what you see is the "smoke grey" from rustoleum

long lost cousins i suppose

lol. i could only find 2 gallons of rusty metal at the local hardware stores. so i used grey as well. I'm under the impression the rusty metal is superior quality, however it was not readily available. thanks for the question

About 4 afternoons, maybe 12-15 hours in PREP time. Thanks for the question.

How many hours to paint?

where are you located??? lol

You shouldn't really need to if you've used a sealant. I like Sparthane since it's made for boats its very thick and lasts thru the elements

But if no sealant was applied waxing can help longevity

absolutely!

its an aluminum panel that was already on. i just cleaned it and sprayed it black

You learn to tell by the thickness of the metal vs the depth of the rust and how much the rust looks like it has "eaten" away. It will actually look like a deeper crevice and that it you go over it to sand that you will be able to see to the other side. Now, in some areas that are not of major importances this is not a life or death issue and sometimes epoxy is used to fill rust spots and then sanded to create and nice smooth and even surface to paint. The issue you are looking for is if these rust spots are on major metal pieces such as the frame work of the trailer. If they are many or just one spot that happened to have water sitting or a high water flow area under a tree. If the areas are small and likely wont go through if you go over it with a wire brush or if you are going to need to actually replace metal or do body work on the trailer. One small heavy wear spot here or there that is not on a piece of frame and is so small I can epoxy and sand is something I can deal with. . . . . . . .20 spots I would need to epoxy to have a smooth surface after sanding because the rust is everywhere is a different story and gives me much greater pause to get that trailer a thorough go through as I expect rust in places I don't want to "fix" like the frame and I'm not going to be welding that. When you see the rust spots you can tell if they look like they have eaten a crater into the metal or if they are just eating the finish off kind of everywhere and it needs a new paint job, but there is plenty of metal left to work with.

​@@blackdandelion5549 Thank you so much for taking the time to answer!! That's very helpful😊

That’s a good question he primed the whole thing so I want to say it is still looking good but if the primer didn’t have rust blocker it might have went through the paint and started chipping would be great if he could give a response

its my parents trailer. i just met them yesterday to go trail riding and i looked the trailer over. it's holding up great. no paint chips, bubbling, or rust coming through yet. I'm pretty pleased. it's still stored outside. they haul horses about twice a month with it.