating.

I'm a big fan of the $29.95 Harbor Freight Electric Grinder for taking the old paint off. Then wipe it down and prime. Then paint.

I'll probably end up doing mine in the fall. I'm much too worried about sailing on the weekends and lack the motivation during the week.

As I'm a big fat pansy, October looks like trailer painting time.

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.

Do you expect to have the same boat/trailer in 10 years... ?

IMHO you may be putting more time and energy and money into this than you really need to.

Boat - maybe - trailer yes, I have some other uses for it while the boat is on the beach during the summer.

well i guess if you plan to keep the trailer for 10 years it is a good idea to make it rust free and purty!