Doors in Dorr!

Our doors. Our poor, poor doors.

Right when we moved into our house (almost a year and a half ago already!) we noticed how ugly our exterior doors were. The color wasn't that horrible, bit I still didn't prefer it - it was like a purpley/red color. Intended to be red, but with a bit of a raspberry undertone.

On top of the color, the previous owners obviously put VERY little thought and effort into how they painted. The doors had painted just caked onto them, complete with 100% noticeable paint drips, build-up around the detailing and sealing, thin spots and just carelessness all around. You could easily tell they were painted while hung...definitely not the "right way" to paint a metal exterior door.

Last summer we had SO much other, more important outdoor projects to take care of (sprucing up the lawn, flower beds, removing the horrible trees by our front door, etc.) that we knew right away that The Doors would be a spring 2012 project.

Originally I though, Oh I'll just remove all three doors at once, strip the paint and then primer them on Saturday, re-hang Saturday night, then apply two coats of paint on each door on Sunday. Bam. Doors done! WRONG. I could not have been more wrong.

At the last minute, I decided to just start with the far service door, which leads into the third stall of the garage (Dan's workshop). So if, by chance, it turned out horrible and ugly, nobody would ever see it and I could re-do it in time. You know...just a test run before doing the front door and main service door. Good. Thing. I did. Oh boy.

The door turned out..eh...okay, but here are some valuable lessons I'm going to take with me into the front & main service door projects:

- Attempt this project when it's above fifty degrees outside. The stripper, I'm convinced will work MUCH better than it did in the colder temps. (Dan can attest to this - I have a habit of jumping the gun, knowing I shouldn't, just for the sake of completing something on one of my many lists. It's a curse.)

- Prep the door. Hardcore. I took the door off, plopped it on some saw horses and applied stripper. Nope. Next time I'm going to wipe down with warm water, clean off with mineral spirits, scrub with sand paper to create texture (and hence, something for the stripper to cling to)  - and the friction will help warm the metal up to help activate the stripper better.

- I will not expect to be done in two days. Yes, I had the door hung up in two days, but only Friday did I finish scraping the paint from the glass and sealing with clear caulk.

Okay...pictures!

Service door at the start of the project

Notice the paint drips on the detailing at the top - and the thin application near the corner

Again...just sloppy work

Paint stripper starting to blister up!

I was definitely disappointed with the stripper. It took three applications and I STILL didn't even get all the paint. (But again, I think that was partly my fault for poor prep work.)

This is what I settled on. I just could NOT get those few last paint spots. So I used an electric sander until everything was baby's butt smooth and even to the touch. (It didn't work...just wait and see)

Woo! Now that's red!...Almost a little too red :)

Finished product! I would've gone a shade dustier, but the next color down was looking a bit too brown for my taste. But hey, it's cheery!

Ah, clean detail work! Way to go, Immel!

Alright, here's the disappointment. See those textural inconsistencies? Those little bumps? Look closely. That's where the residual paint wouldn't come off and I sanded until it was "smooth." Apparently the primer and paint just clung to that metal door so closely that it just sucked right onto that old paint! I was kind of disappointed. I figured with sanding it, then three coats (one of primer and two of paint) on top of it, it would've been all even. Wrong. Another valuable lesson for the other two doors - ALL PAINT MUST BE GONE BEFORE PRIMING!!

Here's a before & after so you can really see the difference in color. Raspberry Red vs. Brick Red. The new color's growing on me. I think the newness/brightness will fade with time :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welp, here's hoping my lessons learned pay off for the front door and main service door! I'm holding off on that for a while though. You know...until warmer weather. In the mean time, there's a looooot of basement to prime :)