Rust in Astoria

Rust is one of the problems with living in a wet climate and not having a big pole building in which to store things. Such is the case with my horse trailer. There were major rust spots in the front where the two sheets of steel joined. The eaten away holes were large enough to pass a cup of coffee through. There was also a lot of rust on the fenders as demonstrated in the photo above.

I know that had I taken the trailer to a body shop the repairs would have cost more than what I paid for the trailer. It was time for me to learn how to do body work. I’ve known people in the Auto Body business and they were by no means rocket scientists; if they could do it, so could I.

I started by watching a five or six part Bondo video on Youtube and it was far easier than I thought it would be. I already had all of the tools. All I needed was a trip to the auto parts store for the supplies I needed. I also had to go to City Lumber for some thick galvanized flashing.

The first thing I did was to cut away the rust in the front and I riveted the flashing in place. Then I took my angle grinder to the fenders. Without going into long detail on the preparations I fiber glassed over the holes and then I eventually used body filler tom smooth and blend the surfaces. I ran out of time as I watched the marine layer move in on Saturday so I hit the exposed areas with primer. I can come back to it later with the top coat to blend everything perfectly, prime it, paint it and finish it.

Here are the after photos.