Cheapest way to protect the exterior

[Tornadoboy]

Hi everybody! Glad I found this forum!

Quick question:

I'm about to start my first teardrop-type project, I'm on a seriously low budget and I was wondering what my best option is for protecting the plywood exterior of my trailer?

Paint? If so, what type should I use?

Also it would be nice if whatever I use doesn't hinder me from improving things later as fund improve, such as using fiberglass or an aluminum skin.

As you can tell I'm a newbie in the worst way.

[bobhenry]

Is this good looking plywood or just exterior sheathing grade.

Marine grade spar varnish will give you about a years worth of protection and will let the wood show thru while darkening it to a honey gold.

Exterior house paint will fill voids in the wood better than the varnish.

Spray on truck bed liner will fill texture and tint all in one but probably a bit expensive.

I used polar seal mobile home roof coat and after it dried thoroughly was able to spary paint over it without problems on my little motorcycle cargo tear.

Just a few thoughts

[Arne]

I sealed mine first, then primed and painted with exterior Benjamin Moore house paint... next time I'll use home depot behr exterior.. I think it flows better and gives a better finish...

Even if I have to repaint every year or two, I think it will give good protection as long as there are no voids in the paint, especially where the end grain of the roof ply is exposed where it attaches to the wall...

Also, be sure the bottom of the walls are well sealed. That is where rain might run down and be absorbed into the wall end grain.. I've seen trailers where rain water has soaked into the bottom of the walls, and it causes discoloration and potentially big problems.

I also am going to try to rent a garage to keep it inside when I'm not camping... that would make a big difference.. even just keeping it out of the sun is a help... also, I'm painting mine white, which works better than a darker color...... and it matches my van.

[Jst83]

Welcome to the fun, Yep a good exterior house paint would be the way to go. I went with a Sherwin Williams Exterior primer followed by a good latex paint, I've had no problem thus far, If it's good enough for your house that sits in the weather 365 days a year it's good enough for the camper. And you can change colors on the spear of the moment. Mine was Gray last year and a new color this year, feels like I'm in a whole new camper and each time I put a coat of paint on it just protects even more

Scott

[Ron Dickey]

I used primer and exterier semi glossy on the sides and Glossy on the top

I get fog almost every morning (I live next to the Pacific Ocean) I use a cover alot but when I am working on it, it gets wet and seems to be doing fine. I did not sear it underneath and that might be a good addition if you can afford it but I think I will be doing just fine.

I used Bear paint from HomeDepot.

Ron D.

[Ron Dickey]

P.S.
The nice thing about paint and being low on money you can get a small pint at a time for second and third coats. if you cant swing the gallon thing.
I first got a Gal. in primer and painted the intire thing. then
I got a gal for the sides and have 2 coats on it. The top I got a gallon and put 2 coats on and got a pint for the 3rd. But you could cover it in plastic and get a pint per paycheck till you are done. you can get a paint roller and pan as a set cheep. inexpensive throwaway paint brushes and if you do not care for the color most paint places have reutnred paint for cheep (you just need to look for glossy or simiglossy. you could use then for the first coats and then get pints in the color you want for the 2 last coats.

Ron D.

[MrBuzz]

On my TD I used DutchBoy exterior latex house paint. My thought process was that if it's good enough to lat 15-20 years on a home that is exposed to the elements 100% of the time it should be good enough for a trailer that will be stored indoors most of it's life.
I did the whole thing in a couple of coats of an off-white...then painted a third & fourth coat of the purple color.
That stuff is amazing though. It dries to an almost plastic type of finish with a bit of texture to it from the roller I used. It also acts as a sealer/filler for some of the seams & joints. Easy to keep clean...and touch-ups are no problem either.
If I did it again I would do a better job of preparing the sides, sanded more, better use of wood filler, etc. But overall it really looks nice and shows no sign of peeling or cracking after a season of camping and a long cold winter in storage.

[Steve_Cox]

Absolute cheapest way to protect the wood exterior is to always keep the trailer in the garage.

TornadoBoy,
Welcome to the forum, hope you stick around and join in the fun.

[Jst83]

Absolute cheapest way to protect the wood exterior is to always keep the trailer in the garage.

Unless it's like my garage and a few others I've seen on here and there's no way it will fit.

Scott

[apratt]

You could go to these recycle places and get free house paint.

[Tornadoboy]

Would painting mess me up if I wanted to fiberglass the exterior later? The more I think about things, the more I like the idea of eventually doing that.

[Jst83]

You'd have to strip the paint off and believe me that's a job I just striped all my seems so I could fiberglass them.
Are you wanting the wood look or just fiberglass and repaint? Either way I'd suggest doing the way you want the first time so as to save the trouble of redoing it.

Scott

[Lou Park]

I'm kinda in the same boat. But the one thing I keep telling myself is that
this is my first teardrop and that I need to keep it simple. On my second is
where I'll be putting all the extras that I will learn that I need. So remember
this is your first build. You can build the fancy tear next when you know what
will work for you.
Lou

[rmclarke]

I agree with Scott....it would be a major PITA to strip off the paint so you could fiberglass. But, then, like you said, once your budget allowed, you could do aluminum skin instead so there'd be no paint stripping or fiberglassing.


Richard

[Tornadoboy]

How true, I suppose no matter what I do eventually I'm going to want to start over again from scratch once I really (and hopefully) know what I'm doing.

Maybe the smart thing for me to do at this point is to fiberglass the seems and bottoms of the walls then simply paint everything afterwards? In other words just aim for functional and worry about perfect some other time.

Just out of curiousity, what does it typically cost to fiberglass a whole teardrop?

If given a choice between that and aluminum I think I would probably choose Fiberglass because it will give me a lot more flexibility in design and is easier to repair.