Painting a Fiberglass Door

I have made a mess of painting a smooth star fiberglass door. I am using Benjamin Moore Moore Glo semi gloss. I have been using a sponge roller, and it is very uneven. The first coat went fine, but the second coat was really uneven.

I very carefully did a third coat and it is even worse. I am painting as fast as I can, keeping wet edges, but it looks pretty bad. I have painted several fiberglass doors before, using Behr semi gloss and they came out fine. The Benjamin Moore seems glossier.

So now what? Any suggestions? Can I try a 4th coat? Should I sand it first? Try a different roller?

 

Welcome to the forums Jim!

Is the door in the sun while you are painting it? It is almost always easier to paint a door when it's shaded - the sun can cause the paint to set up too fast. I'm not fond of sponge rollers but I'm not sure that is the culprit. You should always sand in between coats of paint, especially when painting doors. Sanding helps to promote better adhesion and also helps to even out any brush/roller marks in the paint.

What is the time frame between the the 3 coats of paint? You might need to give the paint time to cure before you sand it and apply another coat. If you are having problems with the paint drying too fast you can add a product like Flood's Floetrol or XIM's Ex-Tender to the paint. It makes the paint slide a little easier, basically thinning the paint without thinning it's consistency. You may need to slow down some so you can apply the paint a little neater.

 

I have been painting inside because of the weather. Its been 24-48 hrs between each coat. How long should I wait before I try coat 4? What grit of sandpaper? I think using the foam roller, I'm having trouble with the paint being thicker in some areas than others. Should I change rollers?

Thanks so much for your help! I seem to be making this worse and worse.

 

Painting inside - heated room or unconditioned garage? Depending on the temperature and humidity it might be ok to go ahead and sand and repaint. Cool or damp conditions slow down the drying/curing time. 120 grit should work fine. Latex paints don't sand the greatest. Over aggressive sanding often results in 'melting' the paint, clogging up the paper.

Changing roller covers might help but the thick/thin issue can happen with any type of roller cover. You need to work at getting the paint on the door more evenly. Going over the thick areas to spread it out more will help. Also - don't try to squeeze all the paint out of the cover! You may need to 'reload' your roller more often.

 

In heated basement. I was trying not to overoll, thought leaving it alone would show less roller marks. Obviously not a good idea. Am I just sanding enough to rough it up before I recoat?

Can I just redo the side panels of the door that are the worst? or do I need to do the whole thing? Its the outer sections that are about 8" wide that look really bad. There are seams?? in between.

Semi gloss is tough. I appreciate your help marksr!

 

Normally a light sanding is all that is needed but if you have ridges in the paint they will need to be sanded out as they are likely to show thru the next coat. 90% of the time you can get by with just painting a single [or however many] panel [or edge] instead of redoing the entire door.

 

Thanks Marksr! I sanded and did a final coat and it looks much better. I ditched the foam roller, and it looks much better. Not perfect but pretty nice.

I appreciate the advice!

 

Glad it worked out for you