Rolling Thunder part 2

Oh, my aching back…

Well, the trailer is nekkid, heheh! Bare metal… The paint was hideously long-winded and tedious to remove. Three separate coats of the gunk were required; the first took off the black and purple layer… mostly. The second took off the decent quality gold paint under that (why they had to cover that up is beyond me), and the final dose took off the grey undercoat. After that, it was a good few hours of wire brushing edges and hinges by hand, and doing the flat surfaces with a wire brush attachment on the hammer drill. Picture me with ear mufflers and an expression of gritty determination, two-handed death-grip on the drill, which is trying to skitter away at every slight movement…

Looks a lot better even bare like this than it did in its previous paint job. You can’t quite see yourself in the metal surface, but it’s smooth, and it’s shiny. It’s taken 7 hours of my time and 2 of the Husband’s to get it looking like this, but I definitely think it’s worth it.

Now we can start thinking about the primer. Can’t wait too long to start that, we have rain forecast and bare metal just waiting for any excuse to rust in damp air, and I don’t want the existing rusty patches to spread. We’ll have to pick our moments, as it’s not a job you can do inside. In fact, as the Husband’s going to be on day shift for another 2 days, I can see myself making a start tomorrow – or even today if the wind drops enough. I’m waiting for an email back from the primer manufacturer; the packaging doesn’t say how much it covers, and I shall be deeply peeved if we get everything except the last 50cm done when we could have bought another can and finished the job.

Still to do: finish sanding back the draw bar, wash down with methylated spirits, prime, make the template for the sides, mask the sides, do the charcoal coat, do the red coat, do the silver swoosh, refurbish and replace all the hardware (handles, latches, bolts, screws, number plate, etc), get new tyres fitted on the wheels, spray the wheel hubs. I’d like to get matching name decals for Miss Scarlett and the trailer, but the Husband is in two minds about that.

Once everything’s dry and cured, I have to repack all the camping equipment. And then all we have to do is hook up the trailer and we’re hot to trot.

But I reckon there might be another post or two in that To Do list…