TOPIC: '65 TrailCar trailer repaint questions

PO kept trailer rust free for 50 years. However, the original yellow trailer was brush painted maybe a few times. It would be good enough to leave alone except it was only half painted last round with a different shade of yellow that stands out like you got pulled away mid project. I have no intention to go the show route with sandblast and professional spray paint...and I have minimal talent. That said, should I brush or rattle can spray it? Spray outside means possible a thousand Wisconsin mosquitoes stuck in it. I can brush bug free in garage. Also- do I need to give it a sanding and primer white or gray first to ensure those mismatched yellows don't alter my final yellow coats? Last - is it possible to find original paint codes? Thanks to any and all who can help. It has factory red rims that I hope to put the chrome moons on the clips for my unrestored 1965 Powercat.

several ways,, you need to sand it for it to stay,i would brush it be fore rattle can,,if you want a yellow the close is 2002 ford,chrome yellow,,if you powder coat they blast it,,but spray ppg single stage,,,but we haul most for rock chips,,my thoughts bill

Thanks Bill. So if I brush, I should just sand and paint with no primer needed since it already has layers of paint? What grit should I use to get new paint to bite?

I did not sandblast. I wire wheeled the whole frame to bare steel. Some hard places I blasted. I then primered it with PPG sandable primer. I had a full gallon in the basement. I wanted mine gray and it gets used so it is no trailer queen so I brushed it with Rustolium even though I have everything to spray paint it. I plan on doing it again sinse after 4-5 years it is faded but holding up real well. I also installed LED lights and they have been trouble free.

Hey Mark, After the past few days of rain and warmer temps those Minnesota skeeters have headed east by the millions. Happens all the time. If one happens to have a death wish and land on your fresh paint leave it alone until the paint drys and then brush it away. Don't try to move it over the wet paint....bad!
I hate painting trailers UUUGHHH. I'd rather do 20 rotten transoms and rewire under a bow on my back with no wiggle room.
Is the trailer sans boat? I always try the easy way for painting but for some reason wind up removing the lights, fenders, old wires, clips, winch stands etc. It's a lot easier to work on and makes for a cleaner job. The trailers I've had usually are rusted or have had several brush painted coats on them where you can see the ridges of old paint. Two ways I found easiest is to remove the junk, put the trailer on a couple of stands and use paint stripper to take it down to bare metal. Just brush it on, let it sit awhile and scrape it off. The other way is to take a knotted wire wheel on my 4" Milwaukee grinder and knock those ridges down, and clean up all the old rust spots.
A rattle can (or two) of sand-able primer will cover the entire trailer and fenders and winch stand and dry fast enough before the skeeters find it. Once it's primed all around it's easy to rattle can on the new color, spraying also gets into those hard to reach places. If you rather go the brush route Rustoleum has matching colors in both brush and spray.
If you go this route you might as well hit a local hardware store and pick up some new bolts and lock washers for the fenders et al. Some extra work but you can probably do the entire trailer for around $35. or less.
These pics show the Rocket trailer after it was stripped and primed. You can see some of the other parts to the right that needed to be cleaned up yet.
The other pictures are of the finished job, this was brush painted with the same Rustoleum that I used on the boat.

I assume you have seen the Trailcar brochures in the library: www.fiberglassics.com/library/index.php?title=Trailcar

My two TrailCar boat trailers are a taupe/beige paint colour.

I had a Tee Nee boat trailer sandblasted and painted yellow for about $120.00. Granted that was about ten years ago. Rural shops that need work are economical.

Andreas

Thanks Andreas. I did find my model 1100 that is rated 1100 pound capacity. The brochure showed th '64 models and ''66 models. Mine is a'65. It looks like special brackets were added to standard models to account for the 2 tunnel slots of the Powercat 15T that has the triple sponsons. Interesting steel triangle brackets with wood blocks to keep the hull from bouncing sideways. My dads '66 15T had a different brand trailer with wider and completely flat rollers with side guides instead of tunnel guides. His was white. Since I still have the original red rims with baby moon clips, I will clean those and eventually get the moons because I like the look with yellow trailer. Thanks for all who have offered help and I owe one member a phone call. I think I should make this a fall project so I can get the boat off the trailer and take time to go over the vitals like wiring, look for any stress cracking or possible rusty bolts. I may even ponder adding a second axle...that will be last decision. The trailer is pre-punched to move axle bracket and eventually I will measure if 2 will fit. I sure appreciate the help thus far.

