I’m about to repaint an exterior steel door. Here’s the catch. It’s completely “covered” by a storm door. Rain would not be a concern however, extreme heat is. The space between both doors can get very hot…even to the point that the handle to the steel door is too hot to touch. It’s the front of the house where the 11-2pm noon sun hits the storm door directly.
I was going to sand down the current paint finish to get rid of the brush marks (not necessarily down to bare steel; just enough to get rid of the current brush marks.) Then prime with Zinser’s odorless oil based primer (this is what I happen to have but if anyone thinks a different primer will work better, I’m open to suggestions.) Then top coat it with Sherwin Williams exterior grade superpaint (deep red.)
I’ve seen alot of comments here about the quality of Duration paint. Should I go with that? Or is that overkill in this application?
Replies
Don't know about your budget, but if it get to hot to touch often there are some pretty good looking High heat automotive paints that would hold up forever.
Heck, just take the whole door down to the autobody shop. No painting, nice smooooth finish.
Adam
Maybe I exaggerated how hot it gets. The handle gets very hot; not so hot that it scalds your hand but hot enough that you wouldn't wrap your hand around it for anything more than 10 or so seconds. It's pretty uncomfortably hot.
An additional possibility to consider would be to replace the storm door with a storm/screen door so you can ventilate the space between the doors during th hot months. That might or might not extend the time till you have to paint again, but it would certainly be more comfortable.
I also agree with the suggestion to have the door painted at a body shop. Be the first one on your block to have a candy apple red metal flake front door.