Painting the bottom on the trailer?

[brackish]

I feel your pain - same experience with my 1988 trailer. I soaked all those bolts in WD40 repeatedly over a weekend, coaxed them out with a crescent wrench and/or vise grips, then went to Home Depot, rooted around in those big flat slide-out drawers full of their weirdest hardware, and bought half a dozen 1/2" stainless steel replacement bolts that have a 3/8" Allen socket head. They won't rust in place again, and I travel with that Allen wrench in my glove box. Bonus is the smaller size of the wrench makes it easier to get into the tight quarters around the bolt heads, and a half turn or so is enough to loosen the bunks when I need to drop them.

- Wes

Sounds like a good plan, next time the boat is back in the water for an extended stay I'll follow suit.  Course, I'll have to start with an easy out for the one with the broken head.

[Bob23]

   I'll echo Skip's recomendation of Never -Sieze. It's a graphite based grease. I use  it on all my mooring tackle and have easily taken apart shackles that have  been in salt water for 2 years. It is amazing stuff! Don't leave home without it!
   Another is PB-Blaster. All of thier products are great (made in USA) but the penetration oil is outstanding. It make WD-40 seem like water. Home Depot or Lowes. I use thier anti-corrision spray on my costmers air conditioning condensers each fall to extend the life of the alumium cooling fins.
   A Sawzall with a metal cutting blade is a wonderful thing for removing broken bolts. Just cut the sucker out of there.
   Another great helper is pictured here:

Enjoy, Bob23

[brackish]

Well finally finished this.  After the bunk column bolt disaster (described in earlier post, this thread), had to postpone finishing till I returned from the B.E.E.R. cruise.  Wanted to get over the bunks and rollers done and a second coat on everything.  Jacked it up rather than trying to lower the bunks.  Couple of jacks under the keel and up she goes, but it lifted off of one bunk, stayed on the other (slight driveway grade?).  So paint a couple of coats under one, then lower, guy off the high side, and jack it back up to do the other.  Then second coat on everything else.  Hope this paint is as good as it is purported to be, don't want to do this for a couple of years.

When I had my 29 foot boat, for $135 they used to lift me out, pressure wash me in the slings, then set it up on stands and give me three days free, before demurrage charges started.  I could get the bottom done, repack the shaft seal, and clean, lubricate and adjust the seacocks during that time.  After dragging my 65 year old body under, around, between and through that trailer a half dozen times, that seems like a bargain.