How best restain exterior fiberglass front door?

I have re-stained my Home Depot bought and installed Fiberglass front door. I used MinWax (yellow can) mahogany color to stain but never applied polyurethane to it.

I live in the south and this door gets direct sunlight. I have heard differing opinions on whether to apply a topcoat or not on the stain.

My concern is that if I apply a sealer and want to restain the front door in the future I will have a hard time as you cannot sand these doors as they have an embedded grain in them.

And I do not want the door to become black or gray due to the sealant. I had this experience when I applied Helmsan Urethane Polycoat to a cedar glider chair. Ended up having to buy a sander and sand the entire chair to get this polycoat off and left it off...


Thanks so much
Peter (newbie)

 

Welcome to the forums Peter!

I don't know if I've ever stained a fiberglass door. But I've used a lot stain including minwax. A wiping stain isn't formulated for wear and is meant to be covered with either poly or varnish. A spar urathane [like helmans] is the preferred top coat for an exterior door.

Even though a spar urathane is formulated for weather exposure - it can't take a lot of weather. If the door recieves much sun or rain, it will likely need recoating yearly. If the urathane turns white or gray, it means it has seen too much weather and should have been recoated sooner. Black is usually mildew and can be washed off with a bleach solution.