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Trailer seam rust

J

JimS

Member
I have a 3 horse slant load trailer Id like to rebuild for animal rescue training (We have mannequins we put in the trailer and flip it (It has roll bars) and practice extricating the animals.). It is for a professional first responder training service a friend runs so all repairs need to look clean, professional, and safe.

Some of the lap seams have rust bulging them slightly. This is CA, so it isnt a cancer rust. The metal still seems pretty solid. One fender does have a cancer rust which I will cut out and reweld.

What are some techniques for cleaning these rusted seams without complete disassembly? What rust inhibitors, converters, sealers, primers are recommended? Online source referral, video links, etc. are appreciated.

Any other trailer rebuild advice and sources are appreciated as well.

Thanks.
 
If the seams are on panel to frame ribs, the only way to do it correctly and safe is to sand blast, or wire brush it to determine where the actual rust is, and remove it. Rust between panels at a lap need to be cleaned between the panels. if they are riveted, drilling the rivets (special rivet drill is wonderful) and spreading the panels to remove the rust is good. POR-15 is a rust converter, but it is pretty nasty to work with, and is no good where sun/UV will hit it. It also does not work on un rusted bare metal, it just does not equal paint. Duplicolor and Rustoleum both have rust converter spray that Are pretty good at penetrating and stopping additional rust. Some are clear, and some are black. once it is re riveted, or? and flat, prime and spray to finish. Jim
 
Nothing bad at the frame. The laps in question are mostly at the roof and one upper and one front. It's spotty and not all the way across.

I was thinking of the Dicor roof products on this roof.
 
Sealing the affected locations from additional moisture is the critical ingredient in assuring continued service and reasonable looking exterior. Jim
 

These "roll bars" external to the trailer?

If the training involves loading with mannequins and rolling it into odd positions is it not gonna get beaten up??

Will the training exercise include loose hay, manure, water and horse pee all over the inside dripping down on rescuers.????

Fixing it up to get beat up and nasty seems to be an effort that will disappear quickly???

Rust causing seams and overlaps to bulge will require them to be opened up to get the rust out or neutralized.
Even a chemical, caustic bath by going thru the preparation dip tanks at your nearest galvanizer will not get the rust out or stopped.
The rust will keep on doing it's thing and bleed thru the hot dip.

No liquid "converter" will stop it either because the stuff can't get ALL the way inside the seams
 
Go to your nearest Ace, or other hardware, and buy some Phosphoric acid. It will change the rust to Phosphoric oxide. Remove any loose rust and brush or spray the acid on. Rust will turn black and you can just go ahead and put the paint on. Costs about $16 per gallon. Used a lot of it when I worked on the offshore oil platforms out in the Gulf. One name for it is Ospho. Good luck.
 
The Phosphoric acid is not a strong acid. We never used gloves when we used it. I would wear eye protection though. Being a clear liquid, not the pasty stuff, it will get into anyplace the rian will.
 
Roll bars are external. It does not get beaten up that bad but it isn't something you want to do to a new trailer.

When rescuers do other types of training, we tend not to cover them in blood and excrement or hazardous chemicals. We don't want to
kill them in training. It looks bad on our quarterly reviews. Yes. I get your point. If we were following your line of thought, we
should just get a dead horse from the renderer and toss it in the trailer or place human cadavers in vehicles and crush them.
 


What glen SW WI said!!! Be abundant with it. I use a syringe to inject it into blind lap joints. As others have said the phosphoric acid needs to be top-coated but not before it is done working. Follow the instructions on the product. I use Rust Mort by SEM. It is sold at automotive stores. I keep reapplying in oder to get good penetration. Be careful of hiding rust with heavy paint. That just gives it a protected place to work and grow.
 
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