Cheap Glider Trailer Refinish

Prepping and painting a fiberglass trailor is a bit different than an oxidized aluminum trailor and getting anytime out of the finish.

Likelyhe best bet is to powerwash the old paint, then decide if you do an etch, then convert before painting. That would be best, but costs more in time and money.
At least get the old loose stuff off and maybe Scotchbrite before painting.

On Sun, 30 Apr 2017 10:48:27 -0700, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)
wrote:

Prepping and painting a fiberglass trailor is a bit different than an
oxidized aluminum trailor and getting anytime out of the finish.

When I repainted my alloy clad box trailer a couple of years ago I went
round the seams with a rotary wire brush to get rid of the gunge round
the rivet heads and down the edge of the sheet alloy overlaps and then
used an orbital sander to get loosely attached paint and orange-peel one
the panels. I think the trailer is about the same age as the A-series
Standard Libelle inside it: it had certainly been painted more than once
and not wonderfully well in at least one case.

This was followed by a coat of metal etch primer and two coats of semi-
gloss white polyurethane, applied 24 hours apart. Primer and paint all
applied with rollers. The result looks good and so far seems to be
shrugging off algae and roosting bird detritus.


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martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Sounds great, good job. As to the rotary brush, I have heard that it should be brass to prevent steel doing a galvanic number on the aluminum (dissimilar metal corrosion) if you leave any ferrous metal behind.
Thus my comment about using Scotchbrite.

On Sun, 30 Apr 2017 12:53:43 -0700, Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)
wrote:

Sounds great, good job. As to the rotary brush, I have heard that it
should be brass to prevent steel doing a galvanic number on the aluminum
(dissimilar metal corrosion) if you leave any ferrous metal behind.
Thus my comment about using Scotchbrite.

Good point. However, as pop rivets were used to join the panels on my
trailer, and they almost always have steel cores, THAT damage was
probably done decades ago....


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Sunday, April 30, 2017 at 12:34:58 AM UTC-4, wrote:
I have an alluminum "cigar tube" trailer for my Glasflugel Libelle. Over the past 5 years the previous owner has left it outside in the Texas sun and weather which has resulted in some chips of paint starting to fall off and some algae growing on the paint. (By the way, it rigs great and is structurally sound and the inside is nice, just thought I was bashing my glider trailer too much, I really do love it!)

I'm 16 and still in highschool so I don't have money to shell out at any given time..

I'm going to keep it the way it is for this soaring season but sometime after this season I am going to repaint it.

Suggestions for stripping the old paint and putting a new coat of white paint on?

I'm not looking for 30+ years of guaranteed paint durability because I know that will just result in $$$ I don't have. Just lookin. for something that will look good for at least a few years. The trailer now sits under the shade if it's not out because i'm 5,000 feet above it.

I use the white roof paint at Home Depot, has glass bead, even cooler and more reflective. Apply with roller and brush, Sticks well to half-ass prep job, seals leaks, flat very bright white finish.

Ed

I think it was modified to encourage more mid-week soaring. I think everybody agrees, since the Youth of America is finding soaring less attractive, the future of soaring is old retired guys flying on good cross country days every chance they get.

RC

FWIW, Scotch Brite on a grinding wheel (as opposed to manually scrubbing with square pads) works really well.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089QJQI4/ref=biss_dp_t_asn

On Sunday, April 30, 2017 at 6:46:16 AM UTC-7, WB wrote:
Painted a fiberglass tube trailer last year with Benjamin Moore primer and Benjamin Moore gloss exterior house paint. Rolled on the primer and sprayed the top coat. I think the top coat would have done just as well or better if I had rolled it on. Regardless, the job came out looking very good. Both the paint and primer leveled well and did not leave roller marks. The paint dried very hard and has been reasonably scratch resistant. Washes well and seems stain resistant. Bonus is that it is water based. I would definitely do it again. Oh, and the reason I mentioned Benjamin Moore paint by name is that, in my hands at least, it is easier to apply and covers better than any paint I've used on the several houses I have painted inside and out. My (hopefully) last house painting job used 37 gallons of Ben Moore primer and paint!

One poster mentioned using a marine one-part polyurethane. That would be a great way to go. Interlux, Petit, Total Boat are all similar products that you can get from Jamestown Distributors. They have some good videos on how to use those paints as well. Those are made to be rolled on and level well. The only downsides to the boat paints are that they are twice the cost of the house paint and you have to clean up with solvent.

Marine grade paint would be a good choice, but will be more expensive than house paint. West Marine is a good place to get it; they have Interlux polyurethane and primer:

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/inter...06?recordNum=1
https://www.westmarine.com/buy/inter...16?recordNum=2

Boat painters often use the roll and tip method, but this requires 2 people:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ_T84GU_as

I would be wary of trying to cut corners on materials as quite a bit of time is spent on the job and doing it over will require even more time than the original job.

Tom