Metal Front Door, paint in a mess.

[Rindaloo]

I am really hoping someone here will know what I can do with my front door, which is an eyesore....

It is one of the usual metal doors, painted to look like dark brown wood.   The bottom of the door began to get a bloom on it (look pale like the paint was discolouring).  So, I used car polish on it, (with varying degrees of success).  Then later it got splashed by the hose and has masses of white dots on it.  The bottom of the doot is a horrible grey white.  Re-using the car polish (Autoglym) makes no impact on it at all.  

Any ideas?

[Scunner]

It's pooched Linda - you won't bring it back so get it down the industrial estate for a respray, paint a bottom kicker section in a completely different colour or bin it and get a white one next time  

[kevin b]

Rub the effected area down with wet & dry then find a car areosol of similar colour to door & paint it then put a clear laquer on top of paint may be a cheap way to remedy the appearance otherwise contact one of the window/door makers local to you.

[Rindaloo]

Why has it gone like this?  Blasted thing, I thought car polish would be just the job for it.  I mean, you dont see cars going white like that.  It IS a shiny white though, LOL!!

[Scunner]

It's likely to be a lower quality finish, a cheaper door. Cheaper coatings lack UV resistance (hence the loss of gloss and the blooming) and limited water resistance.

[Rindaloo]

Hmm, pain in the *

Ah well.  Maybe I should hose it all over so the effect is uniform.  It might catch on as a look.

I did say MIGHT.....

[jonuzumlu]

Try rubbing it with olive oil

[Rindaloo]

Hmm, no that didnt work (worth a try though).

I am wondering if it needs t cutting and polishing with Auto Glym.  In other words, treating like a car.  The only think that bothers me is that I have done the door from the top to almost the bottom with Auto Glym and if a spot of water gets on that area, it STILL goes white (with shine).  So I am not entirely sure this will be the answer.

[Elsa Padfield]

Ours was a mess and my husband (bless him0 tried to clean it off.  He rubbed off some of the paint.  We bought some dark brown metal paint and repainted it during the summer.  it looks fantastic now!!

[Rindaloo]

Hmm, the plan is to give it a going over with white spirit to get rid of the original (crap) polish I tried (which I then followed with Auto Glym).  I will then try polishing it with Auto Glym.  If that fails, it will be a repaint job.  Such a shame when the door is less than 3 years old.