The year was 1978. My grandpa had retired from farming and was ready to devote more time to fishing in his boat at Toledo Bend lake, gardening, and raising cattle. He purchased a cattle trailer to haul animals to and from sale barns. It was a yellowish/gold/tan color. It had green pexiglass windows in the front. It had a dividing gate inside so that you could separate animals or put animals in the front and hay and feed in the back. The cattle trailer was nice back in the day.
We've hauled many animals in it - to sell, to slaughter, and for the past ten years mainly to livestock shows in Jennings and Lake Charles. The cattle trailer did not have lights and was not really road-worthy from a legal standpoint. We would take all the backroads between our house and the livestock barn, so as not to get pulled over by law enforcement. It was kind of stressful.
Over the years, it has required some repair. The tongue broke and had to be re-welded. Same thing with the jack on the front. The body had a lot of rust damage. The floor required replacement. Dad did that and did a great job with it. The floor is in tip top shape. The exterior paint is horrible. I've painted it several times. I'll be the first to admit, I am not a skilled painter. In previous painting projects, I primed it and painted it red. The paint promptly peels off!
This year I decided to consult some experts at our local hardware store. I was told that I had been using the wrong primer. This time I listened to them and bought at can of Red Oxide Primer. Before that, however, I cleaned the trailer up good with a pressure washer and repaired rusted out places with Bondo (for the small holes) and epoxy resin patches (for the big ones). Here is a photo of the 1978 cattle trailer all patched up and ready for priming:
The trailer is in need of a new paint job, wouldn't you think? I shook up the can and stirred it up. I don't have a spraying apparatus on my air compressor, so I settled to paint the cattle trailer like Tom Sawyer would do, with a paint brush.
It was hot and the paint fumes were strong, but I made up my mind to get the job done. Three quarters of the way through, I stepped back to observe the progress.
Not too shabby! The old trailer was starting to regain some of her former glory. It was tedious work, painting the sides and all around in every nook and cranny.
Finally, I climbed up on top of the trailer and painted the very top. The job was complete.
The old girl looks good! Grandpa would like what she looks like. Not only does the red oxide primer make her look good, but it curbs the rust. This is just the primer. I think I am going to paint her a navy blue color, for a change of pace. First though, I have about a third of the can left. I'll use that up painting the inside. We will share photos of it when we have here decked out in blue. I told my Dad, brother, and cousin, "The cattle trailer will likely last another 43 years and outlive us all!"
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