Forgot to ask if there is a Red paint off the shelf that would match the 1965 red rims? Though I do have the original rims (even with original rubber on 3...with one with half the tread shredded off from a "back in the day" good old fashioned blow out. One of the others is so bald, it is almost a slick and the last show how the tires were wearing more on one half. Guess I should check to see if a spindle got bent. Anyway, still want to use the 12" 4 hole red rims with baby moon clips. Not much red will show when done, but might as well do it close to original as I can. The black rim is original red on back side. The first tire is a 8.5 inch from my '58 Wilson. The baby moon would likely cover all but a slim line of exposed red paint.

Mark, Why use those old rims. Fleet Farm has new tires mounted on four hole rims for just a couple bucks more than the tires alone. Save yourself the grief of taking the old rubber off and then putting in new tubes and putting on a new tire without punchin' a hole in the new tube. Then clean one of the oldies up and use it for a spare. The rims look almost identical. Might even find some with the hub cap clips. That's what I put on the Tee Nee for the Shell Lake above.

Since I had not messed with the, I forgot that likely those were tube tires. For now, I do have new modern cross spoke galvanized rims and new tires on the cat. I don't even know if old rims like that are sealed well enough for a tubeless tire because they look lik 2 piece rims and that makes me think they could easily leak. Maybe I will consider going your route and turn my galvanized set into spares for both trailers. I also need to check my 8.5" because those look really good and lots newer... maybe tubeless and not even original rims as th Wilson was still in use by previous owner up to 2009....yikes 8 years and many other projects got in front of that one. I was just considering the re-use/re-cycle mentality and also was looking for the hub cap look. I will search the Iola car show this weekend to see if some pop up. Though I have not yet shown my boats on their trailers, they do spend lots of time on there... and hence want it to look decent.

Since my restoration work on motors and boats seem to keep sliding down the things to do list... and the fact I work at a snail pace, I decided to turn to the tire shop to get some progress rolling. They will remove the original 55 year old tires and recycle them. I am saving one vintage one that was a spare just as a wall hanger. The hope is to get those rims cleaned and painted before getting new tires. I need to compare 63 Sabre Trailer color combo to other finished trailers on this site. Not sure if I go with white or turquoise... I will do a 2 tone trailer, but need to decide how to combo it up. I will be mounting baby moons, so I need to look and figure out what color I like better with chrome baby moons as I found some at the car show and also from Mr Anderson at the Tomahawk show.

Time to try and make more progress. Put the boat on blocks and pulled out the trailer. Started pulling it apart in prep for eventual powder coating. The plan is to add a second axle. This trailcar trailer uses a bolted angle iron mount system. Fortunately I have a second set up that matches from the same brand. Still more work to go. I just don’t have the time to sand and paint myself so I have been saving my nickels for a few years.

Good winter project. So the plan is to make a tandem trailer?? Maybe some full length support instead of those separate supports? Get some new rollers? Then have the powder people get a close color match?
Planning on a complete disassembly and haul it to the paint shop in pieces?
There are some cool adjustable tandem fenders on=line.

I am planning on a white trailer and then have the fenders match the top of the boat like I have seen others do on this site. Then next owner when I am gone from the boating world can return it to yellow if they want. I am fortunate this was a garage kept boat by dirt owner, so the original trailer is not rusty. Just the axle from road rocks and of course the donor axle was from a trailer that lived outside. I know full disassembly is best. I will separate most. However it I can leave the roller brackets where they are, that would save me all of that adjustment. There are 5 different brackets on this trailer. The rollers are actually still soft with no cracks, so they will be cleaned, hit them with Armor all and then greased for reuse. The bow roller is damaged from pressure, but I may reconfigure how that abuts as the original works, but could be better. I will remove the tilt tongue and all of the bow stop components. Amazing how many parts and bolts there are... all of you who have gone before me know this. The axle angles are drilled to match the pre-punched frame rails to make it adjustable so I will leave those rather than rebuild into one rail. The library was a big help to show me the specs of each model of my trailer. I am just adding the extra axle for peace of mind if I am hauling near the original single axle limit with full gas tanks on long trips. Where did you find those adjustable fenders? Never saw them before. Though I am trying to do the separate single fenders like I see on some vintage trailers. Lots to do yet before I make my appointment for powder coating. They are big enough, they can tumble a while trailer frame up to about 20’ in one piece. Looks like boo eating out of fast food for a year to pay for this... but I just don’t have the time and know I would never be satisfied with my own painting of all of those inside corners!

