Removing rust from trailer

 G'day,

I'm about to pull the boat off the trailer (box section) and attack some rust on my trailer. Not sureof the best way to go about it.

I'm thinking of just grinding/sanding rust where possible and once back to bare steel just primer and then paint.

What are best tools to sand/grind in the hard to get to spots? 

What are the best options to coat the bare steel? 

I'm not sure how to go about treating the insides of the box section so I'm guessing she'll have to rust from the inside out.

 

Any help will be appreciated.

Cheers

 

 

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Faulkner Family's picture

Posts: 18035

Date Joined: 11/03/08

Wire brush on a drill works

Thu, 2024-05-02 13:13

Wire brush on a drill works well. Treatment wise there is a product called furtan which converts rust then prime and paint.

CRC  also have a new product out that does the same

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RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

sunshine's picture

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Date Joined: 03/03/09

And Fertan will passify rust inside tubing

Thu, 2024-05-02 18:29

 Just need to find a way to atomise spray it inside.  A Bunnings pressure spray should work pretty well, some come with fairly long fine gauge hoses. Catch any excess running out and reuse.  Understand it reactivates if it gets wet so continuous passification occurs 

Swompa's picture

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Date Joined: 14/10/12

 Not sure how much time you

Thu, 2024-05-02 13:14

 Not sure how much time you have but internally will be near impossible to get to. I attacked mine with a wire wheel before sending it off for acid wash and being re-galvanised. 

For my 5.6m boat trailer it cost around $300 and $400 to replace all the bolts and most rollers

Brock O's picture

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As above, strip it send for

Thu, 2024-05-02 20:49

As above, strip it send for acid dip and Galv.

sstevee's picture

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Date Joined: 15/11/11

 I am currently looking to do

Fri, 2024-05-03 09:30

 I am currently looking to do the same. Mine is RHS and the frame externally looks good but the galv is lifting internally. I was going to try and get a wire brush up the rhs sections and then modify a roller and try get that up there. I was going to use a product called Metalfix made by phoenix paints in Bibra Lake. 

I do have the issue of the cross members being 50x50 shs which I practically have no way of getting to the inside. I would be lucky to have a 4-5mm gap where it is welded to the frame. My thoughts were to sort the outside and paint and when they become too far gone to just cut them out and replace them.

Being a tinny trailer i'm not sure if the re-galvanise option would be cost effective?

Does anyone know if the acid wash actually clears up / eats away the loose flaking metal inside the shs? 

Brock O's picture

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Date Joined: 11/01/08

I did a strip down on mine a

Fri, 2024-05-03 11:42

I did a strip down on mine a few years back, the main frame I grinded and hit with a 9" wire buff wheel before it was sent for Acid deep and Galz, the lad at the Galvanizes said it took 3 dips to get the rust off...charge was just over $4 per Kilo from memory.

Sea-kem did help me with this using his account, thanks again mate!.

All the small items I dipped in a large tub with pool acid, this basically stirps anything in a very short time frame...just don't put your head over it and breath in, you wont wake up till the next day...if ya lucky. Following this I added a few coats of good quality zinc just by brush and hand, with in a few years these items are showing medium corrosion already. they will get HDG soon after a few more mods.

This was during tough times, but I wanted get the main frame done to avoid a heavy cost later, yes you may need to budget this in, but with winter coming now's a good time to sort these projects, unless you want to buy new.

Boat trailers are probably the most easy thing to work on mechanically, even with zero skills, everything is reasonably cheap to replace and available via the trailer shops...not fkn supa cheap or the likes. Start with a cheap 5" grinder and some cutting dics..:)

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Date Joined: 05/05/06

 I just gave the galvanising

Fri, 2024-05-03 14:34

 I just gave the galvanising place in Henderson a ring and asked for a rough estimate. I think I made the rust sound worse than what it is so I was quoted $5.30/kg. I'm thinking the frame stripped down may weigh 150kg. 

Hey swompa what did your frame weigh?

As mine is about the same length

 

Cheers fellas, convinced to the galvanising as it should be a longer term solution and from what I've read no matter how you treat it/paint the rust comes back pretty quick. As Brocko said paying the cost now will save the purchase of a new trailer or sale of the boat in a few years which I'm not keen on.

 

Hey sstevee mine is similar to yours with the gal flaking off mainly on the inside of box section and in areas on the cross members.

 

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sstevee's picture

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Date Joined: 15/11/11

 I would be interested to

Fri, 2024-05-03 21:02

 I would be interested to hear how you go with it mate. With the metalfix paint at $70 a litre there may not be too much in it. 

Swompa's picture

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Date Joined: 14/10/12

 Mine was a Papas A frame

Mon, 2024-05-06 09:36

 Mine was a Papas A frame trailer. The trailer with the wobble roller brackets came in at 166kg (thanks to me putting the info here when i was doing the project). I didnt do the mud guards but should have. I borrowed a car trailer to get it to and from the spot and could manually lift/drag most of it

fishwrecked.com/forum/trailer-re-galv

I suggest calling a couple of places to confirm the price. 

And dont forget to take the shackles off your trailer chains. 

Swompa's picture

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For what it is worth, my

Mon, 2024-05-06 09:51

For what it is worth, my trailer was about 15 years old and I always washed it down.

