My trailer has been been subjected to 30 years of rust and is no longer fit for the road. I spent a couple hundred bucks on a newer-used trailer, a bag of bolts, new rollers, and a new set of tires.

For the most part it's heavy surface rust and everything is structurally sound. I've already stripped the wiring and the axle, so I don't feel like reassembling it so I can tow it somewhere to be sand blasted. What's the best way to clean it up for primer and paint? I have a decent angle grinder. Wire brushes on it? Sanding disks? What grit? Flapper disk?

The last steel trailer I owned I left chained to a light post outside a strip club in va beach, it was rusty and heavy and refused to ground the brake lights. I think its turned to dust by now, its been 10 years, its probably a faint rustly outline of a trailer by now, or cut up for low rent stipper poles. Someday I might facebook my old trailer try to figure out what happened to the old rusty girl.

Never again will I own a steel trailer.

Sorry for being absolutely no help at all.

Any parts that you can, use a belt sander with an aggressive grit (start around 100 and see how that goes; adjust up or down according to results). No worries going to bare metal. Use any other heavy grit sander on any other parts it can reach (they have lots of small specialty sanders these days). On inside corners and other hard to sand places, clean as well as possible and then use a rust remover (brush or wipe on) that will also turn into a primer - available at any self respecting hardware store. Wire brushing is good only to remove heavy, thick rust so that you can sand it better. There are small sand blasters for home owners but they are too wimpy for jobs like this. Priming is critical for a good paint job - use good quality paint sprayed in multiple thin coats, not one thick coat. Follow with the best paint you can afford if you want to keep the trailer, otherwise use Sears Weatherbeater (no, not really). Even with a good paint job, you should keep after it so that scratches, scrapes, etc. get touched-up if you want to make your work last. You can probably tell I have done this myself which is why I own a really nice aluminum trailer now. I have used aluminized paint on a steel trailer which really made it look like aluminum but it was like an ablative bottom paint (big boats) in that it always rubbed off when you handled the trailer. I sold that one but heard later that it still looked good years later. Good luck with your project and start saving for the aluminum trailer of your dreams - if money is tight, sometimes you can get a good deal on a used one if you keep looking.

Since your not go to sand blast it...use the wire brush, then get Ospho and brush it all over, let sit over night and spray away. It'll last longer if you use an epoxy primer. Good Luck!

You might find a sand blaster that is mobile and cheap.

I wonder about this link:
http://www.loctiteproducts.com/p/s_trmt_extend/overview/Loctite-Extend-Rust-Neutralizer.htm

I paint for a living and deal with steel all the time in the industrial plants. Sand it down with a flap disc on a angle grinder, prime with a acceptable primer based on your top coat.

Pointers- Epoxy is a great material to use but depending on color it will chalk up and fade. Generally at industiral complexes we use a epoxy primer followed by a epoxy mid coat followed by a urethane top coat.

Urethane will hold its color and last much longer in the sun than a epoxy. Epoxy protects the steel and urethane protects the epoxy.

I just repainted my trailer and used a enamel primer and then covered it with pittsburgh sil shield modified silicone enamel and it looks awesome! This is a newer product and lasts a LOT longer than a standard industrial enamel.

Here's a link to some info. My cost was somewhere in the 50 per gallon range.
http://buyat.ppg.com/rep_pafpainttools_files/porter/tdb/95-5000.pdf

You can use a standard krylon spray primer (industrial) if needed and it will do just fine. let the primer set up for atleast 24 hours and it should not wrinkle the primer.

gem, ospho, neutralizers are all just a quick way out that will not last. Ive tried it tons of times with mixed results. Sand it down and apply the right materials. If i were going for a quick and easy way to paint a trailer and wasnt concerned with color i would probably just buy a kit of rustbullet
http://www.rustbullet.com/videos.asp

I used the PPG because i wanted my trailer bright blue!

Have it powder coated.

wasn't there some stuff ("Zofar"?) that you painted on after sanding that worked? It went on like road tar...

And Bill's image of rusty stripper poles is quite a disturbing image, but hilarious...

So the first person who can post a photo of said rusty stripper pole wins a prize - a tetanus shot!

Zander used a paint/roll-on truck bed liner on his trailer and it's held up pretty well.

Too bad you do not live on the West Coast near Seattle. On April 30 at Sail Sand Point we will auction off several trailers, many of them galvanized.

Well, I bought sanding disks and flapper disks at Harbor Freight, on my lunch break, and did a "test" section on the trailer. I don't think it's bad enough for blasting. The crevices are going to be a PIA. All I had on hand was the brown primer....The other two cans are grey. It's also sitting on the axle again with the bolts on the spring hangers hand tight, so I can roll it around the driveway.



I hit it with some krylon rusted metal primer and it looks pretty decent.




While I'm at it I'm modifying the rear mast stand to allow access to the sail tube. I'm going with a wishbone shape.

This one lacks the extra cross members in the middle of the trailer that the old one had, so I am going to have to get creative when it comes time to mount the sail tube / catbox. Anyone selling one of the old top loading cat boxes super cheap?