| Q: I have a metal door with faux wood grain embedded, which I had finished with a stain to resemble real wood. I want to re-finish it myself but professional painters told me the only way I can have the door re-finished is to take it off and ship it to a company who can use special materials to remove the clear overlay, remove the bubbles that currently exist, and finally get to the core metal so that I can re-paint it. I keep thinking it must be possible to sand it, prime it, and then
paint it successfully with a Rust-Oleum product. My desire is to simply paint it a matte black. This door is a front door and takes direct sun for the better part of the day, for two to three months of the year, that outdoor temp is between 85 and 95 degrees.
A: In and of itself, painting the door black is frightfully easy. So long as the existing finish is adhering solidly to the door, simply clean it with mineral spirits or TSP on nylon abrasive pads to remove any surface grease and dirt, sand with 220 or 320 grit paper enough to de-gloss the surface, and apply Rust-Oleum’s new Universal paint, a paint appropriate for both interior and exterior surfaces, and that adheres without additional primer to just about any surface, including metal and existing finish.
That said, I will admit that one thing you mentioned worried me. You said something about bubbles. If that means your existing paint is starting to blister, you have a larger problem that you can fix by painting, since blistering paint will take off anything applied above it. That may be a particular concern with black painted metal in the hot sun, since black absorbs more heat than any other color.
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