Well another week has passed by and I managed to get some work done on the Ridekick power trailer project. I thought it best that I get everyone caught up with the latest news. As the title of this posting says the painting of the trailer has finally been completed. I am happy with the results and even happier that it has not been a major pain in the process. As with most of my projects I learn as I go and get better in the long run. This has been the case over the years in learning how to paint different projects. This project was one of my smaller jobs to paint so I was happy that it turned out as well as it has.
After having spent a good deal of time preparing the fenders of the little trailer for paint with sanding, primer, resanding, and more primer over and over again the end result after painting the fenders was worth the effort as you can see in the photo above.
I once again pulled my work table spray booth out of storage and put it to good use for this project. The simplest way I found to paint both fenders inside and out was to bolt them together using threaded rods. I then rested them on a couple of blocks of Styrofoam which made the job much easier. I was able to pick up both fenders at the same time, spray them on the inside and then rest them back down again on the blocks of foam. With the turntable in the little spray booth I then could rotate the fenders to spray them properly and get the results you see here.
I like this shot of the fenders with the bottom of the trailer. It gives you a little bit of an idea of how well the fenders will look with the black painted tub of the trailer along with the tires and rims.
This series of photos starting at the top is how the trailer lid looked once I started laying down the very light five coats of paint. I had to keep reminding myself as I was spraying each coat to only put down a very light coat. The lid of the trailer only started to look good after about the third or fourth coat. I also must remind you that this was done with a can of spray paint not a spray gun. So I am rather proud that I could this nice of finish to this part. Most of this result is because of all the prep work I did before hand.
Another couple of good shots of the trailer lid after the paint had dried. Pretty as a picture seems to fit the description perfectly.
After the paint had dried for a couple of days I was able to start mounting the reflector assemblies on to the new fenders. As you can see from the photos above the mounting is held on to the fender using one 10-24 half inch bolt and nut. I was sure to add Lock-tite to the threads so that the reflectors would not let loose after some time using them. The orange and red reflectors were then inserted into the mounts using the supplied double stick rubber mount that is sandwiched between the reflector and the mount. Very sticky to say the least but luckily not a problem to get set up. The look of the completed reflector on the left I am very happy with especially because of the mounting matching perfectly with the fender shape and color.
Finally here is the end result of the painting on the project. I still want to put some pin stripe on the lid and a couple of other decals that I have already made for the trailer but this I will wait with until the paint cures for a couple more days and I can reassemble the trailer with the new fenders. Once I have the trailer put back together again I will post the final details of the project and get some photos taken again of the trailer along with my velomobile that it will be used with. Until then enjoy the pictures and have a good day in your shop as well.
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