I need to repaint our front door. It is a 10 year old metal door which has a southeast exposure meaning it gets about 3-4 hours of direct morning sun. Being in eastern Virginia the door really heats up. Any suggestions for painting? Current paint was brushed on and has lots of brush marks and is bubbling in a few places. Its probably an enamel paint but I'm not really sure.

 

Lots of brush marks and bubbling leads me to wonder if it was a latex paint, which is more apt to leave lots of brush marks and oil based paint is usually so hard that it will crack up when trying to bubble. What you need to do is clean the door well to remove any grease, oil, dirt etc. Remove any and all loose paint by scraping, reprime any bare metal, spray metal primer works good for this. You need to sand the surface lightly and entirely with a 220 grit sandpaper, if you want to knock down the sanding marks a bit, sand more If you are wanting to start over you can always strip it with a chemical stripper, follow the instructions carefully,let dry and lightly sand it, you will then need to re-prime it with an exterior metal primer.

I suggest an oil based exterior paint for this, if you are wanting to use a latex over the existing paint, check to make sure it is not an oil based paint by wiping a hidden area with Goof-Off, if it removes the paint then it is latex and you can proceed with latex (or oil), if it does not wipe it off then it is oil based and will need to be reprimed before useing a latex over it.

Try useing a lighter color paint, it will help keep the door cool when the sun is on it, thus less problems.

 

Thanks Chip. I'll let you know how it turns out.