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onlygirlsmom

A paint job gone baadd....

onlygirlsmom
12 years ago

I have painted and stained lots of things in my life, including metal doors. I was not afraid of painting our new front door -piece of cake ..eye roll.

I am now fairly certain that the Rustoleum paint I used was a bad batch. I'm planning on calling the company tomorrow.

From the get go it just seemed thicker than normal and was not laying right. I did 2 coats with a brush and then a third with a roller (my hope was to even out the texture with the roller). It was a smooth door to start and now it looks like I painted an oak door. ARGH!!

I am so sick over this I told my DH just to put the hardware back on it so that I could take a few days to regroup.

My question: Should i just strip the whole damn thing and start over? Can I sand out the bumps and repaint?

I'm most likely just going to buy a brand new can of paint but, in the future, can you thin an oil based paint if you think it's too thick?

Here are the pics of the door (for some reason the house numbers look huge..I'd like to get rid of them but they are screwed into the aluminum siding and I don't think I'd be able to match new numbers exactly where the old ones are)

Comments (16)

  • PRO
    Christopher Nelson Wallcovering and Painting
    12 years ago

    Did you prime first?

  • onlygirlsmom
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    It was pre-primed -should I have added another coat myself?

  • tuesday_2008
    12 years ago

    You are probably right about the priming. I have always been told, if a door is hung more than a month or so before painting to reprime. I don't think the factory stuff holds up well.

  • Faron79
    12 years ago

    Tuesday & OGM-

    I BELIEVE Christophern was an early proponent of the phrase...."Pre-prime = RE-prime"!!! I may have learned that from him!

    Yeah...factory primers are rarely very good.
    They dry out too fast, get brittle, and get far too dirty to be properly useful.

    Thoroughly sand with 150-grit, then 220, and remove dust.
    NOW you've' got a beautiful base for new primer.

    For the new door paint, IF using Oil again, get XIM's X-tender for OIL paints. Call some SW dealers, etc. This stuff gives a longer "leveling/open" time to a paints' binder resin, which obviously helps it level-out.
    Another thing-
    Don't overwork the paint by brushing excessively, etc.
    Use long/flowing strokes with a brush/roller, finishing with a loooonnnng/liiiiiighhht stroking-pass in one direction.
    Now....STAY OUT OF IT!!!
    Even with extenders, brushing an area longer than 1 minute can be too much....

    Faron

  • PRO
    Christopher Nelson Wallcovering and Painting
    12 years ago

    I would avoid oil on an exterior door, not a good idea.

  • paintguy1
    12 years ago

    "I would avoid oil on an exterior door, not a good idea." Agreed, especially if exposed to the elements like this door. There is a good reason why no one uses alkyds to paint houses anymore - it doesn't last!

  • Jumpilotmdm
    12 years ago

    Yup, I'd stay away from oils too unless you let your body and fender man put it on. The best finish I ever saw on a steel door was put on by a body shop.
    I recommend an old time product called penetrol to help the open time and help it flow off the brush better. It's made by Flood. I hope you can still get it.

  • paintguy22
    12 years ago

    I would agree it's normally best to use a 100 percent acrylic paint for an exterior metal door, but not sure about when the color is black. I may opt for Fine Paints of Europe black if I wanted the door to come out perfect, but certainly not Rustoleum. After stripping, sanding, you may want to pull the door off and lay it on horses to work on it. If you do leave the door on, do not paint it with the sun beating on it...that's very important. I would use a mini 4 inch roller 1/4" nap. Do the panels first and try not to overlap any paint outside of the panels. Then do the field of the door. Resist the temptation to roll back into any areas that have already been drying for more than 20 or 30 seconds. This is when you can run into problems. Really, painting a black exterior door is a fairly hard project for a painter...I have seen many done poorly. Of course this means it's even more dificult for a homeowner! Good luck!

  • Faron79
    12 years ago

    I'm SO tempted to use an FPE Oil (one of the Hollandlacs obviously!!) on our EAST-facing door.

    * Possibly the exterior-capable ECO Brilliant or Satin "Hybrid".
    * It's in the shade by 11am!!
    * They're metal-skinned Peachtree doors, installed when house was built in '96, sprayed by a Body-shop.
    * Our Screen-door is a "frame-only" kinda style. For winter, we take out the screen-panel, and put in the glass. There's a lower 4"x~30" separate panel if we only want some ventilation.
    * We have no shutters, so the door could be as glossy as I'd like!

    Our front door, a few Christmas' ago...

    I think a Black door would look stud here, since the brick is a rusty-red, and our roof-shingles are charcoal.

    Faron

  • onlygirlsmom
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    okay, so i need to use an acrylic.

    If I use an acrylic I need to strip the entire door correct?

    It was also mentioned having a body shop do the work. I could ask our auto shop guy if he would do it. I'd be a little nervous b/c of the glass and the amount of time he'd have to have the door. I bet it would look great though! I have no idea how much he would charge.

    paintguy-you talk about doing the small panels first and then the big ones. What about the little inlay type frame around the small panel?

    I never would have imagined painting a door black would be so hard!

  • Jumpilotmdm
    12 years ago

    Do not strip it. Oil primer, acrylic finish coat.

  • onlygirlsmom
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    jump-you do not know how happy you make me with the simple statement "Do not strip it"! :) Sand before priming?

    (gaad, I'm sounding like an idiot. I really have painted before!)

  • PRO
    Christopher Nelson Wallcovering and Painting
    12 years ago

    yes, sand first and clean

  • paintguy22
    12 years ago

    I can't see why an oil primer would be necessary for this. If you sand and expose some of the bare metal, then you will need a primer designed for metal or you may have rust issues down the road. When I talk about painting the panels first, I'm including the inlay portion as well in that. This is really why I like to use a 4" roller for doors...you can roll those little channels surrounding each raised panel as well. I found a video so you can see what I'm talking about...the painter there may be the slowest painter on the planet and he's obviously not that skilled, but you can see there how he paints a panel and then wipes off the excess from outside the panel...that's a good idea if you are moving slow. Also, I choose to use the roller and then leave the stipple on the door and this is why I like a 1/4" nap. Sometimes I may back brush the door like he does though..depends on the color and how the paint is laying down as it dries.

    Here is a link that might be useful: door panel

  • kendog2
    12 years ago

    Thank you Paintguy, for posting the video about how to paint a door. I wish you would make one to show us how fast it should be done. You mentioned that you leave the stipple on the door. Is that because you paint is so fast that the stipple levels out?

    Our six panel wood grain interior doors were painted by the previous owner. They have obvious stipple and it's not pretty. I'll be sanding it down before re-painting. After reading your post, I'm not sure if I should brush after rolling or not. I'll be using Ace Cabinet and door with about 4 ounces of XIM Xtender added. What type of 1/4" roller do you use?

  • paintguy22
    12 years ago

    I use the 4" Pro Dooz Woosters. I don't really leave the stipple on the door because I'm fast. I just use paints that I'm sure will level out on their own if applied properly. My favorite for this is really C2. The stipple fades away so that the door almost looks like it was sprayed. But, you need to apply the paint heavy enough so that this can happen. Many homeowners, DIY'ers and crappy painters never apply enough paint and then overwork it too much. The key is to paint a panel, and then stay away from it, paint the next panel, etc and then roll the field of the door, always keeping a wet edge. Sometimes the color matters too for this. So, every door I do, I will roll out a panel, see how it looks and backbrush it if I suspect that the stipple will not lay down the way I like it!