As the weather has been crap for the best part of a month and not being able to get out on the water, i thought id to a bit of long overdue work to the trailer before summer rolls around.

I have a few areas of surface rust to the trailer and in some parts its about 1mm thick which i need to remove.
What is the best product out there to remove the rust and also prevent the rust from coming back too fast?

I was thinking along the lines of removing the surface rust with a wire brush and then applying some sort of rust remover - Is this the best thing to do? and then possibly priming/spraying with an enamel?

Any ideas/solutions??

rocko wrote: depending on how much there is you may want to look at sand blasting and go from there?

as blue legend has said the wurth rust converter is the best not cheap best if you have a local panelbeater that you can borrow some off because its one of those products that you will never use all of it or the other one is the black paint that you can get goes as hard as nails and will actually seal the rust off and supposedly kill it avaliable thru most hardware shops,

Good topic this. Anyone have any info about POR15? I was lead to believe that this also is a very good poduct to

strip the rust off, and get it back to bare metal and wash it down with rust killer and then paint it with zinc paint or that stuff the guys mention, but the idea is to seal it up, and then get some motorcycle chain wax and spray it on, it's thick and sticky and will attract dust to help seal it up as well, then get some of that stuff billy ho talks about....lanogard (or sumething), and spray the whole trailer, stop the salt water and oxygen getting to will help big time....

Ive been using cheap cooking spary oil as a protectant on the trailer body and chainwax on the springs and bolts etc....seems to work..

You don't say whether this is a painted or galvanised trailer.  I'll assume it's galvanised. This is important because if it's rusting through then the galvanising is probably about to start breaking through all over the place.  Think seriously about getting it regalvanised or start saving for a replacement.  If you regalv it early enough it restores the trailer to good as new.  A re galv is nearly always cheaper than a new trailer, unless you are talking to the people who manufacture trailers.  (I wonder why that is?) I just had mine regalved after 12 years.  I stripped it to pieces myself and reassembled it myself.  To have it regalved cost under $1000.  That was a tandem braked trailer for a 19ft boat.

Sorry yes its a galvanised trailer. The rust isnt too bad at the moment as its only small patches. Im not really too keen to re-galvanise as it doesnt really warrant it yet - i just need a cheap long term fix for the rust i do have.
Thanks for your help guys! Ill let you know how i get on if the weather holds out long enough this weekend..

I have been very happy with a recent tidyup I did on my trailer. Used electric drill and grinder with appropriate rust stripping discs. Used wire brush type attachments as well as a specific rust removing disc but can't think what they're called. The wire brush method was good in tight corners but the other discs were much better on larger flat surfaces. Much quicker with the grinder. I removed down to bare shinny metal and then used 2 coats of Wattyle's 'Cold Galvit'. It's thick stuff but produced an excellent result. Still looks good over a year later. The first bit i tried I did the same prep and used Wattle's Metal Primer and then 2 coats of Epoxy Enamel. This was very dissapointing and i do not recomment it (may be OK on your galvanised fence rails but not on a boat trailer). I spent ages on my over several weekends taking it all apart but I think it's a good system for doing spots as they appear. Good idea to do it sooner than later or it will grow into a big problem.

Remember the old saying “rust never sleeps” if there is rust showing on a galvanized trailer then it really is that bad.  Remember that the coating is a sacrificial anode just like the anodes on your outboard/hull etc, so for the trailer to have started to rust the galv coating is pretty much shot. You don’t say if it is a box section or open section construction? Makes a difference as with box you can’t do anything about the inside with the type of repair you seem keen on.   If you plan to keep the trailer for any length of time get it sand blasted and regalvanised, will work out a lot cheaper in the long run and save a lot of frustrating weekends chasing your tail on what in the end will be a lost cause and a new trailer required.

 

 

One more thing. I don't recomend any type of rubberised sealer/silicone once finished as it is a f----- to get off should you need to weld again in the future.