Ok - I lost sleep last night because I was going to take a shortcut and leave all the brackets on... my mind wouldn’t rest until I decided I should remove all of these brackets and get a better result from the powder coating. More work, but at least I won’t be sorry of the results in the end.

After deciding to remove the roller brackets for 12 rollers I end up with 18 separate brackets of which there are 5 different types... some stamped steel and some cast and slotted for square head bolts. The twin bolt brackets use tapped one piece thick flat stock instead of nuts. After doing these brackets and front stop, I sure have a large can of bolts, nuts and washers in 3 different diameters even for just the roller brackets. The trailer fits the hull perfectly, but lots of work for a tri-cat hull. Glad I bought an impact to remove these big painted in place bolts. Still have to do both axles to remove cracked rubber bushings from leaf springs. You will notice in one picture that if you drill a hole in angle bracket too close to angle, you just grind one side of the hex head bolt and then you don’t even need a second wrench.

Good progress. Gotta guess that the cast brackets were the quality ones before the money saving angle iron took its place. Want some more rusty trailer bolts? I've got a coffee can full, going to recycle on my next trip.
FWIW I usually just took measurements of those old bolts and went to the local Fleet Boutique and filled a plastic bag with bulk bolts, flat washers. lock washers, and nuts. Much easier than fighting rust and they look good after assembly and you pay by the # usually less than $5 for the entire lot.

Good tip on the bolts... the rough count is getting close to 100 .., I know I was well over 80. So when figuring minimum double washers and a nut and we are over 320 fasteners. Ironically since all bolts and nuts were painted and the trailer spent its life indoors, I really don’t have rusted bolts. Most of the yellow paint came off as I rattled thing loose, but wonder if there is a good non toxic and non corrosive liquid to soak them in to get the rest of the paint off, or ask the powder coater if they could be lightly tumbled to get the paint off. I will have to ask them. Thoughts?

get an old style crock pot, fill it with some water, dump the bolts... in it and let it cook for a day. That will loosen the paint

Andreas

Well that is a cool tip. Thanks. I would have never thought of that . I will have to check the old appliances to see if we still have the old one.

More progress. Over 60 pieces and over 80 bolts. I would have never guessed. The donor axle was rusty, but bearings and shafts were greased. The rear seal was out on one and that same hub had the outer bearing fall apart upon removal, yet no chipping or sign of wear. The spring shackle nut were frozen and broke the studs. Those will get replaced. All of the rubber bushings on both 55 year old axles were worn through on the pressure side. Will get new ones. The USA Timken bearings still look new on the original trailer. I will get all new bearings and keep these with the hubs as spares in a tote in the tow vehicle in case something ever goes wrong on a road trip. I moved the original axle forward 2 hole positions which made perfect room for back axle assembly. Drilled my back holes for angle mounts and fender mounts so I would not later drill through fresh paint. The original axle has a missing nut on the spring shackle bracket and previous owner must have been away from home as some bare stranded copper trailer wire was used and wrapped around the threads in place of that nut and had yellow paint on it. Had to finish up tonight so I could cut down a few dead trees tomorrow. Something always getting in the way of boat progress, but that’s just life. Tired of looking at brown dead pine trees out the window. Time to call the powder coater next week. I am only about 3 months behind... trying to beat the snow!

Smokin! You are a busy guy. Good news though, all those issues are easy fixes. Off the shelf bearings/races, bolts, the rubber bushings are special I guess. You'll have a brand spanking new trailer next spring. Good idea to keep a spare bearing. I always had one greased up in a baggie in the boat tool box. The launch water sneaks up on you. The copper wire looks like a highway repair, (any port in a storm) The yellow paint though is just plain neglect. Harbor Freight has some good prices on LED submersible tail lights and wire when you're ready for that
Glad to see your progress. If you find a way to beat the snow let us know.