The galvo guys said that the rust was pretty bad internally and told me to probably not put a really expensive boat on it. 

 

When i sold it a few years back, it was still in good nic, but some of the shitty spots where the galv didnt properly bed in (almost where the slag stuck onto the frame) had started to show spots of rust but it still seemed fine. 

 

sea-kem's picture

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 The problem with RHS is you

Sun, 2024-05-05 09:43

 The problem with RHS is you can't guage internally how rusted it is as I found out the hard way one time up north where the rear of the trailer broke as it was rusted out internally.

Even acid dip and regalv won't really sort the problem as it will have flake rust internally that the acid won't strip. Most galvanisers even with externally flaked rusted steel will recommend blasting. 

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sunshine's picture

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Andy, any idea of cost of blasting

Sun, 2024-05-05 10:08

And can they blast inside rhs 

sea-kem's picture

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 Not sure about internal

Mon, 2024-05-06 08:58

 Not sure about internal blasting Gordon but can see why they couldn't shoot the nozzle down there. It's not prohibitively   expensive.

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Date Joined: 05/05/06

 Got the trailer galvanised,

Mon, 2024-09-09 20:43

 Got the trailer galvanised, way more work than anticipated. Wasn't cheap if you factor in all the U bolts etc. Ended up replacing all cross members. Trailer was supposed to be left in acid bath over the weekend but it only ended up with a short dip which was reflected in the final finish. Much the same as Swompa described with lots of zinc build up and splatter in the tube section. The smaller pieces came out excellent and the RHS small sections that were double dipped came out perfect. 

Trailer is a dunbier wobble roller type. Coated the thing in fish oil so will see how it goes. Gal was $900 U bolts etc around $300 plus the price of cross members $600.

All up not cheap, fair bit of work but it's a hell of a lot better now.

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Swompa's picture

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 Wow - galv prices has gone

Tue, 2024-09-10 12:44

 Wow - galv prices has gone up a lot.

Hopefully you get many more years out of it now. Just have the can of cold gal handy!

 

 

sea-kem's picture

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 Galvanisers hate boat

Tue, 2024-09-10 14:32

 Galvanisers hate boat trailers because of the internal rust. It contaminates their acid baths quicker. Even I don't get a great rate doing them through the business. 

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Swompa's picture

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Date Joined: 14/10/12

 My plan for tomorrow is to

Fri, 2024-09-13 09:17

 My plan for tomorrow is to launch the boat then go to town with rust converter and cold gal.

Even though my trailer is an I beam, there must have been contaminates on it when it was origionally dipped and there are rusty spots coming through in perculuar areas. 

Posts: 1336

Date Joined: 05/05/06

 Yes they do, I called up one

Fri, 2024-09-13 15:13

 Yep they don't like old boat trailers.I called up one place and they said they don't do second boat trailers as the internal rust may hinder or block the flow and cause an explosion of molten  zinc and destroy the trailer

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Faulkner Family's picture

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Good that you got it done.

Tue, 2024-09-10 09:06

Good that you got it done. Not cheap to do the job but a lot cheaper than a new trailer

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RUSS and SANDY. A family that fishes together stays together

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Date Joined: 24/08/17

 I had some success running a

Fri, 2024-09-13 13:23

 I had some success running a length of fencing wire up the RHS and attaching it to a big drill. The wire flails around inside and knocks off a lot of rust and scale. You have to keep hosing all of the debris out. That said, if you can avoid tube as much as possible and go for I beams and angle you'll  be better off.

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Date Joined: 05/05/06

 Good idea, I just taped a

Fri, 2024-09-13 15:01

 Good idea, I just taped a bit of flat bar to the end of my broomstick and jammed that up there to scrape it.  

 

One of the biggest pains in the arse for me was redrilling the holes on the roller mounts where the split pin goes. I thought I drilled them out large enough but  the galvanising filled the holes. Just had had to drill new holes which will now rust.

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sea-kem's picture

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Any holes or pins we just use

Tue, 2024-09-17 01:50

Any holes or pins we just use a high temp silicone and you can literally just wire brush it off or holes just push through or pick it out. Works a treat. You can also buy galv rods to repair any galv damage.

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Acid bath

Wed, 2024-09-18 21:01

 My mates son has a 19 foot ally, an old one. He got the outside sand blasted then sent it off for an acid bath and galv. If you have no  holes in the box section you have to put some in as the hot galv will blow the box section . They acid bath then flush bath then hot dip so the galv gets inside as does the acid and clean flush water. the terailer came out looking brand new, It will last for years no. i thing it was 500 to sand blast and about a grand for the galv job. If you can afford it ,its the only way to go. If not just do the best you can with wire brosh and grinder.

 

Dont bother painting with cold galv its a waste of time. Didn't work for me and i can't afford the hot galv.

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Filletmaster

sea-kem's picture

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 When I rebuilt my trailer I

Mon, 2024-09-23 00:11

 When I rebuilt my trailer I put in extra vent holes and made the all 12mm , I then ran a retic system through the whole lot with a hose attachment at the front. plug the hose in and turn on tap for a full internal flush. I can even run my salty Capatain flush through it. 

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