Trailers: Enclosed or Open - Make verses Buy?

[Raymond]

With that done, we moved into the preliminary primer/guide coat stage. To keep set up time low we elected to roll on the first coat of high fill primer. While roller application is not typically used when trying to get a flat high gloss surface finish, we knew we would block it back down to the point where we would just be breaking through the primer and seeing epoxy and; this first coat was purely for flattening and surface perfection. It worked well.

As suspected, the split lines and screw holes showed after the primer was laid. After the primer was dry, we scuffed the surface up and went back to work filling and blocking and filling and blocking and filling and blocking.

Not hitting the lighting harness wires while feverishly blocking was challenging but we were successful. You may notice the tape on the wires; yes, its purpose was a protective shield from the chemical and mechanical hazards they would face. Because there were multiple ‘wax on – wax-off’ cycles to this process, we keep learning new and better techniques. We later discovered that beverage drinking straws were better protectors because they would seat in the exit hole and hold the wires away from the box surface. You will see these in later pics.

When we thought we had the surface flat and defect free we would rattle can on a coat of primer over those work areas to see if we could ‘see’ anything and rework (and rework and....rework) as required until we were satisfied.

[Raymond]

Its funny when you read back through your prior posts and see all the typos jump out at you. Why can't you see them the first time???

[Raymond]

When our lighting arrived we decided we needed a motivational mockup to help keep us going: blocking and sanding is not the most enjoyable work and at this stage it seems like the project was taking forever. The mock up showed us a mistake we made, we ordered too many amber lights: the rear corners should be red not amber. We adjusted and ordered two more red ones and added the amber ones up front on the forward uprights.

Once our confidence was high that we had all the blaring defects corrected we set about to re-install the fenders. During this welding phase we used a piece of aluminum foil covered luan as a protective barrier between the box and the heat and slag splatter. After all the prep work we had done so far on box prep work, this was a stressful few minutes. The gods were looking down on us favorably that day as it all worked out fine.

[Smitty]

If you can answer two questions here, you'll have done some of us a favor. But you can't. Because the first question is about why you can't see the typos the first time through, and the second is, why is there always one more thing to weld that you remember AFTER you've done some of the painting?

[Raymond]

Yep, you're right; I can't answer the questions

[Raymond]

With the fenders on, we set about fitting the door and trim. We sourced the aluminum online from Brunner Enterprises. They seemed to have the best sizing information; in-fact they had drawings for every product they sell. We used angle for the trailer side and channel for the door.

Looking at the pics below you might come to the conclusion that we have never heard of the measure twice – cut once rule; in fact we have. We intentionally left the door long so we could tailor fit it once it was mounted during mockup. But, as you may be able to tell, we did forget that we cut it long and we…fitted the trim to the…long doorJ No worries, we were able to recover but….we did screw up a cut on the readjustment and had to get another piece of channel.

[Raymond]

From the beginning of the build our hidden lighting harness design had us a little bit worried. There was a chance that we might not have enough room to store the excess wire if 1) there was not enough room to tuck them fully back into the box conduit cavity and 2) if the back of the lighting assembly was not tall enough there to accommodate storage of extra wire. Our solution was to make some standoff blocks that would provide enough space to allow a casual loop and tuck of any excess wire. Once cut and shaped to size and mocked up on the box, we pulled them back off and sealed them up.

With the door fitted to the box (and yes, cut to proper length and re-trimmed) we fitted the door latches and rattle canned on another coat of primer. The latches were an area of contention from the early stages. Young Ray wanted the ‘commercial look’ and had a latch style in mind. I wanted to go a different route altogether but eventually conceded. We went with a latch from E-trailer.com.

[Raymond]

I know I have described much sanding and blocking but please understand, I am not embellishing. The truth is…it was not over yet. At this point we moved into a wet sanding phase and yes, we went over the box a number of times again with rattle cans, paper and water.