I will have to shop for Led lights and wire kit. However, I just may have to think with the original light housings to see if I can seal those up if they have an LED replacement lamp. We shall see if that is even worth it. I included a picture of the the lonely 1958 Wilson hull hanging over my head as I work just waiting for it’s turn for restoration. It used to be first on the list until I the big Merc restoration and trailer restoration got in its way. Tree cutting today... dang - it wasn’t supposed to snow today... maybe it will stay light.

Taking a poll: Since I decided to paint the trailer white and the fenders and rims turquoise. What is the favored color for leaf springs and axle? White also or turquoise or black? I have decided to keep the bow stop white rather than turquoise, but not sure yet on the leaf spring and axle question. I only want to mess with this trailer once. I will be using baby chrome moons on the turquoise rims, but not white wall tires.

My vote is for rattle can satin black on the axles and springs. They get banged, rusted, chipped. Hard to match a color without respray white or turquoise. Also I used to spray the inside of the fenders with undercoating.
IMHO

Those are 2 good tips. Due to road dirt, I was leaning towards black as well as I do plan to tow this thing a lot. I hadn’t thought about undercoat inside fenders, but now I do recall seeing some rust issues on inside of some fender due to road nicks. Can you get that stuff for home applications? If so, what brands and where to buy?

Rattle can undercoat. I use it all the time on my cars underside especially before slushy winter. Use it as you would paint but clean up any overspray right away otherwise you'll need the serious lacquer thinner wipe and that will destroy the new paint job.
Anywhere....Wally world, Ace, any auto store, Many different brands but I found the Rustoleum works best. One can would do the wheel wells. I usually get 3 or 4 cans to do my wheel wells on the jeep and under frame areas.

Thanks. I never had a need , so never even looked for it. Great tip. Maybe if I get some time over the holiday, I would like to try Andreas’s recipe for slow cooked bolts in the crock pot... yum!

Tied down and ready to head to powder coater... a few boxes and bigger parts waiting in the garage that I will throw in the old Jeep. Crazy only 3 big assemblies on the trailer, but a total of about 60 pieces today. The irony is the big Trailcar trailer is getting a ride on the back of my other little Trailcar trailer. Purely random that the 2 trailers I have are the same brand and similar vintage... and the donor axle came off of another trailer car trailer I had that I gave to another member. That was crazy to have 3 for 3 and I wasn’t trying to collect them. Here are a couple of pictures.

Well I knew I would never have the patience, talent or tools to perform a good paint job, so I dropped all the pieces off at the powder coater. Hopefully I can be productive on some other stuff while I wait to get everything back. I think it will feel like a long winter trying to carefully put the puzzle back together. I still need to go to goodwill and hopefully find a slow cooker so I can try Andreas ‘s recipe to cook the bolts to loosen the chipped pain off. The budget tells me maybe I need to wait for spring before I buy all new tires since I will need 5. Well darn it... I guess I have to hold my phone camera in only one position to get them to show up right... sorry again!

Another trick you can use to try to get the paint off or loosened ?
Put the bolts in a plastic container of Apple Cider Vinegar.
I bought a vintage ball hitch off of Ebay one time for 5 bucks because the nut was frozen onto the bolt.
I threw the whole thing in a container of Apple Cider Vinegar, and the vinegar ate the rust off enough to get the nut off.
But be careful. After I got the nut off I decided to put the nut and bolt in the vinegar for a week to get the rest of the rust off, and the vinegar, damn near ate all the threads off the bolt. Hey, live and learn....
It's worth at try ? Apple Cider Vinegar is what ? 3 buck a gallon at the grocery store ?

OR you can use the electrolysis method, which I've had success to remove paint.
One caution:
DO NOT do this in your house ! The one thing in the video that is not mentioned is: This process releases Hydrogen in the bubbles, Remember the Hindenburg ? If you listen in the video you can hear outdoor sounds

Great information and cool video. I may try a test of 3 methods for cleaning up my bolts. I want to try Andreas’s cooking method in a slow cooker and I also want to try your apple cider vinegar test. I can also do a third test with a sample of Evaporust. Many of my bolts are not really rusted, but rather trying to remove the paint that is a little chipped from removal. Previous owner painted all trailer bolts, nuts and bolt threads. Maybe I could pick three pained NON rusty bolts and compare the 3 methods and then pick another 3 of my rustiest bolts and try all 3 methods again. If it was summer and I had a big tank, it would have been cool to try that rusty axle and leaf spring combo that had decades of rust on it. Oh well, it will be interesting to see how a clean axle and rusty axle compare after the tumbling and powder coat process. I learn something new every day. Hope to share what I learn here.

