The Detailers Cafe
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kitzy on March 13, 2020, 06:58:57 PM
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My boss bought two new trailers for this season. He sold one old one and offered me the other. I didn't really have the extra money so I declined. He later said $500. I hesitated and he quickly changed the subject and moved on. Later again he said he didn't know what to do with it so he was going to give it to me. At the risk of sounding ungrateful I had to tell him I wasn't in a position to take it if it needed a bunch of work. Keep in mind the trailer he sold had frame issues and cost over $2700 (last estimate I was privy to before they finished inspection). He said take it for inspection. Major repairs ($2700) were needed so I told him to just sell it and get some money back. He said no, paid for the repairs, replaced a few things and insisted I take it.
Needless to say, I was speechless.
So now it needs a good cleaning. It's not perfect. I'm not looking for perfect. I just want to clean it up and build a shelf or cabinet inside for gear. This is when I wish I had Megs Paint Reconditioning Cream (was it 151). That was the best product I used to clean up black trailer streaks. I also have to remove the lettering.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200313/b768adf3d3d49b733329e86dbb7af81b.jpg)
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Sweet! And your boss is one of a kind!
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That’s pretty awesome. He obviously appreciates your work ethic and honesty.
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Sweet! And your boss is one of a kind!
good bosses are hard to come by....ask me how I know. :funny:
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Indeed good bosses are hard to come by. I have been very fortunate in that aspect currently and in the past.
I'm hoping to get time to work on the trailer now that everything is shut down . Most of the old shelves are disassembled so it's only a matter of building a new one that will work for my needs and cleaning it up.
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I am probably going to paint all of the interior walls in a high gloss white to make cleaning easier. I'm not sure what I want to do with the floor. It has to be durable because I power slide the four wheelers in sideways so I will be spinning the tires on the floor.
So...
-Any recommendations for durable yet not outrageously expensive floor paint or epoxy? The floor is 3/4" plywood if that matters.
-What would you use to clean the white panels? Anyone who has dealt with black streaking on trailers knows it's a bear to get off. The best two products I have ever seen is Meg's Paint Reconditioning Cream and Optimum's equivalent. I forget the name of Optimum's. Not sure what my stock looks like but no doubt it's all really old product.
-Diamond plate... I want to polish it but its always an awful process. Any tips or tricks?
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Optimum Poli-Seal was the other product I had in mind. I looked at my stash and I have some of both. I also have one of those wheels on order for the drill to remove the lettering.
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I had to clean up some marks on my cousins enclosed trailer last year. I had great luck with ultimate compound on some “well used” orange LCC pads.
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I had to clean up some marks on my cousins enclosed trailer last year. I had great luck with ultimate compound on some “well used” orange LCC pads.
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I may have some of that laying around as well. I was thinking PB Pro Polish may work well.
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The drill attachment to remove the lettering showed up today. A day early no less. I think they're calling for rain for the rest of eternity though, give or take a day.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200328/a0e45f97014423a8582ff30e993fc7f6.jpg)
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I got a chance to try out the wheel. It works better than I expected. It took me about an hour to completely remove one side. It also took 4 drill batteries, two 5AH and two 2AH batteries. It takes two hands to control the drill and keep it in place. The drill puts out some serious heat under constant use so I burned my hands a few times. I should have worn gloves.
This was my starting point after doing half of a letter somewhere else.
https://vimeo.com/402259479
After just those 3 numbers the wheel already showed signs of decent wear and I thought I'd never make it through a side.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200330/585451e172a0cbdb12c78c3ab7cb5e06.jpg)
You can get pretty wreckless with this thing without too much worry. I went extra careful for a while knowing that the paint on these panels is extra thin. You can almost scratch it off. So I was surprised at the abuse it took. Although I am fairly certain I burned through it in one spot. I was sitting in one spot for quite a while though.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200330/a0baa2435e0d4c28f37a91c2cfbec41b.jpg)
In the above picture you can see a dark spot right next to the yellow. That's the aluminum showing underneath. The yellow brings me to another point. Most of the lettering removed cleanly. However, the grey colored lettering seemed to leave behind a yellow residue from the wheel. I'm hoping that comes off with something like Goo Gone.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200330/b95d6ea39f7eb392bd7df81333ac014a.jpg)
And finally, what the wheel looks like after one side. It ended up holding up better than I thought it would when I first started but there's no way it holds up to two more areas (the other side and the rear door/ramp).
