utility trailer paint?

[ilovemountains]

I have a 2002 Tractor Supply 4x8 utility trailer that is in dire need of a new coat of paint! Any suggestions for brand or type or paint? Im going to rewire it and put an LED light kit on it this spring. I had a 4x8 sheet of diamond plate heavy steel on it bolted down to cover the mesh floor but am going to yank all of that off and put down some pressure treated deck boards....

[Tencubed]

Rustoleum over a well prepped surface.

Mike

[BigD]

Tractor Supply sells a good paint. I also got the small can of hardener they sell. I painted my 6 foot blade (John Deere green and yellow) about 4 years ago and it is holding up really well.

Comming your way early next week to Winterplace Ski Resort. Are you close to that location?

[ilovemountains]

No, Winterplace is about 4.5 hours south of me, Im right on the VA/ MD border.. I can be in Washington DC or Baltimore MD in about an hour to an hour and a half unless you hit bad traffic!! I’ll have to stop back at tractor supply, I was there tonight looking for an hour meter for my new Kubota, no luck... Do you suggest brush paint or rattle cans for longevity?

[BigD]

Like Tencubed said Rustoleum is another good brand. My only problem with Rustoleum is it sticking to its own primer. I used both of Rustoleum primers, bare metal and rusty metal, on various locations on the underside on my motor coach and after 3 years I started to notice the white and black top coats flaking off of the primers. The primers were in excellent shape, just the top coats started to flake off.

The paint at Tractor Supply is an oil based Valspar equipment and trailer product. Someone on this forum mentioned it dried kind of slow and to use the hardener. So that is what I did on the blade with good results. I've used the blade for dirt and gravel and although it is a bit scratched, at least it doesn’t have any rust.

On my last painting project I used an acrylic latex product by Olympic and one by Valspar from my local Lowe's. I had those tinted JD colors. If you are used to using oil based products on steel, these acrylics are weird feeling. They went on beautifully without odor, but dried very slowly. Days later the painted surface was dry to touch but kind of tacky feeling. I was concerned enough to write to these two companies and asked what was going on. Their response was the color tinting, especially any colors that require a lot of color introduces a component that vastly slows down their products drying ability. The paint did dry completely after I left it out in the sun for a week or so and it is hard as nails. I used this paint on wood and steel on a child’s wagon that I turned into a portable diesel fueling station (see picture). The acrylic latex paint looks good, and is thicker also.

If I had to do it all over again what would I do. I don’t know. The oil based products smell, and are not as environmental safe as the acrylics, but the acrylics seemed slow to dry. Tell you what; I’d probably go with the acrylic again. I just like the way it looks.

Brush or rattle cans? My own personal preference is to brush or using my air sprayer over rattle cans for large objects. But I doubt the acrylics can be sprayed very well without a lot of thinning. I only use rattle cans for small projects. But again it is what you feel “warm and fizzy” doing, right?

I have a sister about 100 miles to your west in Keyser WV. That is really in the mountains!

[Larry from MT]

I've always thought that coating a trailer with bed liner material would make sense.

[grnspot110]

I've had very good service out of Rustoleum! Just be sure to do a good prep job on whatever you use.

My Snowco; body is Rustoleum quarts w/gun, fenders are Rustoleum spray cans;