Member
Posts: 10
Location: Appleton, Wisconsin | How can I repair scratches in white painted aluminum? I just bought a 2004 4 Star trailer that was spotless... until today. I thought I would be proactive and work my two 4 year olds on loading. I pulled the trailer in the indoor arena, worked on loading, everything was going fine. I had the two colts and my 7 year old mare tied to the trailer and I proceeded to ride each and mimic the routine of standing at a trailer. The halters were the Clinton Anderson rope type (no metal) and I even wrapped the lead snap with vetwrap so there would be no scratching. One of the colts oldely enough must have bent down and the back cinch must have tightened enough to send him into a crow hopping rage which also put panic into the other guy. One broke loose and the other fell twice before coming to a standstill. Fortunately, they appear unharned. The trailer wasn't so fortunate. They bent the tie rings and somehow scratched the white aluminum. I think I needed to write this just to let it go. I am extremely thankful they are OK and I'm going to invest in more of the Blocker Tie Rings which I use everywhere but obviously didn't anticipate this. |
Expert
Posts: 5870
Location: western PA | Many of the painted aluminum panels of which your trailer is constructed, are purchased prepainted by the various trailer manufacturers. Depending on which company prepared the roll stock, will determine what type of paint that was used. Most of the stock shipped from Ambridge PA, is coated with Valspar products. Not all white colours are the same shade, each manufacturer specifies its own. Some coil coaters will provide touch up materials to the manufacturers for in house repairs. Whether they in turn repackage the paint, and supply it to their customers is up to them. Some automotive paint suppliers, have the same computer colour matching capabilities, as does the big box stores for house hold paints. Your trailer paints can be touched up using acrylic products. The suppliers can usually make small touch up applicators, pints, quart or gallon volumes or even individual spray cans. Try your OEM dealer first, then a paint supplier. The touch up paint may not be a perfect match. The coil coaters will run different batches, and there may be colour variations among them. Also, depending on the age of your trailer and its exposure to the elements, the original paint may have faded. The touch up paint may be brighter. Gard |
Expert
Posts: 1205
Location: Arkansas | Our "new to us" trailer had one mark on it. they had tied a horse with aluminum oxbows to the side, and he had made a scratch (3 parallel marks) right where the graphics are, grey, and black, on the white painted aluminum. I got three of those touch up pens in those colors, and touched up the short, minute, scratches. Worked great! That G-2 scratch remover would probably put the perfect finish on it too... |