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200330/7d69ab002bda648ef8e345586f8acd67.jpg)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200330/829ad0e0f1da367feaccb7a2063dac93.jpg)
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Wow, that looks like it worked pretty good. I figured you would be burning through 3-4 of them to get all the decals off.
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Wow, that looks like it worked pretty good. I figured you would be burning through 3-4 of them to get all the decals off.
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I really didn't know what to expect. Now I'm thinking I might be able to get by with two of them. You can see the line where it says with to stop use. I'm assuming there's some kind of metal plate inside that becomes exposed just beyond that. I'm also curious to see how it works once it becomes work past those teeth or whatever you want to call them. I'm assuming it won't change much since 3M's version doesn't have those at all.
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I think the teeth, just help it keep cool and clean. I used a 3M one on my old bosses truck years and years ago. It worked pretty well.
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always wondered about those new wheels...looks like it worked well.
Could have used that when we took the wraps off my AV vans.
That was a bitch
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I dont think I'd want to use this on an entire vehicle wrap.
I did order another wheel so I can hopefully finish the rest of the trailer. I got the same brand but it's a solid wheel, without the "teeth". They didn't have that one on Amazon. The 3M ones were all sold third party and we're expensive.
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I got the other side of the trailer done. Still using the first wheel. That side of the trailer has spent half of the amount of time in the sun as the other side so I was able to start it with the wheel and then peel it in big chunks. The second wheel came in the mail and it's significantly smaller than the first wheel. Both diameter and thickness. It's probably close to the worn out wheel in its current state.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200406/e2e99dd62d290f7d4371fd63035fa82f.jpg)
One more side to go. I'm looking to get a belt sander so I can redo the floors. I'm justifying it by telling myself I can redo the side porch as well.
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Progress! Excellent!
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Looking for a floor coating. I am sceptical of all of them. Haha. I am liking the sales pitch of Armorpoxy though. I emailed them and they recommended their garage kit with the 2 part military grade clear coat. It's over $450 though so it's pretty pricey.
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dumb question time ( yea I know what's new... )
Have you looked at the Behr Deck over paint ?
There is a textured version.
I thought you could use this now without having to go nuts refinishing ( replacing ) the plywood and then touch up with it later if needed.
The floor is going to get damaged.
Dad never painted the floor of his trailers, the last one he still has is the plywood that came it in, minus a few hits here and there.
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dumb question time ( yea I know what's new... )
Have you looked at the Behr Deck over paint ?
There is a textured version.
I thought you could use this now without having to go nuts refinishing ( replacing ) the plywood and then touch up with it later if needed.
The floor is going to get damaged.
Dad never painted the floor of his trailers, the last one he still has is the plywood that came it in, minus a few hits here and there.
Your questions aren't usually dumb, just worded a bit over our heads. Some of us are simple folk. Haha. I got this one though.
So this trailer is exactly what I need but not necessarily what I want. By that I mean its been used hard and shows it, especially on the inside. We spend a lot of time mixing and dumping made for asphalt epoxy costings inside of the trailer and it has a tendency to spill or splash. Compound that with guys who simply don't care because it's not theirs. Side story, building out the new trailers with the other foreman at work we discussed who was going to F the trailers up first. He missed the first week we came back due to family stuff and took one look at my trailer and said "Connor was mixing wasn't he?" Guys just don't care and I have to tell them everyday to not trash stuff and put stuff back. Ridiculous.
Anyway, I hate walking in and looking at the trailer floors and walls. I need to make it look nicer. I also need to make it easy to clean because it will be transporting muddy ATVs and UTVs. The ATVs need to be loaded in sideways and the easiest way to do that it to pull in on a slight angle and pin the front tire against the wall or fender well, hold the break (also make sure it's in 2wd and not 4wd, lesson learned) and hit the throttle, essentially power sliding the machine sideways. Quick and easy. Hard on the floor. So the floor needs to look decent and be durable.
It may still fail in the long run but atleast I can say I tried.
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Today's game plan was to frame out a closet in the basement to conceal all of the water filtration and softener stuff so I can re-finish half of the basement for the gym. Then I was going to tackle the trailer floor. The reality of the situation is That I am in no way, shape or form a framer. It took me all day and now I feel like doing morning. The closet is ready for drywall though.
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Back to the drawing board. I'll attach a before and after of the trailer floor but the belt sander is tearing through belts. I went through 4 belts to achieve the after which is only like two square feet. The first two belts were probably my fault as I don't think I had them adjusted right and they were walking to the inside. I was using 40 grit and it was barely making a dent. I need to look at other options.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200410/f0b05041521f53bde4dc52f00417184a.jpg)
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200410/fdd960da32f26e542a07ee1e7460cc9a.jpg)
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That stuff is tough!! How about just doing a garage epoxy coating on top of it?
