Paint for a wooden trailer

Jul 15, 2012 3 Replies

I've just acquired a trailer which is in need of a refurb. I'm going to replace on the wood with 12mm exterior grade plywood and want to give it a painted finish, unfortunately though I've let the kids con me into doing it in an army camouflage style. Buying proper gloss type paint is going to cost a fortune but I've got plenty of emulsion knocking around, and I was hoping that I could use that and then stick some yacht varnish over the top to protect it. Before I go ahead though can I check that


  1. Will the yacht varnish go over the emulsion Ok or will it smear the colours together.
  2. Will yacht varnish be the best type to finish the wood or is there something better

Cheers



Jim



  1. As long as the emulsion has dried, it won't be affected by a solvent based varnish.
2.To display the colours properly you need a genuinely clear varnish, probably from a ships' chandlers or a serious trade outlet. Nothing in the d-i-y sector will fill the bill IME.

The last tin of yacht varnish I saw in B&Q said "not for external use"! !

That's a bit of a supposition.

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