Alternative to Rhino-lining

[maa. melee]

Steel utility trailer, diamond plate bottom and sides with 1/4" steel plating and rails on the outside. Inside dimensions are 4' and change X8' and change. Perfect for plywood and plasterboard. Anyways, it belongs to my father and I've always scraped, primed with zinc chromate, and topcoat with a few coats of rustoleum gloss black. The interior takes horrible abrasion and scrapes away the paint. We leave it outside uncovered and it fills with snow and water, which drains out the rear doors.

The estimate for rhino-lining is more than the trailer costed when new, less sand blasting. We need abrasion resistance and rust protection. What options do I have?? Any help will be appreciated.

[JimConlin]

Save your money.
Without any treatment, the trailer won't rust out in your lifetime. At intervals, you can make it prettier, but that's only for show.
Rhinoliner makes sense only to protect light gauge bodywork that'd rust out in a very few years.

[Thorne]

I know some outfits sell the "spray it yourself" plastic lining kits. You could consider sanding and masking out "skid-strips" and just coat those areas, leaving most of the trailer uncoated.

Here's a rollon coating rated for a 4x8 truck bed for $105 -- surely your trailer is worth more than $210?

http://www.grizzlygrip.com/#

;0 )

[donald branscom]

Just sandblast and paint with epoxy paint.
End of story.

[Capt. LeadBlade]

Some stuff called Herculiner is pretty good. http://www.herculiner.com/

I coated the inside of my 99' Jeep and its holding up pretty well. I picked up a container of it at O'riely Autostore for $100

[TMny]

If you can sandblast as prep , that's best for steel. Falling behind D. Branscom , I'll make a plug for a one-part urethane coating sold by Pettit for underwater duty . It is very abrasion-resistant , and you can apply 3+ coats in a day, apply ambient temps 10*F-90*F ; and topcoat (it's considered a 'primer') with most urethane-based paints.

One MUST recoat while tacky , or will peel in sheets between layers[follow guidelines on drying-time/temperature chart--but keep tabs , as humidity etc varies] and good ventilation is strongly recommended (xylene solvent). Three coats of the Rustlock with one/two of B-M can be done in sequence (you never want to sand the stuff) . Pettit recommends it on unsandblasted surfaces, as the Rustlock will penetrate some surface rust. If don't sandblast , do wash first with extremely dilute dish detergent , then flush fresh water , then rinse with distilled/deionized/reverse-osmosis purified water, dry & warm surface , then paint!

If you topcoat with ,say Benjamin Moore Industrial coating , the latter will wear off at abrasive stripes , revealing the aluminum-pigmented Rustlock ....

PETTIT 6980 RUSTLOK STEEL PRIMER
OR (same paint diff pkg , check qty)
PETTIT 6981 TRAILERCOAT

http://www.discountmarinesupplies.com/product.cgi?group=100004&product=100091

http://www.discountmarinesupplies.com/product.cgi?group=100004&product=100024

Pettit fields informative customer service questions regarding application advice. http://www.pettitpaint.com/
Goto--
Products...Primers...Primers for Steel...Rustlok Steel Primer 6980
...PDS...>>data sheet/instructions
http://www.pettitpaint.com/pet_cds/product_pds/1698108.pdf