Painting a hopper bottom

Bought a 42’ sow belly Timpte, from out in Kansas. Went and picked it up last weekend and when I got it back I started cleaning. Acidized it, removed the wheels, cleaned and polished the outsides. It had Freightliner style aluminums on the outside and 10 hole aluminums on the inside, so I swapped them around to match the truck. Sanding and polishing them was very tough but didn’t turn out as good as I’d like. Mounted 8 new tires and now starting the painting prep.

 

The paint that’s existing is thin but no cracks, peeling or chips. I’ve lightly went over most of it with scotch bright and where the reflective stickers were, are a PITA. I used reducer, a razor blade, then a DA sander. I followed that with a heavy coat of etching primer. Here’s some pic of the trailer after cleaned but before the paint prep.

 

I’ll post some more tomorrow. Don’t hold me to a high standard cause I’m not much a painter and it’s my first time painting an aluminum hopper trailer.

 

This is cool. I love restorations of equipment and vehicles. Wish I had the room, ability and time to do something like this. Best I can do now is a 1988 Honda Fourtrax in my one car garage LOL.

Keep the pics coming.

 

Got one side painted and painted the other but not satisfied so I’m going to redo it. The first side turned out pretty good but the second side has got an, “orange peel” look.

 

I’m using an enamel with hardener. 8 parts paint, 1 part reducer and a 1/4 cap full of hardener. This one side is kicking my arse and don’t know why. Cleaned and prepped both side the same. Any thoughts or advice?

 

Try a to use more reducer and bit more hardener to make it flow out more, ck the reducer temp.to be sure you have the right stuff for the temp. you are panting in ? the other side looks jam up!

 

You are up close. It’ll never look great but from a distance and moving it’ll look like a show room finish. Don’t be so critical, would likely take a whole lot more prep work for a smooth as glass finish.
I use a count of 4 off paint stick to check viscosity for initial coats. I up it to 2 with more reducer for the final wet coat, makes it shine!

 

I’m gonna sand it back down and clean it good. In the places it was originally bare aluminum, I used multiple coats of etching primer. It’s rough like this over the whole side regardless, if it was applied over the primer or original scuffed paint. Should I increase my parts of reducer?

 

It’s possible that the sheets on the one side could have been originally painted with a different paint formula that is not compatible with the etcher or another paint you are using causing the orange peel reaction. Those sheets are prepainted by the vendors the trailer companies buy from. Some enamels will not cover over other types very well. They have to be chemically stripped down to bare surface. I see this with polyurethane over imron a lot. It is even worse if the paint you are going over was constantly washed with a wax type soap or hand waxed a lot. It soaks in down to the base over time. Even a varsol or acetone wipe down won’t help.