Painting Our Front Door

Project:
For about two years, Melanie had wanted to add some color to the outside of our house (which she has already done quite well throughout the inside). Her vision was to paint (well, really to get ME to paint) the front door a bold, bright color. Several crazy colors were on the menu: lime green, bright blue, bold red and mustard yellow. I put my foot down and told her that if she wanted the lime green or mustard yellow she'd have to do it herself (which left a fairly small chance we'd actually end up with one of those colors).

After work one day around that time I drove home and saw this newer car driving in front of me and I just couldn't come to a conclusion as to whether it was red or orange. That was rather intriguing to me and that night I told her that I thought I had found the color that would work for both of us. The next day we decided to go to a few car dealerships to drive through the car lots until we'd find the car with the color that I had seen the previous day. We did find it after a few car lots and Melanie liked the color and so the decision was made: Inferno Orange Metallic it was.

TWO YEARS LATER (this was last weekend), Melanie went to Halifax for a few days and I decided to finally get it done. I had already picked up the paint and reducer way back when and it was sitting in my basement ready to be used.

Process:
The process was fairly simple: Take off the door, prep the door, paint the door, put the door back on. However, it was quite time consuming because of the actual work details involved. And since I do like details (I can feel Melanie rolling her eyes) I will try to be as thorough as possible.

The first thing i had to do after removing the door was give it a light sanding (150 grit) with my orbital sander to smoothen it out nicely. Then i had to wash it with a grease removing solution (TSP would work, I ended up using driveway degreaser...the good stuff). Then i washed it with clean water, dried it up and gave it a final rub-down with the reducer (similar to paint or lacquer thinner). Prep was now done.

The door once it was removed and prepped. I had to hang up some sheets and plastic so the overspray of the paint would not get on the walls and tools.

The door after it was painted. I noticed a few small runs so I laid the door down flat hoping the runs would flatten out and they did.

The finished product

Tools:
Drill, orbital sander, paint brush, paint strainer, VOC compliant respirator, compressor, paint gun

Skill orbital sander. not exactly the same one i used but fairly close

I used a Divilbiss active charcoal respirator that can be used with high VOC paints. I did not want to take any chances as the paint was not exactly the best for the lungs if i breathed it in.

I bought this beauty at Princess Auto a few years ago. I can't remember how much it was but i think it was under $50 bucks. Works like a charm.

Materials:
Degreaser, plastic sheets, masking tape, paint, reducer

GM Inferno Orange Metallic, fast-drying acrylic enamel auto body paint

Nason, full-base reducer to thin the paint. This had to be done in a 4:1 ratio (paint:reducer)

Cost:
Paint & reducer: $88.52
Respirator: $45.19 (but i won't have to get one next time)

Time:
About 5hrs

Savings:
N/A

Conclusion:
Love it (and Melanie does, too)