Utility trailer paint questions

[Zachary Hoyt]

I have a 2016 Carry-On 5x8 utility trailer with mesh deck and tailgate that I bought new from Tractor Supply back in 2016. It was a little rusty then, and is quite rusty now. I've been thinking I should get it cleaned up and painted this summer, and time is running out, as it tends to do. I'm looking for recommendations on how thoroughly to try to get the rust off, and what kind of paint and primer to use.

I can knock off loose stuff with power and hand wire brushes, but to get to clean metal will be nearly impossible, I think, especially with the mesh. I have heard somewhere of people using roll-on liquid bedliner to coat trailers like this but I don't know if it's a real thing or not. I'm familiar with Rust-Oleum rusty metal primer and paint and can use that if there is not a better choice. I'll be grateful for any advice.

[John Ziebron]

You're right about getting metal mesh clean. Sandblasting would be the best way. But there is a much simpler way. You want to use a rust converter product where you only have to get the flaking rust off if any. Apply the rust converter the best way you can and then you can paint it with a good implement paint. The best rust converter out there is POR-15.

[Ron Selzer]

Rust-Oleum rusty metal primer and paint

[John Ziebron]

If this trailer is going to sit outside most of the time Rustoleum won't even last a handful of years; been there, done that.

[Ron Selzer]

rustoleum paint has been used on fuel barrels here for over the last 80+ years, repaint every 15-20 years. barrels sit outside with no cover year around
don't even want to think how many pieces of farm equipment I have painted with rustoleum paint, most of the time without primer

[Michael Weber]

Am I imagining this or did Rustoleum once claim to contain “fish oil”? I swear it was listed in ingredients but don’t think so anymore. This would have been decades ago.

[Mel Fulks]

I think it did have fish oil. So strange that once you read it ,or hear it….can’t be forgotten. That’s what good writing does !

[Bill Howatt]

Must be true, I've never seen a rusty fish! :)

[John Ziebron]

You fellows are correct about the fish oil. That's how Rustoleum was born: https://www.rustoleum.com/pages/about-rust-oleum/our-history

The better recommendations are always to use a seperate primer and paint. The two combined like you see advertised in house paint is just a marketing gimmick. The OP mentioned that his trailer is "quite rusty now" so I still say that a rust converter should be used, in lieu of trying to eliminate all the rust, and then top coat it. The rust converter in this case will be the primer.

[Mel Fulks]

Must be true, I've never seen a rusty fish! :)

yeah , even the scale …is shiny !

[Ron Selzer]

POR-15 used it twice, black was used on the floor boards of a 1968 Ford pickup, wire brushed the metal somewhat to get large pieces of rust off and painted the black on, then top coated with gloss black paint, still good when truck went to the crusher
Siler POR-15 was used on the front bumper, again painted on after wire brushing large pieces of rust off. top coated with white paint, this peeled off in large pieces less than a year later. wire brushed all the siler POR-15 off, painted the bumper with rustoleum and it went to the crusher still holding firm and tight.

[Tom M King]

The other possibility is to take it all apart and have it hot dip galvanized. I did that with some sailboat trailers I built in the 1980's and they don't look too much different now than they did when I put them together. I have no idea what it costs now. Back then it was just a couple of hundred dollars.

The sand blasting attachments for pressure washers work pretty good if you use pool filter sand.

[Edward Weber]

If you're going to go through the trouble, get it sand or soda blasted. Any decent quality paint will adhere if the metal is prepped and clean.
I have the exact same trailer, just a little older.

[Warren Lake]

had my used 16 foot car trailer sandblasted and epoxy primered and painted at a massive industrial place lifted on a crane and all. many years later still looking good i put my finger through it, Parked on the lawn for one, two that would have been fine had I rust proofed it outside but more important inside. I do the big cars every year and the saturn, lifting the saturn for tires they came out to say they have never seen such a solid saturn and that he has passed punched holes through their floors. Fluid film has saved my cars but me putting it on so more time and care than shops will do though they are set up better. When I do the saturn same as the big cars wands I made go into all the holes below i can find. No question you turn into pig pen when you work on the car but pull the crap back and there is black factory paint.

they guys that painted the trailer did a good job to sandblast and good epoxy primer and top coat I used it over 100 times so fine but still it was be solid and strong had I drilled holes and soaked it inside once a year.


Forget who it was that said you can tune a piano but you cant Tuneafish

[Zachary Hoyt]

You've all given me a lot to think about. I had heard of POR-15 but have never used it. I don't think I'm likely to find an affordable person to blast the trailer, as services are hard to find and expensive up here. Thank you all very much.

[Jerome Stanek]

A guy where I worked used truck bed liner to paint his trailer

[Jim Becker]

Remove any loose surface rust with a wire brush and/or other means, repair any "real" rust if it affects structural integrity and then just paint with a rust encapsulating paint product, either spray or hand-applied with brush/roller. If the latter, use a really thick nap roller like you would use for a concrete block wall, so it gets into the wire mesh grid and be sure to paint from both sides of the mesh. I'd do the bottom first, personally.

[George Yetka]

Fish oil comes coated on pipe when we buy it, Copper and steel. Its a funny substance that seems to do many things.

[Bill Dufour]

Rustoleum paint got started as fish oil paint.
BilL D.