How To Paint a Fiberglass Door — Free Guide + Paint Suggestion

When we start renovating our home, we mostly think about changing the interior. Very often we forget one of the most important details in our home, and that is the front and interior doors that capture the most attention. To save the family budget, a more cost-effective and economical option would not be a replacement, but painting an old door. To do this, you need to know the painting procedure, especially for fiberglass doors, to avoid any difficulties. Once you read our How To Paint a Fiberglass Door guide, you will be ready to paint not just fiberglass, but any kind of door in your home!

Recommendations before you start painting:

• Remove the door from the door frame and apply the paint with the door lying flat.
• Do not apply paint in full sun. Full sun will cause the paint to dry too quickly and not provide enough work time to achieve the correct finish
• The below instructions assume the door is a new door that has never been finished. If the door was previously finished, then the preexisting finish needs to be stripped and the paint stripper must be completely removed from the door slab before starting the Application Process. Failure to clean the paint stripper off the door will cause adhesion failure.

How To Paint a Fiberglass Door?

Step 1

Remove your door from the door frame and lay the door flat. It is a good practice to remove the door hardware as it will make the application process easier but is not required.

Step 2

If your door has glass, mask off the glass with painter’s tape.

Step 3

Scotch brite all surfaces that will be painted with the supplied green scotch brite pad.

Step 4

Blow off or wipe off the dust on the door.

Step 5

Open the container of TruCoat Cleaner and dip the supplied lint free rag into the cleaner. Ring out excess cleaner from the rag. Wipe the surfaces clean with the damp rag. (Figure 3) Apply more cleaner to the rag as needed. The combination of the cleaner and scotch brite pad helps remove oils and other contaminants that may affect paint adhesion.

Step 6

After all surfaces have been cleaned, wipe off the excess cleaner with the second supplied lint free rag. (Figure 3) Wait 3 minutes for the cleaner to fully evaporate before moving on to step 7.

Step 7

Apply the quart of TruCoat paint with the supplied foam brush or your HVLP spray gun. (Figure 4) Start in the deeper/low contour areas of the door and glass edges as these areas will have some pooling if too much material is applied. Soak up the excess paint with the foam brush and apply elsewhere on the door. If your door has a wood grain texture, apply the topcoat in the same direction as the wood grain. A minimum of two coats or 3.5 mils wet film thickness are required to achieve a proper finish.

If applying with an HVLP gun, your gun should have a 1.9 tip or larger. DO NOT WATER DOWN THE PAINT.

Step 8

After you have finished applying the paint, remove the painter’s tape. Wait at least 30 minutes to flip the door on the other side if you are resting the painted surfaces on sawhorses or other material support stands. Be sure to protect the freshly painted door from rough surfaces with a towel or similar soft material to prevent scratching.

Step 9

The door will be dry to the touch and ready to rehang 30 minutes after your final coat. Full cure is not achieved for 5 to 30 days depending upon heat and humidity.

Paint Manufacturer Suggestion

Without any debut, among all paints we have evulated, Sherwin Williams Polane 2K Acrylic, and Aquasurtech D200, Therma Tru, etc, TruCoat had the best results!

We were looking for an environmentally friendly, single component water based paint that was super durable, had great adhesion and laid down smooth. Based upon our evaluation we selected TruCoat 623. It was much more environmentally friendly than Polane 2K and is a single component and TruCoat had better adhesion than D200 and was priced better.