Last Fall before pulling my M26X out of the water for the season, I decided to repaint the trailer. Actually the trailer itself was not in too bad shape, a few rust spots here and there, but the the fenders were terrible with rust with paint peeling off in strips. The previous owner, in the three years that he sailed, had never launched the boat in water. He had the boat lifted in with a crane. I had launched and retrieved it perhaps a dozen times so I would have to blame the factory for the problem. It looked to me like a poor prep job before painting. I removed the fenders and took them to an auto body shop, had them sandblasted to remove the rust and then had them primed and a baked finish put on them. Instead of just touching up the rust spots, which I initially intended to do, I decided to repaint the whole trailer. However, on examining it more closely, I found that one of the welds had cracked. Actually the crack was on one side of the weld so the weld was OK. The crack was on the starboard side where the cross member forward met the side rail. I have no idea if the crack was there when I purchased the boat or not but this is something a prospective buyer should check. Anyway, I took the trailer to a welding shop and had the crack welded. Next, I started to get rid of the loose rust. I tried a number of things in doing this. I used a file, coarse sandpaper (this worked quite well), MIRACLE ERASER BLOCKS. I did not like them at all. I found that synthetic steel wool worked well. I did the entire trailer to make sure that there was no loose paint or rust before painting. The auto body people told me that they use a primer first before painting. They recommended a product called RUST MORT and then finish painting with RUSTOLEUM. They said that Rust Mort bonds with the rust to form an undercoat. I think that this substance must be sold only to the trade because I could not find it anywhere. So, I went back to see my autobody friends. They said to use a product called EXTEND which would do the same thing. This was readily available. It is a white liquid and you must wait 12 hours for it to dry. By that time, in bonding with the rust, it turns black. I then repainted the entire trailer with a flat black Rustoleum fussing more over the places that had rust on them. If I were to do it again, I would use a gloss or semi-gloss Rustoleum because after finishing with the flat Rustoleum the trailer did not look like it had been painted. In talking with one of our members at a MOANE meeting about trailer rust, I thought that his recommendation had a lot of merit. He keeps some touch-up paint handy and checks the trailer often and when some rust appears, he touches it up right away. Fair winds John O'Conner