UKH

I've heard you need to treat the surface first before painting as the paint will peel off, even stuff like Hammerite. 

Any tips? It's for a trailer like the one in the pic which looks nothing like the one in the pic as its tarnished and tatty looking.

Cheers,

E

You can get special galvanised primers. I can't remember which one I used, but it worked.

I tried hammarite on galvanised steel a long while back. It peeled. 

If it were new, you'd apply an etching solution, followed by a rinse and wipe with acetone, followed by a primer, followed by your paint of choice.

As it's tarnished and tatty you have to add a few days of elbow grease, rubbing it down to remove all tattyness and tarnish, or a session sand blasting it.

Etching and a good (ie expensive) paint mght give you decent results following a good clean, but hardly worth the cost. Look up 'POR15' paint (they do the whole etching solution, optional primer and top coat system) or an industrial epoxy paint.

There's a reason why you don't usually see painted galvanised steel and that is why

Don't get POR-15 on your hands it takes weeks to come off... Brilliant stuff though. 

I think you can powercoat over galvanised metal, could be worth getting a quote if you can strip it down, it can be surprisingly cheap, and then you can get a fun colour scheme. 

Hammerite do a Special Primer for non ferrous surfaces.

https://www.hammerite.co.uk/product/special-metals-primer/

I've not used it for galvanised, but I have used it extensively for bronze and aluminium and it is superb. I would certainly try it for galvanised as that's also listed as one of its uses.

It comes off when the skin it's attached to falls off. Or can be cleaned with white spirit before it dries which is my preferred approach  

Yes you can. 

You can get etch primer in a rattle can, I suspect that would key to zinc.

jk

Or get a cover for it

Marie Duvier  at njordmanufacturing at gmail.com will help.

+44790382278two

www.njord-manufacturing.com

Give her a call: she's a Scot, living in Denmark- makes them to order and sends them out by DHL.  Very well made and tough as old boots (the covers, not Marie, although she may fit that description too).

Ours covers a big cage on top of the trailer and comes down to within a few inches of the base

You're probably thinking of mordant solution, sometimes called T-wash - it's a thin watery solution you wash on with a brush. It makes shiny new galv tarnished and gives the paint something to stick to.

If it's old and weathered then my preference would be to give it a good scrub down with scotch brite/sandpaper then an epoxy primer followed by a topcoat.

Thanks everyone.

E

Jotun Jotamastic 90 is a 2 pack epoxy coating which can be applied directly to galvanised steel after cleaning and hand-sanding.

It’s not cheap, but then nothing worth applying will be!

Make sure you clean, sand and clean again. an etch primer is a good idea then a non sand primer over the top. all depends how good you want it to look really.