Hello, Folks.

My wife and I are taking the post-Christmas season to do some redecorating, and part of that involves painting our bland looking front door.

I'm afraid that in the rush to get done We've made a bit of a blunder. The door was plain metal over wood (I believe) builder's white with a frosted window, and has matching side panels, also with frosted windows. We have children, a dog and 2 indoor cats in the house, so taking the front door off to paint is not a really viable alternative.

I think my first mistake was not priming the door. After taping off the glass, I ran over the surface with what I now think was a way too light grit of sandpaper, 220, then I painted the door and the panels with currently 5 coats of Olympus Acrylic exterior latex red paint.

The problem is that even after 5 coats, I can still see blotches of white coming through the paint. Also, the paint has been drying for over 24 hours and it still feels slightly tacky. This seems to be happening on both the metal door and the wood side panels.

I live in the Florida panhandle, so the weather hasn't been too cold recently. It's currently in the low 70's. Humidity could be a problem, although this time of the year it's relatively low.

Is the problem that I didn't prime the surface, or did I pick a poor quality paint? and, even more so, what do I do about it now? If I prime it now, can I save the door?

So far I've only done the inside of the door, the outside hasn't been touched.

Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for the help.

If it's a steel surface door then it's steel over a foam core. The steel is primed from the factory - this is definitely true if it was a slightly off-white color.

Sanding with 220 is fine, no problems there. the paint you are using should be fine too, unless it was really old.

Maybe you can clarify, but it sounds like you have put on 5 coats in one day? If so, then that's your problem. Too many coats put on too closely together will do exactly what you have - thin looking, runny paint that will not dry. One coat per day, maybe one coat in the morning and one coat near the end of the day if drying conditions are good. No closer than that.

It should eventually dry. Putting a fan on it will help. If it does dry, then give it a couple of days before painting what should be the last coat.

Is this door in direct sun light?
There should have been a warn sticker right on the door or one of the windows stating not to paint it a dark color.
Reason being it will distroy the door.
I've seen them get so hot it melted the gasket in the window.
To anyone reading this it's doubly bad if there's a full view storm door, you just made a solor panel.
Trying to paint any dark color like that over a light color would require a tinted primer or your going to have to apply two or three times the number of top coats.
That door also has to be painted on all sides!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joecaption,

Red pigment is the most transparent of all the paint colors, especially the brighter, true reds. Burgandy or wine reds have more blue in them, so coverage it a bit more opaque.

A medium gray prime coat is usually applied under any true red, to reduce the need for so many multiple coats for coverage over white.