Greetings all! I just purchased my first horse trailer; it's a 1983 Arndt 2H BP. As you can guess, it needs some work (it's been sitting for ~2 years), but I'm hoping it will make for a good starter trailer. It's currently at the metal fabricator's to make a couple structural repairs; I'll get it back at the end of the month. Since I took it directly from the seller to the metal shop, I haven't had it home yet to really tear into the other mechanicals to see what all needs to be done... What I DO know is, the lights all work (yay!), and it needs a new breakaway brake system (the cable for the existing one is broken, and the battery is shot). The tires look to be in good shape, but they are of a questionable age, so I'm probably just going to go ahead and replace them as well. I don't know what kind of shape the brakes are in; I didn't hook them up when I moved the trailer from the seller's to the fabricator's, because I didn't want to risk them locking up and not having the tools available to deal with it on the road. Fortunately, I have a very mechanically-inclined neighbor who's going to help with the brakes, repacking the hubs, etc., once I bring it home from the fabricator's. My next question is, what's a good product to deal with the rust?? The roof is the worst area; it's going to need to be sanded and repainted. I'd also like to sand and repaint the interior (at least the upper walls and roof of the interior) which is peeling/flaking pretty badly. The exterior walls are in pretty good shape; I'll probably leave that alone for this year. In browsing old threads, I saw mention of a product whose name escapes me now-- something like sylpho??--that looks like a dark green liquid, supposedly converts the rust to a black layer which can then be painted over. If $$$ was no object, I'd take it to be professionally sandblasted and repainted, but this is going to be a DIY job... I really don't want to sink $$$$ into a 30-year old trailer. |