Trailer Rust Repair

[acarroll89]

Hey Everyone, posting up some pics of my attempt at fixing my boat trailer. Its for a Skeeter ZX-180 and originally came with a single axle trailer. At some point one of the previous owners decided that he wanted a tandem axle trailer so it now has 2 axles under it. Whoever did the work did a pretty crappy job and its been rusting pretty bad (things rust in my driveway for some reason). We're talking, bad welds, bad paint etc. Trailer used to be red but they painted it black. I'm by no means a fabricator or welder, i'm teaching myself as I go and unfortunately work full time so only get to work on it at night or on the weekends.


So far I've removed all the bunks, cut the 3 bad bunk mounts off and welded new ones on. Ground down all the good ones and coated to keep them from rusting. Cut the old fenders off and welded new ones in. My new ones were 3 inches taller and didn't realize it so had to do an awful lot of grinding to make them fit. I've also removed all the suspension/ axles and have cleaned them up and coated to prevent future rusting.


Next steps are to finish cleaning up the the passenger side leaf springs, grind off remaining rust from main trailer frame, prime and paint everything (open to suggestions on what to use, thinking rubberized under coating), install new wiring and put the boat back on.


Pics from the progress so far

[crank68]

Looks like you doin good !!

[Deevooo]

Wow man, I’m pretty impressed with the quality of your welds for someone teaching themselves! Looks awesome! I’ve got pretty much the same project coming up this off season. I’ll follow this pretty closely! Keep us updated and keep up the good work !

[acarroll89]

Thanks everyone. Lots of time watching YouTube and several spools of wire practicing on old brake rotors lol.

I should have more updates this weekend once I get back from work. I'd like to get the trailer completely ground down and primed by Sunday night

[acarroll89]

Been a little bit and haven't gotten a whole lot done. It rains whenever I try to work on this thing.

Last weekend all I had time to do was weld on some bolts to use as places to attach ground wires. I ordered some primer to go over the POR-15 that i'm using to coat everything and will then top coat with the rubberized undercoating stuff.





I put one under all 4 steps.

Fast forward to this weekend 4/21-4/22 and I got the rest of the trailer ground down and coated with POR-15 (got rained on several times). And as I was sanding it all down with 320 grit I noticed i'm blowing right through the stuff on one of my fenders. Tried to pick the spots off thinking that I could just skuff it up and coat over the holes.. NOPE. Its peeling off in huge chunks so now i'm in the process of removing it all to try again. Its currently raining as I type this (yay Florida).



I know POR-15 is supposed to go over rusty metal, but I did skuff up this fender really well and clean it with acetone before applying it. The bunk mounts that I cleaned up and coated with POR-15 are perfectly fine and all the other areas i've coated with it are fine as well.. I'll just be using a normal primer once I get the rest of this crap off. I'm more than likely going to have to do the same on the other fender... And with this weather and work schedule, i'm never going to get this thing done

[acarroll89]

Quick update. Got the 1 fender cleaned off, scuffed up with 80 grit and hit with 3 coats of primer.



Also hit with 3 coats of the rubberized truck bed liner stuff



Hoping for some more progress next week

[CastingCall]

Nice work! What bed liner product are you using?

[acarroll89]

Nice work! What bed liner product are you using?

Thanks! And it's Dupli-color bed armor. Seems like it dries pretty hard. Was still kinda tacky when I left this morning. I'll see how it feels when I get home at the end of the week.

I'm gonna put a 4th coat on to try to hide some runs. You gotta spray about 12 inches back otherwise it glob up

[acarroll89]

Couple more pics. Got the trailer washed down and dried and then primed. Also primed all the suspension parts. Let that all dry for 24 hours and then painted everything with under coating. I have a can of the same stiff but it adds a textured finish that'll probably help hide my crappy paint job. I'm painting under a tree and have a canopy set up to help keep crap off. Not much else I can do there unfortunately.

Also need new U bolts and other hardware as the ones I have are jacked up. Lowe's didn't have the sizes I need. Once I can bolt the suspension on I'll paint that. I also ordered some gatorbak covers for the bunks, excited to try that out.

Tomorrow I'll get the post for the winch cleaned up and painted and possibly get the lights wired up.

[acarroll89]

Last update from yesterday

We have lights




I have both axles in but unfortunately didn't have all the u bolts to get them both bolted in. Have new ones on order, so should have this thing back on its wheels this weekend

[eliteangler]

Damn good work!!

[acarroll89]

So good news and bad news.

Good news is it's done.





The bad news is it rained this morning and all the paint bubbled up... So I get to start all over and repaint. I'm beyond pissed



I'm gonna call around and just pay somebody who can paint it. If i do it myself I'm going to probably run into the same problem since I'm doing it outside in the Florida rain and humidity

[CastingCall]

Oh man, that is a bummer! Sorry to see that happened.

[fastman151]

You did a great job!!!! You may want to give Mother Nature a bitch slap!!!

[acarroll89]

Thanks everyone. I've had it sitting outside all week uncovered to see if maybe the paint will cure better? I'll spray it with a hose tomorrow to see if it bubbles up again

[Saddletramp123]

In the pic of the wiring, I see a scotch lock connected on a splice. Don't leave it. It'll fail within a yr.

[acarroll89]

In the pic of the wiring, I see a scotch lock connected on a splice. Don't leave it. It'll fail within a yr.

I'll switch it out. I need a new soldiering iron first lol

So I hosed down the trailer yesterday and the paint didn't bubble. Maybe I'm good?

[G3Ray]

I ran into a similar problem. I painted my front porch. It rained. It bubbled a little. Let it dry out and cure. Hasn't bubbled since. I think your good to go man.

[acarroll89]

Alright guys, here it is. Got to the ramp this morning and swapped the boat back to my trailer from my dad's and nothing fell apart. If it did i was just going to unhook it and leave it lol.
Boat fits decent. I think the 2 center bunk mounts were welded on a little high, but once I winch it down and tighten my rear straps, it doesn't go anywhere. I'm hoping the bunks will warp to fit the hull better. Also after 2 dunks in the water and hosing it off when I got home there was no paint bubbling. Good to be done with this project.

[stratos3317]

NICE JOB MAN!!