After repairing the structural damage to my friend's 5x10 trailer, next is repainting this relic from the 80s with Rustoleum and foam brush. We have been dealing with alotta rain so this li'l trailer is back outside as higher priority projects are in the barn. Tongue, bulkhead, top rails, and tail ledge were wire cup brushed, washed in Dawn + water, dried off with a towel during a 6 hr sunny afternoon, then the breeze ran across it as I stirred clean metal primer...1st coat went on in the shade nice'n thin, smooth to touch when checked 24hrs later. 2nd coat was applied in shade with winds 10-15 mph, and by 24hrs later, it had dried a little rough so I buffed with wet scotchbrite pad and towel dried 2x. It kinda felt like that primer was drying on the brush cuz of the wind as brush dragged a bit on the surfaces...I'm guessing the rough texture was teeny dried balls of paint that the brush was rolling off of the 2nd primer coat as it was skinning over rapidly due to the gusty wind. It did not take much effort to buff them off, and the 1st coat of Hunter green went on smoothly thereafter...though the skies spritzed for a few minutes right as I was finishing. That precip beaded up on the horizontal surfaces after coating, so it looks like I'll be wet sanding before 2nd top coat.
The trick here is to move fast with the brush without slinging paint all over creation. Trial and error has taught me to dip foam brush 1/4 into paint then dab globs of paint quickly in parallel stripes to the desired brush strokes in a manageable area, then tip brush back and forth to spread those globs around until brush just starts to drag. Putting paint on too thinly with house painting brush strokes will not cover well as brush will drag unevenly. Dipping too much paint onto the brush makes a mess and the foam will deteriorate faster, pulling off of the handle because of the extra weight. With more use, the paint eventually wicks up the foam...I grip the brush by the foam at the base of the handle, kinda like an ink pen, and by the time paint starts to get on my fingers, I know that I do not have much time before the foam might start sloughing off into the paint I'm trying to spread around.
It's looking like I'll need less than a quart each of primer and green paint to finish this trailer, which tallies to a 50 buck paint job with no overspray to deal with...I can live with that