When we got to the point we were convinced the surface was flat and scratch free (spelled burnt-out from all the sanding) we gave it a good washing, dried it and found ourselves at a decision point; how are we going to paint it? DIY or professional application?

[Raymond]

This is a good point to talk a little about the ‘Make verses Buy’ part of the discussion a bit.

We have some (spelled ‘some’) painting experience along with most of the equipment needed but are challenged with a gas furnace and water heater in the garage so we can’t safely convert it into an air filtered spray booth. Yes, we could shut off the gas but for other reasons that was not feasible. Our best quote to spray the final primer, color and clear came in around $750 from Autobody USA. We priced out the consumable materials needed along with the DIY engineering items needed to control the paint environment and the cost came in under the quoted price. This made a DIY job tempting

[Raymond]

Having done all the other work on this project we decided we wanted to paint it ourselves so we set out to gather everything we needed. Did we make the right choice? More on the ‘Make verses Buy’ debate later.

We acquired the paint system online from paintforcars.com. We sprayed the last primer coats open to the atmosphere but constructed a make shift car port to partially protect during the color and clear coat applications. We have had success in the past (in just the right calendar season) painting small projects outside unprotected but we did not want to take that chance on this project. Yes, our neighbors think we are crazy. If it is not a boat we are playing with, it’s a car, bike or snowmobile.

With the primer shot we fab'd up up our temporary spray booth to test it out. The plan is/was to cover this frame with plastic.

[Raymond]

While we are about to round a milestone corner on this project, we were a anxiously apprehensive; at this point we already had so much time in surface prep that…well… you can see what I mean can’t you?

One more final pass over the box with 400 grit and we went into cleaning mode. We used the yard blower to blow out the garage, trailer and drive way. We then thoroughly vacuumed the garage top to bottom and washed the trailer. With all the prep done we just needed to pick the day.

When the day arrived the weather gods were smiling down on us with 70deg, low humidity and no wind. We started bright in and early setting up and wrapped up about 6-7pm that evening. It took longer than we thought to get the booth setup, covered and in position.

We left both ends open but left flaps hanging low and pulled the booth close to the garage to help control air flow and debris intro paths. We used box fans with furnace type filters to set up a slight airflow through the booth.

[Raymond]

By about noon we had everything in place so we donned our personal protective equipment and commenced to mixing and spraying. Young Ray was the sprayer; I was the mixer and hose tender.

Following the prescribed flash times we sprayed a number of (can’t remember exactly how many) color coats then moved directly to applying the clear. We intended to put a lot of clear coats on to support any color (wet) sanding and polishing that may be needed. We sprayed nearly a full gallon of clear

[Raymond]

The booth system worked well keeping most of the foreign matter out of the paint. There was one shortcoming in that the translucent plastic ceiling light seemed to attract some bugs; more on this later. Considering it was not a sealed booth we were pleased with its performance.

We had some areas that came out perfect but there was some orange peel in areas; overall we were not happy with the final paint. We had worked too hard to get the box flat to consider it acceptable. The only thing we could do was flatten it back out so we busted out the 400 paper and spray bottles again and went back at it.

[Raymond]

While we don’t think we ever cut through the clear (remember almost a gallon was sprayed), we elected to spray more clear to make sure we had enough clear to polish it out.

This second time we placing a tarp over the top of the booth to reduce the diffuser effect and it seemed to work well. The final outcome of the paint quality was much better this time.

[Raymond]

While we were pleased with the finish, it still needed some color sanding; but nothing radical like the first attempt. We started our final wet sand and polish with 1500 grit moving up through 2500 then onto liquid compounds.

[Raymond]

We worked through the progressive steps and overall, we are pleased with the surface finish of the exterior. We then moved to connect and mount up the lights; that was a rewarding day. We could now see light at the end of the tunnel . The marker light spacer blocks proved worthy of the effort; they gave us exactly what we needed. We installed them wet with silicone.