What paint/or coating do you use?

[ert01]

Keep in mind that I'm way up here in Edmonton, Alberta... it gets hella cold in the winter and our roads get gravel'd/salted in the winter and we see a lot of rain in the spring and hot summers.

Anyways, I am in the process of building a new trailer and I am at a crossroads on what to do for paint... was wondering what some of the more expert opinions were. I know we have to have a few guys that would have good advice so lets hear it



Some of the things I have tried (on one thing or another...):

-My last trailer was primed and coated with Rustoleum rattle cans. That lasted all of a month. It was useless. The metal was prepped and it should have lasted longer, but the rocks and salt ate away at it really quickly as soon as winter hit.

-I have had rock sliders powder coated, and it too didn't actually last that long. I chose flat black so maybe the porous surface of the matte finish didn't work as well as a gloss finish so I'd consider trying a gloss powder coat, but the price may be a bit steep to do a whole trailer. If it looks like the best option, then I will get it done though.

-I have used POR15 and coated with enamel paint and GatorGuard bedliner, and it doesn't work as well as I had hoped. The bedliner wanted to chip off and there was still rust coming through under the POR15 which also didn't hold all that great. I have used POR15 on various projects on my Jeep in the past and I have never found it to live up to all the hype no matter how I prep/treat the metal.

-I have used industrial enamel paint and it held up almost all winter on my dad's trailer, but it definately needs touchups this spring.

-I have used automotive primer/colorcoat/clearcoat and it turned out great but it was on a couple motorbike gas tanks so they only see use in the summer and don't get that much wear and tear for me to say how durable it really would be on something like a trailer...


SO with all that said, what would you suggest I use on my new trailer? It's bare steel with very minimal surface rust that I can sandblast off easily enough.... Cost isn't a huge concern since I am putting a ton of time and effort into making the ideal trailer for me that will last so I am willing to spend the extra coin to get it done right.

 

[TacoDell]

Acrylic Lacquer Primer...
preferably using a spray gun...

But it's available in a rattle can as well.
Then paint using urethane. But you can use about anything else you prefer.

just my :2cents: 'cause that's what I'm doing.

 

[AlexJet]

In Toronto with allot of salt in the winter I used Rustolium Primer (Home Depot) + Rubberized Undercoating (Canadian Tire sells them) + Rustolium Professional paint (Home Depot). Works great, have parts on my truck for several years without any issues.

 

[1speed]

Rustoleum's "Hammered Metal Finish" paint is tough as nails, much tougher than regular Rustoleum. Prep well, buy it in the quart cans instead of the rattle cans, thin it with a little mineral spirits then brush, roll, or spray it on. For trailer or truck frames I roll it on, for large flat surfaces you need to spray it to get a good finish.

 

[ntsqd]

I would find a logging or oil patch coatings vendor in your area and ask them what they recommend. They'll know the conditions best and have the experience with what works and what doesn't work.

POR-15 is just one of many Moisture Curing Poly-Urethane coatings. What MISF has found is that the metal must be dry, as in heated to drive moisture out of the pores kind of dry, for the coating to adhere and work the best. Once it's coated you can shove it out in the rain to cure it. If you are going to top-coat I highly suggest that this be done while the POR is still tacky. I also suspect that there has been a enviro-driven formula change because the POR of old worked far better than the current stuff.

 

[ocean_explorer]

I have used Devoe Bar-Rust with good success. It is a two part air cure epoxy with excellent adhesion and environmental resistance characteristics. Direct impact resistance is rated very good. I used a 3" roller for application. Here is a link to the product - http://www.duspec.com/DuSpec2/produ...35&documentType=datasheet&submit=Get+Document

 

[telwyn]

I had my trailer sand blasted, the bed done with POR-15, and the rest painted a year ago. Starting to see rust already in a few spots in the tub where I'd have thought the POR-15 would have performed better...

 

[DAMAGE_ctrl]

Spray on bed liner

I did my front bumper with spray on bed line, hot spray from Line-X...It has withstood 1 summer, and 1 Michigan winter with all the salt....Looks brand new...:victory:

 

[R_Lefebvre]

I used Sherwin Williams Industrial Enamel for my trailer with mixed results. It hasn't rusted, except where is was scratched. But it's NOT very durable. It's easy to scratch so... I have had better success with the pre-tinted semi-gloss black Tremclad I used on the frame.

