Paint Job on my aluminum semi trailer, suggestions?

Your gonna find painting over galvanized metal not a great idea. Galvanizing needs removed. The zinc in it will not help paint adhere. Not sure if a self etching primer would even help. This is above me. You would need to talk to a experienced automotive painter.

 

You should do something like this

 

They make paint that will stick to galvan but they are limited to a couple colors and they are not gloss. Think fence posts and power poles. Not to pretty for a wagon.

 

Take this from someone who knows what it costs, get it wrapped, cheaper, less labor intensive and easy to have done.

i have two trailers that were painted before I got them, the records that came with them showed paint cost $3600 for one $4k for the other.

 

I just did a quick Google search and there's information on how to paint over the galvanized.

In that situation you will have to use a primer before you can paint the finish.

An option that I could suggest to you is to use a paint like sher-kem. That is a Sherwin Williams paint that you can buy at any Sherwin Williams paint store. I'm sure that the price has gone up now but II used to buy paint there and it was only maybe 40 or $50 a gallon.

That paint is designed to be painted on bare metal, however, I've used that with a primer and it has really given me good results.

If you look in the specifications for that paint there's a PDF for it if you Google it, that will tell you what type of thinner to use to mix with it, the ratio to thin it, and what pressure to spray it at. Do not deviate from that. From my experience if you are going to spray you need a pretty good compressor with a pretty good tank to maintain the proper pressure. A small compressor will not work right.

Now mind you that is not like a high performance automotive paint it's more of an industrial paint but like I said I've had very good results with that. I'm not sure what colors are available and you really don't have to clear coat that if you don't want to. You can, but it's fine the way that it is honestly. Depends what you're trying to do.

 

Also the trailers aren't "painted". They use precoated aluminum. I've hauled several loads into Great Dane in Brazil, IN

 

What does wrapping a 53 footer cost roughly?