Today was grinding day. I've spent the last 6-7 hours with an angle grinder and wire cup brush on the entire trailer. What I couldn't get with that I used a wire wheel or just an good ol' wire brush. After that I hit the trailer with a paint/rust sanding pad to give the RustOleum primer some key. I then temporarily hooked the lights up and pulled the trailer to the local car wash to give it a good blasting.



After I got her back and air dried, put it back in the garage, put it on stands and pulled the axle. I wanted to pull the springs too, but that wasn't happening. I pulled the bearings and hubs. After grinding all day today, I said, "F it, I'm just going to buy new hubs and all." I degreased the spindles and where there was still WD40 frame, and finished up grinding the axle and springs.

I know it doesn't look like I've done much, but it's been a long day prepping for paint. Of course, Mother Nature is throwing another Thunderstorm my way tonight, so I may not get to lay down primer like I have hoped.

Northern Tools and I are becoming fast friends with this project.

Looking good. I gotta get a trailer for my fleet. I don't think I'd have time for a rehab project, but if the price is right I might give it a shot.

Well, it really wasn't supposed to be a rehab project. But, once I started unbolting things and accessing what really needed to be done, I decided to do it right and basically do a nuts and bolts restoration. The trailer frame, springs and axle are in great shape, just some surface rust that needed attention. New hubs/bearings and wheels/tires are all that is necessary to bring it back to a rolling chassis. The trailer will be spending a lot of time on the road because of HOW and my frequent trips to the coast, so I'm getting radial tires (more $$$). I'll also up grade to galvanized rims.

Of course that lead me to wanting to prime the entire trailer instead of just the spots I knocked off the rust. So I roughed up the rest of the trailer for primer. This will let me have a nice surface for the topcoat.

Now I'm not sure what I want to use for the topcoat. I really, really want to use Herculiner, but I get a headache thinking about the cost. I have to factor in new rims/tires, plywoood (have y'all priced this stuff recently??? ), and all the other little tidbits. RustOleum would be the cheaper route, and I think it'll do a great job, but that Herculiner is some nice stuff.

Yo Newmi, howdy from AKF! Been watching your progress and you are doing well. I highly suggest using a quart of Rustoleum top coat and a brush/small roller. If you seal it with bedliner, somewhere, rust will get underneath and will go undetected until the metal fails. Can't see the bubble like you can with paint. Good skills my friend, can't wait till fall red run!

Man I'm sorry to here about the hick ups your having on your trailer. Your doing it right though.
When your finished and all is said and done, you'll be really be glad you did it right.
Nothing would be worst then being half way down to the cost and have a hub seize up. Looking good keep at it.

I spent the day rigging up Deb's kayak. I didn't even have time to work on my trailer.

The only hiccups so far are the rims/tires. I'll chaulk that up to not being astute when I went to look at the trailer. I was probably going to replace the hubs/bearings regardless of the trailer I ended up with. Of course, there's also my penchant for "over engineering" anything and everything I build.

I'm just getting started on the Bugatti Veyron of kayak trailers.

Likes like a hell of a project, Josh. I'm tired just from reading about all the work you've done so far. Keep us posted.

Finally, something that looks like progress!!



Got the primer laid down this morning. I went from owning a metallic brown to a brownish-red trailer. Oh well, it finally feels like something is getting done.

I went to Lowes first thing this morning to price wood out and other little tidbits. Oh, their stainless steel selection blows, I'm going to have to run to Home Depot or Ace Hardware. On the way back I checked my mail and saw that Uncle Sam decided I paid too much in taxes this year and wanted to give some back to me. That'll make the new rims and tires purchases easier to swallow.

I've decided to go with RustOleum topcoat for finishing coat.

i found that a paint and brush cost a lot less than spray cans. hope it helps. lookin good neumie

FZ, I'm only spray painting the axle. The frame and everything else are being done with a brush. Top coat will be on tonight.

Looks great so far, Neumie.

Keep those progress reports coming. It will be really neat to see the entire process.

What was once metallic brown is now semi-gloss black.

Paint made a huge difference. Are you putting in a floor?

Yeah, I'll be putting in a floor. As you can see the cross members aren't straight, so I'll have to figure out how to create a level floor. I have a plan in place, I just have to put a little more thought into it. I also want to put it back into a rolling chassis before I begin building the floor and box, so next week will be new hubs and rims/tires.

I won't be getting a lot done on the trailer the rest of the week. Tonight I'll have to do some touching up, Wednesday night is Pub night, Thursday laundry, and the Friday I'll be heading home for Memorial Day weekend and the church picnic. I'll jump back on the project Monday night.