Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

My new HF trailer will be a year old this summer. Parts of it have oxidized and faded. Other parts still look like new. But it's all red!

I'd like to paint it black, probably rusteoleum. So how do I prep red powder coating for black rusteoleum?

Mike...

Mike, the easiest prep is a red scuff pad, available in auto body supply shops. There are more manufacturers than you can shake a stick at. Norton, Mirka, 3M, Indasa, and I'm sure there are others. They have sufficient abrasion for the new paint to adhere to, and they are easy to work with since the are pads. You can probably even find them in the box stores, and wally world. After the surface is scuffed, just wipe it with some sort of prep solvent, to be sure to remove any residue of oils, or contaminents. You can even use Coleman fuel for this, just let it dry longer than if you use a "real" prep solvent.

mikeschn wrote:My new HF trailer will be a year old this summer. Parts of it have oxidized and faded. Other parts still look like new. But it's all red!

I'd like to paint it black, probably rusteoleum. So how do I prep red powder coating for black rusteoleum?

Mike...

Are you sure the HF trailer is powder coated?

If so, you just need to sand it and roll (or spray?) the rustoleum on. If you get the rustoleum truck bed paint, it looks great and is kind of "textured"....

If you can take the tear off the trailer, you should take the trailer apart and have it sandblasted and powdercoated the color of your choice...

I did mine in silver and it looks awesome.

Are you sure the HF trailer is powder coated?

Mine is painted.

DasBaldGuy wrote:Are you sure the HF trailer is powder coated?

How can I tell the difference?

Mike...

Powder coating is extremely hard, and durable. The fact that you are saying that it is turning white, and "powdery" leads me to believe that it is just paint.

I have very little experience with powder coating though, so I could be completely off base.

Powder coating is just another way of applying pigment. It's then heated so that it flows and bonds with the substrate and the rest of the pigment.

Paul is right on target. The surface needs to be scuffed in preparation for painting.

you should wipe it down with the prep-solv before sanding, so that oil and wax are removed and not pushed down into the original coating, and then again after sanding.

wash w/soap and water, rinse well
prepsolv
sand/scuff
prepsolv
tack cloth
primer
sand
tack cloth
primer
sand
tack cloth
paint
sand
tack cloth
paint
polish
let cure a couple days to a couple weeks, then wax


or the easy way...wash, rinse, prepsolv, scuff/sand, prepsolv, paint, drink beer...

mikeschn wrote:But it's all red!

You say that like it's a bad thing...

Knock off the mud with a half hearted sanding and spray it with textured bedliner.

It's only paint and I am real suprised you didn't describe it as "Pink" most fade to that shade.

Mike,

I did not wait for mine to fade but all I did to the new HF frame was to wipe it down with a rag soaked in denatured alcohol and spray it with rattle cans of black Rustoleum. There are a couple of places on the tongue where abrasion from the safety chains have worn the paint a bit, but that was due to wear rather than any adhesion problems.

bobhenry wrote:Knock off the mud with a half hearted sanding and spray it with textured bedliner.

It's only paint and I am real suprised you didn't describe it as "Pink" most fade to that shade.

My kind of painter.

FWIW from someone who paints for a living (Paint is my "Bag" ) .... surface prep is Everything !!! More time in the prep than the painting (the Fun part) ... Do it well and do it once ...