Tearing down trailer to fix issues. Have some questions and need some advice.

[lacofdfireman]

As some of you may remember I posted on here a few weeks ago about some plywood cracking I was having since I made a huge mistake and sprayed Raptor Liner over untreated 1/4” Baltic Birch plywood. Now I’m paying the price. The Raptor liner dried hard as a rock but the wet weather we’ve had and the wood expanding and contracting I had bad cracks in the wood surface everywhere. So I decided it’s time to fix the issue.

Well I had decided to take the easy route to fix my trailer issues and went and bought some PPG Gripper paint and decide to paint over the Raptor liner. Well once I bough the paint and pulled my trailer out to wash it I looked at the cracking and it had gotten worse. Like way worse. To the point you could grab the first layer of Baltic birch and just pull off the layers in huge pieces. See pic below. So I decided that maybe i would just pull off the first layer of Baltic birch but that didn’t go so well either.

So then I made the decision that I’m going to just pull the entire outer skin off the entire trailer. So now I have to do some real work. Finding all the screws was made much easier with a good strong magnet. And once found I’d go after the area with the claw of a hammer to expose the screw head. Took about 4hrs with my two boys helping to do this. It was no easy task. But I want to do this right this time so I don’t have to do it again.

It’s going to be an all day project to strip this entire trailer but I think it’s the right way to go about this.

So I have a few questions. I hate to say I need to cheap out on this but I really do need to finish this the least expensive way possible. I would love to fiberglass (even though I really don’t know how) or use aluminum or sheet metal but I’ve already put to much money into this and need to somehow find the best way to seal the wood and just get it done.

I’m really considering the PMF method of finishing this. Can someone please educate me on the best way to finish this off that isn’t going to be super expensive? If doing PMF do I need to treat the wood first? If so what with? Seems like I’ve seen people just paint the exterior with paint then lay on the fabric drop cloth and then paint again over that. Will this work or do I need to do more prep work first?


Also I originally skinned my outside of my trailer with 1/4” Baltic birch. Should I use the same again or go a different route? If different what should I use?



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[ottsville]

You will get better answers about PMF over on TNTTT.com than you will here.

Where did you source your original baltic birch from? Did it use a waterproof glue?

 

[old_CWO]

1. Replace the hardwood plywood with exterior grade lumber yard stuff - it has waterproof glue
2. Seal up the joints, fastener holes and any exposed end grain with epoxy resin
3. Apply a coat or two of oil base primer like Kilz original or Zinsser (better yet epoxy skim the entire thing)
4. Paint with good quality gloss exterior house paint

Plywood or T-111 sided homes sit outside for decades wearing little more than primer and paint. People even finish plywood boats with epoxy sealant and latex paint top coat. It's not the sexiest method for an expedition trailer but it will look really good if you sand between coats and use good quality rollers.

The glue and canvas jobs I have seen first hand aren't terribly attractive but I don't know much more than that about it.

 

[lacofdfireman]

1. Replace the hardwood plywood with exterior grade lumber yard stuff - it has waterproof glue
2. Seal up the joints, fastener holes and any exposed end grain with epoxy resin
3. Apply a coat or two of oil base primer like Kilz original or Zinsser (better yet epoxy skim the entire thing)
4. Paint with good quality gloss exterior house paint

Plywood or T-111 sided homes sit outside for decades wearing little more than primer and paint. People even finish plywood boats with epoxy sealant and latex paint top coat. It's not the sexiest method for an expedition trailer but it will look really good if you sand between coats and use good quality rollers.

The glue and canvas jobs I have seen first hand aren't terribly attractive but I don't know much more than that about it.

Is there exterior grade 1/4” plywood? I’m pretty sure the T111 doesn’t come that thin. 1/4” is as thick as I can go on the sides because I’ve already cut my bottom board on the frame that size. If I go any thicker the plywood will hang out over the metal frame. And how hard is it to apply epoxy Resin on a vertical hole? I figured it would just run out since it takes a few minutes to setup. I figured I could just use bondo or something like that or construction adhesive? No idea where I could buy epoxy Resin locally. And I don’t think I have the skill to do the entire trailer in epoxy. But maybe it’s not that hard. I’d have no idea how much I’d even need


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[old_CWO]

Is there exterior grade 1/4” plywood? I’m pretty sure the T111 doesn’t come that thin. 1/4” is as thick as I can go on the sides because I’ve already cut my bottom board on the frame that size. If I go any thicker the plywood will hang out over the metal frame. And how hard is it to apply epoxy Resin on a vertical hole? I figured it would just run out since it takes a few minutes to setup. I figured I could just use bondo or something like that or construction adhesive? No idea where I could buy epoxy Resin locally. And I don’t think I have the skill to do the entire trailer in epoxy. But maybe it’s not that hard. I’d have no idea how much I’d even need


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There is exterior grade 1/4" doug fir plywood on the shelf at my local Lowe's, I believe it's a common thing. When mixed right epoxy fills small holes a little like spackle does for nail holes in drywall. Larger holes would need a patch piece fitted in first. Some folks use bondo on wood projects because it's affordable, easy to use and readily available. It's just not waterproof like epoxy, but if you're priming and painting it should be okay if it's not caked on too thick.

Usually a marine supply has epoxy resin but if you don't have one of those it's available at Amazon. For application, search some youtube videos. It's really pretty straight forward. It is a little spendy so it may not meet your budget plans.

 

[jwiereng]

Check out marine paint.

Many wooden boats still floating years after being built and painted.

 

[lacofdfireman]

Thanks everyone for your help. I think bondo will have to be my go to for filling all my counter sunk holes for my screws. I don’t have the time to get epoxy and not sure how easy it would be on a verticals wall. I think bondo would work just fine though. I have it 90% reskinned then I’ll fill holes and sand and get it ready for PMF.


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[Teardropper]

Is there exterior grade 1/4” plywood?

Yes, commonly called 1/4" ACX.

A better material, and sometimes cheaper, is 1/4" underlayment plywood. No voids, better exterior plys and made for a moist environment.

T

 

[opp]

Have you though to flip the trailer on it side? When a trailtop stile of trailer get built .We do the sides first out and inside then flip end to end so no drips

 

[bigKlittlecar]

You can use normal cheap 1/4” plywood IMO, save some dough and then apply epoxy resin to seal. It can be found at any big box store, polyester resin is all you need. Mix with the hardener it comes with and brush on; I made a cheap plywood boat using just that to seal the wood and it worked fine! Epoxy may be expensive by volume but will definitely seal the wood for years. Use a primer/paint overtop which will take the UV abuse and you should be set.


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[lacofdfireman]

Well the exterior is once again finished. Hopefully this time will be the last time. Really enjoyed trying PMF. Hopefully it’s as good as people claim. If so I should never have to worry about it again. Super happy with how it turned out. I like it better than the Raptor liner.

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[ottsville]

That looks really good!

 

[Martyn]

You can also seal the plywood with a polyurethane, as Bed liner is also polyurethane based it will bond to it. The coating of the plywood not only protects the ply it stops it from absorbing the bed liner allowing the coating to set up correctly.

 

[jwiereng]

The PMF job you did looks better than many dogs breakfast I saw over on tntt. Nice work.

 

[old_CWO]

The PMF job you did looks better than many dogs breakfast I saw over on tntt. Nice work.

Yeah, concur. Most of those jobs I have seen in person or photographed looked like something I wouldn't be too proud of.