Ah yes...nice black smoothness instead of rust! The trailer looks a total mess now with all the prep work, smears and drips but it's all part of the process.
While Steve removed a few lights so I could begin work on seams I took my Goo Gone and a razor blade to attack the residual adhesive from the reflective tape. It took a bit but I got it down to the paint, I'll still go over these areas with a sander anyways but it's great to get all that sticky stuff off!
Steve and I cut out the seam tape that I will use with Elastoseal. It's interesting since it's a fine mesh fabric tape, no adhesive. What you do is apply the Elastoseal in seams and when the second coat is still wet you place the tape on the seam and then paint over more Elastoseal to completely soak the tape.
The blanket rack in the tack room worked perfectly to hang the pre-cut strips.
Steve had work things to do so I was left to seal up the 4-5 seams on the roof. Nice view from up here so I can't complain too much!
I applied a first thick coat on the seams, getting the Elastoseal into the crevices as best I could. Then I grabbed one of our pre-cut tape strips to apply to another wet coat. Just then the wind picked up and started gusting as I was precariously standing on the ladder trying to secure the tape in the Elastoseal. Once on and painted over it stuck well it was just the matter of keeping it from blowing around like toilet paper in a tree. I tied one end to my long handle paint roller and that seemed to help but it was tough battling the wind!
After I finished the first two seams I'd had enough. The wind was too much and was blowing my paint holder all over the place, not to mention trying to get the seam tape nice and smooth was a bit of a pain. I'll have to try again the next morning when the chance of wind is a little calmer.
I just couldn't stay up there battling the gusts! I'm glad no one was around since there were some bad words uttered for sure.
The next morning Steve came out with me to assist in the last two seams. We quickly applied the seams and then I started working on the 6 screw holes that were up there. Steve headed home to continue work stuff he needed to do. I applied a small patch of the fabric to each screw hole and painted over it with the Elastoseal. Then I reapplied the Elastoseal to the first two seams to get them coated well. I finished up each seam with an additional coat and went back to each screw hole patch. Everything was looking great.
Several bugs lost their lives as the ended up stuck in the wet sealant. I felt bad but what can you do? I also dropped my brush on the ground. That was fun! Had to rinse it out quickly to be able to finish up the last patch.
The roof is now ready for the final elastomeric coat but I won't be able to get that done until Saturday morning as my four day weekend has come to an end. The roof seams and holes left over from a hay rack are all patched up and good to go. The rust spots are treated too. The roof sure looks a mess doesn't it? It will be awesome though knowing that this work will last a long while. It's worth taking all these steps to have a solid leak free trailer.
Next steps:
1) Apply the elastomeric top coat to fully seal the roof
2) Convert and seal the rust on the outside of the trailer
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