The draw bar/Jones dolly wheel of the Jennison Pathfinder needs to be dismantled with all the parts cleaned/repaired and painted. Before I do anything I need to decide what will be the best method to remove the paint from the steel sections of the dolly wheel.
There would be several methods that I could use to remove the paint from the steel work but I will just look at the following 3 basic methods.
Sanding
Sanding of the parts is a very time consuming job especially as the dolly wheel has a lot of tight little corners to get into, although the biggest concern with sanding would be that some of the parts are showing signs of rusting that sanding would just not get into. I would really only consider sanding the A frame if the original paint was in good condition or if it was just a repaint.
It is also important to remember that personal protective equipment (PPE) should be worn while sanding or any of the following methods, which would include safety glasses, gloves and suitable dust or fume mask.
Stripping
This is a very easy way to remove several layers of paint on the steel work of the A frame. Although it may be easy, it would also be one of the messiest ways to remove paint. Paint stripper is also the safest way to remove lead based paint without creating dust particles.
There are several brands of paint stripper at your local hardware, with the most “common” and usually slightly cheaper versions containing Methylene Chloride (also known as Dichloromethane) which makes the stripper very toxic. There are also other brands that are considered “green” versions of paint stripper that are a lot more expensive , and I usually find that they don’t work as well. In my 26 years in the building industry, unfortunately I have found that in most cases the more toxic a product is the better it will work.
Usually the stripper is in a form of a “gel” that is applied by a brush and left to react with the paint (in most cases water based paint is removed quicker than enamel paint) after the paint has bubbled I remove the excess with a scraper and rag. I have heard of saw dust and the like being used but this just leaves a mess of saw dust, paint and stripper, and if it takes more than one application to completely remove the paint, the saw dust actually slows down the stripping process in the next application. With the last residue of stripper cleaned off with fresh water.
Like sanding, paint stripper really is not really suitable with all the tight little corners in the A frame, but more importantly the paint stripper will not remove the rust that it suffers from.
Sand Blasting
Now sand blasting is a very old term that is still used today. Although sand is not used anymore because of the health risks with silica dust. ( the broken up particles of sand).Today it is commonly known as abrasive blasting, bead blasting or soda blasting with the name referring back to the medium used to strip the paint. The most common and cheapest medium is garnet, then for the more delicate parts there is bead, soda and now walnut shell.
This would be the most expensive way to remove paint but for the Jennison it will be the only satisfactory way to remove the paint as well as surface rust on the steel. A very basic sand blasting set up with compressor large enough to run the sand blaster would cost around $2,500.00 but I have been quoted $600 to have it done professionally, which I think is quite reasonable considering the time it would take to clean it up by hand.
Image 1
The overall condition of the Jones dolly wheel on the Jennison.
Image 2
Although most of the paint has long gone the steel work is still in good condition.
Image 3
Where the dolly wheel meets the main chassis rails, again it’s rusty but not enough to affect the integrity of the chassis.
Image 4
Some of the smaller internal parts of the dolly wheel that will all need to be removed and sand blasted.
Image 5
The A frame of this Road Cruiser caravan would be a good candidate for a good sand and repaint.
Image 6, 7
A couple of your basic types of paint stripper.
Image 8
One of the “Green” paint strippers that are the market.