86 Trailer Restore

[dgilbreath]

I have started restoring my trailer which has been sitting in the trailer lot for several years. I dry stack my 86 so I don't use the trailer much. I plan to repair some fender damage that has happend before I dry stacked. Some of the damage is from my wife's driving skills(did I say that in public:D) and some from other trailer owners that thought the lines in the parking lot were just suggestions.

I have stripped down the trailer and started to grind off the rust and paint. After spending several hours I am begining to wonder if I should instead have it sandblasted instead. What would exceptable price be for that process? I seem to be going through grinding pads rather quickly. It might be better to have it sandblasted.

Also anybody in the Cherokee County GA area know of a business that would do it at my house. I hate to reassemble the trailer to haul it to get blasted.

[sk8salomon]

i doubt anybody would take the time to disassemble their equipment, haul it to your house with sand, setup, sandblast, pack up and go home. seems like too much work to me. plus cleanup or leave you with a mess. i used a guy in Lavonia, Ga. He blasted my trailer at his shop and did a decent job with just the frame and tires. Lights, wood bunks, wiring, fenders, etc was all removed and towed that way. Let me know if you are interested.

[Luv2Ski]

Open up the good old yellow pages and look up "sand blasting" or "media blasting" or "industrial cleaning" etc. and get a quick quote.

I agree, it may not be worth your time to strip it by hand. My local guy (southwest VA) quoted me $250 to sand blast and said he could blast and powder coat for $500-$600. With the amount of labor saved, $250 is not too shabby.

Can you get away without reassembling? If you pull it when there is not much traffic I doubt you would get pulled over for not having lights. After all, without a boat on there your vehicle brake lights will be clearly visible. Could also rig up some temporary lights and just strap them to the rear.

[Sodar]

If you do not feel like reassembling, throw it on a flatbed trailer. I did this and the $200 it cost to blast the trailer was well worth it.

[rjracin240]

I have started restoring my trailer which has been sitting in the trailer lot for several years. I dry stack my 86 so I don't use the trailer much. I plan to repair some fender damage that has happend before I dry stacked. Some of the damage is from my wife's driving skills(did I say that in public:D) and some from other trailer owners that thought the lines in the parking lot were just suggestions.

I have stripped down the trailer and started to grind off the rust and paint. After spending several hours I am begining to wonder if I should instead have it sandblasted instead. What would exceptable price be for that process? I seem to be going through grinding pads rather quickly. It might be better to have it sandblasted.

Also anybody in the Cherokee County GA area know of a business that would do it at my house. I hate to reassemble the trailer to haul it to get blasted.

41/2" grinders are pretty cheap at Home Depot or Harbor Freight, if you are going the manual route would suggest the grinder and a wire wheel cup and wheels. Should go pretty quick and do a lot better job than sandpaper. if you do insist on using sand paper buy the flapper wheels for a 41/2" grinder

[joecarew3]

I haven't done my trailer yet, but I bought a cheap sandblaster from a hardware store ($75). I did some seriously rusted steel wheels. I haven't used professional grade sand blasting equipment before, but this was a ton faster than a grinder and wire wheel. All in all with the sand/glass and the sandblaster, just estimating, 3-4 hours worth of blasting on my trailer I would have $100 bucks into it. Depends how much you value your time at, and if you want a sandblaster around for other projects. Good luck!

[dichdoc]

I'd check into a powder coating shop. Sandblasting is included in the price around here. I stripped mine down loaded it on a flat bed and hauled it over. They stripped it and powder coated it. I had less than $500 into it. CAN"T imagine stripping a trailer with an angle grinder that doesn't pencil out for me.

[TX.X-30 fan]

Are you a urologist dichdoc??

[dichdoc]

Why X 30, Do you have a problem we should know about??? You are the first person to have the "stones" to ask me that! No I am not a Urologist. I am a Paramedic aka a "Ditch Doctor". 16 years ago as a 19 y/o Medic it seemed like a good idea but someone had already taken it for their hotmail email so instead of adding a number ie ditchdoc3 I went with something that is far to close to slang for a urologist! To keep on the original post topic, Please powder coat or the pain you will suffer will be similiar to a vasectomy performed by a lowly Paramedic.

[americanskierJim]

Dichdoc, I am going to redo my trailer this winter. As you did your with dimond plate I am going to do mine with polished aluminum dimond plate and tig it all together. Your looks great very nice job.

[dichdoc]

Don't know if you have these or even need them Jim but the plans I made are in this thread :

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=22966

[Nvrgvup]

I'm just starting my trailer project.

Took everything off the frame.

I did the angle grinder approach which was a PITA. And primed it.

It is impossible to get it all with a wire brush, sander etc. Did my best.

After finding this thread I reconsidered having it at least painted which is going to be PITA part deux.

Called around and got a quote to blast, prime and repaint for $350. Think that is the way I'm going.

Also I picked up some duplicate LED tail and side marker lights from WMart. Roughly $6 each for the amber and red side markers and $13 for the oval tails. AZone had the same brand of lights for double the price.

Originally my trailer was all gray frame and fenders. Really bland in my opinion. I am thinking of leaving the fenders gray and painting the frame red to match the boat as close as possible to the red metalflake. Thoughts??