Now, I can tell you what definitely DOES NOT work: I was just painting a skid plate. I used Tremclad Professional Primer, then the same brand in semi-gloss. I left that for a week and then last night I shot it with a truck bed liner. This morning I went to check, and it wrinkled up in a lot of places, and I was able to peel the coating off like a skin. So... I have to redo the whole thing from scratch.

So when the truck bed liners tell you it can only be used over original factory finish (ie: a two-part paint system with catalyst) they mean it.

 

[gasman]

sounds to me like your gonna have trouble no matter what paint you put on it .. i laugh every time i see a vehicle with alberta plates on it .. first thing i look at is the front windsheild.. 4 outta 5 are usually cracked.. you must have good glass coverage on the insurance i guess ? so have you thought about maybe building a stone deflector mounted on the tounge of the trailer?
just a thought....

 

[nick disjunkt]

Hi there,

whilst not as brutal as where you are, the conditions we get in the UK are perfect for getting everything rusty.

I have experimented with a fair frew types of paint now and the best results I have had are with the following:

primer: 2 pack epoxy zinc phophate. This is a tough anti corrosive primer but it really works best on metal which has just been blast cleaned. It is not hugely effective on metal which has been mechanically cleaned and still has pitted rust although it certainly isn't bad. The old red lead was great to go on rust but lead paints are banned just about everywhere now.

Base-coat: 2 pack epoxy micaceous iron oxide. The is a completely waterproof base coat; it really is one of the most impenetrable paints you can apply but is perhaps not as tough as you need so shouldn't really be used as a top coat.

Top-coat: I'm not sure if you can still buy them in america but 2 pack polyurethane paints are still the toughest around. Some of the low isocyanate acrylics are good but not nearly as tough as the polyurethanes. If you are painting inside make sure you use a pressure fed mask as the acticator is really grim and pretty carcinogenic.

I'm about to try out an environmentally friendly brand of paint manufactured in germany called brantho kurrux, I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[James86004]

How does hot dip galvanizing hold up?

 

[R_Lefebvre]

sounds to me like your gonna have trouble no matter what paint you put on it .. i laugh every time i see a vehicle with alberta plates on it .. first thing i look at is the front windsheild.. 4 outta 5 are usually cracked.. you must have good glass coverage on the insurance i guess ? so have you thought about maybe building a stone deflector mounted on the tounge of the trailer?
just a thought....

Probably explains why... I live near Trenton so we get a lot of military moving in and out of the area due to the air base. Noticed some new neighbors have a nice fishing boat, and attached on front of the trailer is this net thing, I guess to deflect stones. I'm guessing they came from Cold Lake, which is very common.

How does hot dip galvanizing hold up?

Quite well I should think, but it's not perfect either. It will eventually get blasted off. This is why, aluminum or SS trailers are nice, as the base material is inately corrosion resistant.

 

[WxMan]

I took my brand new Chaser up the Yukon and back in 2008. When i got home the gravel had removed most of the paint from the frame and the fenders and there was considerable paint chipping on the sides of the trailer. Adventure Trailers had Line-X'ed the nose box and front of the main bin when they built it and that held up very well so I decided to take the trailer in and get the rest done. Right now it is all covered in Line-X except for the top and back. It wasn't cheap but so far it has been worth it. I made another trip to the Yukon last fall and I'm very pleased with how it held up. Last spring I got an ARB front bumper and Line-X'ed that too. So far so good with that. It looks as good as new after one winter.

I don't have any good photos of the trailer at hand but this one shows the Line-X on the bumper pretty well.

 

[ert01]

sounds to me like your gonna have trouble no matter what paint you put on it .. i laugh every time i see a vehicle with alberta plates on it .. first thing i look at is the front windsheild.. 4 outta 5 are usually cracked.. you must have good glass coverage on the insurance i guess ? so have you thought about maybe building a stone deflector mounted on the tounge of the trailer?
just a thought....

Haha if you could only see my windshield on my XJ right now... it has cracks on both the inside and outside laminates. It's well overdue to be replaced.

I do have a whole whack of 3M paint protector film that I will be using on some of the high chip areas (such as the fronts of the fenders and the front part of the frame etc...) and I have a lot of aluminum sheet metal that I got free from work that will also be rivetted onto other high chip areas (such as the front of the box). I will be running mud flaps as well to help keep the rocks down (on the truck and on the trailer).

Hopefully with all that protection it will hold up better then before, but I still want to cover all my bases here.

I'm going to have to look into a bunch of the paints people have mentioned here and see what's available near me. If worse comes to worse I'll either get it LineX'd or powdercoated. I just don't want the finish that LineX gives but I want the protection