How to Refinish Steel Doors

Steel doors are a great choice due to their durability. Steel doors are able to hold up through tough weather conditions, and are just overall harder to damage than other types of doors. The only problem with steel doors is that they can rust, but, with a few items from your home you can prevent this from happening.

1. Remove your door by unscrewing the hinges from your door frame.


2. Take off all the door’s locking kick and strike plates, hinges, doorknockers and locking devices.


3. Remove the door’s weather stripping from its grooves that go around the whole door. If some parts of your door are not easy to take off, cover those pieces with blue masking tape while you’re refinishing the door.


4. If the door has windows in it, remove the excess glaze on the windows using a sharp razor.


5. Wipe the areas where you removed the glaze from the windows with a wash cloth and degreaser.


6. Clean your entire door with a wash cloth and the degreaser to remove and dirt, grime, or grease that will affect the finish.


7. Cover all the glass and other objects that you don’t want to get finish on with your blue masking tape.


8. Fix the dents on your door by using missed auto body filler. Follow the instructions the manufacturer has on the auto body filler package.


9. Sand away the overfilled areas until the fill is flush with your door’s surface.


10. Remove the imperfections in your door by sanding the whole thing down. Imperfections include rust spots and paint that is cracked.


11. Place a cloth beneath the door. Spray the door down with a primer that is oil-based. Be sure the primer coat has dried thoroughly before proceeding.


12. Buy some latex paint as well as a latex paint sprayer that requires no air.


13. Paint the door using the sprayer. Give your door plenty of time to dry.


14. Put all the parts and accessories back on your door.


15. Screw the door hinges back into your door frame.


16. Attach your door to its frame to complete the project.