I tried my evapo rust since I already had it after watching several comparison videos. Certainly the apple cider vinegar would be cheaper. I did this for rust removal. It says up to 12 hours is enough, but I forgot they were soaking and did 24 hours... probably good I didn’t leave it that long in the vinegar or other chemicals. Here are some results. I figured the saddle bolt rust was permanent and maybe only improve a bit. However, the rust that remained rubber off using my thumb with only 4 swipes. Next I will try the slow cooker for paint removal... I watched several videos that also added baking soda to water before simmering to soften paint, so I will give that a try another day.

Looks pretty darn good from here. Warning on the electrolysis. I've done that with pot metal and it completely ate the metal up, nothing left, Did a gas tank to remove inside rust and left holes. Easy to do though, salt water, an old piece of chain and a trickle battery charger...voila. Would work good on an old pipe wrench though

Thanks 63 Sabre. The baking soda and simmering water was demonstrated on a YouTube video from This Old House where they only simmered for I think 15 minutes to soften paint on old house door hinges with caked on paint. I do want to be careful since I don’t want to replace this hardware if I don’t have to. Just got a call from the powder coater and the trailer parts are done... now I have to work out a plan to go get it all ... hopefully without scratching it! Luckily it is less than 2 miles from me. Can’t wait to see how it turned out. I just ordered new USA Timken bearings and seals today... time to clean the hubs, soak in mineral spirits and remove the seals and races. If I don’t watch how this budget creeps along, I may have to leave the unfinished boat at home next summer and just drag the trailer around and use it for an expensive picnic table. I just want to do this once so it lasts longer than me and I don’t get stranded. Dang... I forgot I have to save for new tires. Well someday a future owner will at least have a good base to work with. The last owner took good care of it for 50 years, so now it is my turn.

I was fortunate enough to pick up the coated trailer parts tonight. Crazy to think I missed getting snow and road salt as we don’t have snow right now and it was high 40s. I never thought I would beat the snow after I am like 3 months behind initial schedule. I love the results of Powder Coating and glad I saved up to get it coated. Now comes the slow part... being patient putting it back together. How long should I let this paint set before mounting tires or bolting parts together?

2 yellow greasy hubs and 2 rusted greasy hubs. Removed seals, bearing and old grease. Then soaked in mineral spirits and wiped clean. The rusty ones then got a bath in Evaporust, wire brushed, re dipped and wiped down, then back in the mineral spirits one more time. Everything wiped dry. Next day 2 coats of primer, then 2 coats of flat black paint ... I think I may coat with gloss black that I have as it would seem to resist holding onto road grime better. ... who knows. It should also match the powder coat on the springs and axle. I also installed races in 2 hubs... pictures later when I get the other 2 painted... then time to pack bearings and install hubs on the 2 axles. Likely not until the weekend. Sorry I am so slow on this trailer rebuild, but work has to come first. Sorry ahead of time if some pictures are sideways or upside down.

Lookin' good. Git-er-done. Warmer weather is around the corner.

I need to pick up the pace for sure. More painting and bearing work tonight. Ordered leaf spring bushings. Getting the tires mounted Saturday. I have to remember... lots of assembly required and that takes time to set everything in its right position. I will likely be sorting through those trailer parts I got from you to see if something additional will work on this trailer... if not, I have that other smaller trailer to do next.

Got the tires mounted. One wouldn’t balance, so did a return and reorder. At least I have 4 to continue progress. Finished cleaning, painting hubs... then installed races with bearing kits. Packed with grease and installed hubs. Waiting on new grease caps and leaf spring bushings. All 55 year old rubber bushings were scrubbed completely through on one side. Time to start Andreas’s crock pot recipe to cook the hardware and try to remove the paint. Might be another week before I post any of those results. Got to keep chipping away before it’s boating season in the north.