Steps & Items Needed To Apply Paint To Aluminum Garage Door
If your aluminum garage door looks old as well as rusty and you want to paint it, you can do so very easily. But before starting the process, you first need to collect certain items required for the procedure and then follow the steps carefully:
Things You Will Need
- Drop Cloths, Roller, Paint Scraper & Bleach
- Bucket, Pressure Washer, Dish Detergent & Lead Test Kit
- Scrub Pad, Oil-Based Metal Primer, Garden Hose & Mask
- Exterior Latex Or Oil-Based Paint & Painter's Plastic
- Painter's Tape & Paint Sprayer
- Bleach & Trisodium Phosphate
- Rubber Gloves & Paintbrush
Steps For This Process
- First of all, you need to lay some drop cloths on the ground surrounding your garage. Remove all flaking, peeling paint by using a paint scraper.
- Take a bucket of water and mix some dish detergent in it. Now you need to clean your aluminum door with the help of a scrub pad. Rinse your aluminum door by using your garden hose and then leave the garage door to dry wholly.
- Next you need to cover sidewalks, bushes & anything else that you don't want to paint by using drop cloths. Cover windows and doors using painter's plastic. Secure the plastic using painter's tape.
- Adulterate the oil-based metal primer with your paint thinner according to the manufacturer's guidance. Be sure that your primer is oil-based. Latex primer is not advisable for use on aluminum. Now you need to fill a paint sprayer with the primer.
- Next you need to hold your sprayer gun approximately one foot away from the aluminum garage door surface. Next spray your primer using smooth, sweeping motions. Allow your applied primer to dry for the amount of time suggested by the producer.
- Clean your spray gun & your hose with paint thinner to remove the oil-based primer & then refill it with 100 percent acrylic exterior latex or oil-based paint.
- Next you need to hold your sprayer gun approximately one foot away from your surface of the garage aluminum door.
- Spray your paint onto the door surface by using smooth, sweeping motions & overlapping strokes. Allow the applied paint to dry for the time suggested by the producer. Multiple coats can be applied until your desired paint coverage is attained.
- Clean your paint sprayer & hose with water to remove the latex paint from the door, remove the tape and the plastic & then pick up the drop cloths finally.
Tips
- You can also use the pressure washer that can be easily used to clean your garage door but never use high pressure on aluminum siding. Do not spray lower on the siding.
- You need to add some household bleach to your cleaning solution if there is mildew.
- Trisodium phosphate (TSP) can be useful if the heavy-duty cleaning is needed.
- If the paint sprayer is not available then you can also use a paintbrush and a roller.
Warnings
- Never use a cleaner which contains ammonia because it has a chemical reaction to your aluminum door.
- Never use a latex primer on your aluminum door because latex paint contains ammonia which will react chemically with the oxidized aluminum and can form gas bubbles below the paint.
- You need to wear rubber gloves while working with TSP.
- You need to wear a mask while working spray paint.
- You don't need to spray paint on a windy day.