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That stuff is tough!! How about just doing a garage epoxy coating on top of it?
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I need to level off what's there first. I don't care if there is some left under it as long as it is somewhat smooth or consistent. But it's huge and in big globs in places. It will look terrible if I don't knock it down even. I may end up using a big grinder if I can find the right disc or pad for it.
I do plan on using a garage floor epoxy. Leaning towards the Armorpoxy kit.
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OK.. NExt dumb question...
Why not just get some asphalt epoxy coating from work and finish what was started in there ?
- Sounds like something that power sliding the machine sideways would hold up to.
You look like you are 70%+ done with that route..
:dunno:
I don't know if epoxy over plywood is going to hold up to a power slide load method..
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OK.. NExt dumb question...
Why not just get some asphalt epoxy coating from work and finish what was started in there ?
- Sounds like something that power sliding the machine sideways would hold up to.
You look like you are 70%+ done with that route..
:dunno:
I don't know if epoxy over plywood is going to hold up to a power slide load method..
I'm considering it. Two main drawbacks are it would make cleaning worse. The epoxy costings from work are very gritty as you would expect. It would take some effort even to just broom it out. The other drawback is somewhat related to the gritty nature of it. It's like sandpaper. So in my head I just see dollar signs going out the window as I burn rubber off the tires trying to position them. That may be me just being paranoid buts it's stuck in my head regardless.
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No progress on the trailers. I've been too busy with the home gym/basement. I did however get my new hitch in. My last hitch had a 2" ball and was a 6 inch drop to get my open trailer level when hooked to my GMC. The Ford sits a little higher and the new trailer requires a 2 5/16" ball. So I got an adjustable hitch with a 2.5" shank (no more reducer), both balls are interchangeable and it has a built in tongue weight scale. Super quick and easy to change out and stowable when not needed. It's billet aluminum (stainless balls) so it's light.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200425/a9eb9ed0909017d0fc5ae1ff1faab836.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200425/05d2b09b31ed2d70f8bfc9f432cd370b.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200425/160c5b61a6cb329fdb8f33c588a2aad9.jpg)
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No progress on the trailers. I've been too busy with the home gym/basement. I did however get my new hitch in. My last hitch had a 2" ball and was a 6 inch drop to get my open trailer level when hooked to my GMC. The Ford sits a little higher and the new trailer requires a 2 5/16" ball. So I got an adjustable hitch with a 2.5" shank (no more reducer), both balls are interchangeable and it has a built in tongue weight scale. Super quick and easy to change out and stowable when not needed. It's billet aluminum (stainless balls) so it's light.
(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200425/a9eb9ed0909017d0fc5ae1ff1faab836.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200425/05d2b09b31ed2d70f8bfc9f432cd370b.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20200425/160c5b61a6cb329fdb8f33c588a2aad9.jpg)
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That's kind of neat. I've never seen one with a built in scale like that.
I have one of those "triple ball" solid steel draw bars with 1 7/8", 2", and 2 5/16" balls on it. The Tacoma is low enough where all three work just about perfectly for what I tow.
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Nice hitch! I’m curious to see how long it lasts you. I always “hear” about aluminum wearing out pretty quick
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Nice hitch! I’m curious to see how long it lasts you. I always “hear” about aluminum wearing out pretty quick
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It got very good reviews. I can see that being a concern though. The biggest complaint is that it's noisy because of the moving parts.
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In that picture where you can see the scale, it reads about 650 lbs. I estimate about 1300 lbs for the SxS, and 700 lbs a piece for both four wheelers. So 2700 plus the empty trailer at I believe is close to 3000 lbs. So 5700 lbs loaded should have me at 11.5% tongue weight which sits nicely in the 9-15% recommended range.
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Nice hitch! I’m curious to see how long it lasts you. I always “hear” about aluminum wearing out pretty quick
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It got very good reviews. I can see that being a concern though. The biggest complaint is that it's noisy because of the moving parts.
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We had a number of adjustable aluminum draw bars at the marina I worked at. To say that we used the crap out of them would be an understatement. Never had one fail and never noticed any significant wear either, much to my surprise.
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Awesome. I’m not sure of the brand, but one friend of mine bought a aluminum hitch and it lasted one season of pulling a sled trailer. After that it had a lot of movement in the pins and he didn’t trust it anymore.
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