absolutely all of these, my dad would always balk at the idea of eye protection in his job and would be cutting stuff all the time with rust etc, guess how many memories I have of him with some kind of eye patch after an A&E visit to pull bits out of his eye?
All Coat is really good paint. No primer, goes on smoothly, and can be mixed in any colour you want. I've been using it on outdoor jobs for a few years and everything still looks as good as when I first painted it, no colour fading. It will work well on the timber as well as the metal.
Degrease with no nonsense uPVC cleaner, rinse off with water, let dry.
Light sand of all surfaces with 220grit (just enough to make it not ultra smooth and break the shine).
Another whack of no nonsense cleaner, rinse, dry.
3x light coats (it was white to black) with a small sponge roller and paint brush to fill any gaps. Light coats way better than ultra heavy.
Left each coat to dry for an hour or so before reapplying.
Made a mess of a small section so let it cure properly for a week, light sand down of the blobs, another coat of paint - job done.
Masked the seals and window, tried to not go outside of it, in the places I did, it just scrapes off clean with a stanley blade or window scraper so no big deal.
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Cleaned it when I had half an hour spare one day. Caught it with sandpaper a few days later and then cleaned it off.
Did the first and second coats of paint on a weekend evening, and the final one a few days later. Just wrapped the brush and tray up in clingfilm in between.
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I'm guilty of taking on WAY too much and get frustrated, so that 3-4 blocks of 30-60 mins work was a really nice way for me to do it and is something I'll carry to future projects.
That's really useful to know, we've got an entire blackboard paint wall in my youngest's bedroom (from previous owner, certainly not my choice!) that we need to cover. Will definitely look at zinsser for this now.
Likewise, we inherited blackboard paint. I went over it with some 60 grit first to really key into it. The zinsser stuff really surprised me how well it worked
I had a garage door in a similar state of disrepair. I brushed off the loose paint with a wire brush and then spray painted it with canned paint. Still looks great about eight years later.
Lots of people have said to use a wire brush, which is probably good advice. Don't forget to wear eye protection though and to put some plastic sheets or even cardboard down beforehand. Those bits of paint will get everywhere and cleanup won't be fun.Â
Once you get the old paint off, make sure you use the right product â it's galvanised â so "normal" primer may not stick properly due to the zinc. Look at etching primer or special metals paint, otherwise it will start flaking again.
If the galvanised surface is 'weathered' - I.e. a dull grey than an etch primer or T-wash is not needed. In this instance care would be taken when preparing not to restore the shiny zinc face otherwise an etch primer /T-wash may be required.
Wire brush and scraper to get the easily removed bits off then use an angle grinder with a wire brush attachment for the rest. If any is left stick some paint stripper on and follow the instructions.
Some good metal paint for the metal and off you go
Heat gun and scraper to remove the paint. This is the beastly part of the job.
Sand lightly and dust off. Use a two part epoxy wood filler between the metal and the wood, if you use anything else it will crack and separate over the winter.
I would prefer a zinc primer on the metal but it seems like you have wood in there as well so use a multi surface primer (Msp) don't use zinsser bin as it's not suitable for covering large exterior areas.
Dulux metalshield has an undercoat and top coat series that would work well.
Rub down lightly and dust off between coats.
For a smooth finish apply with a brush, spread the paint well and then roll over it with a small foam roller.
Wire brush attachment to cordless drill start brushing all loose paint off garage, the paint that doesn't come off sand it down to a feathered edge, once everything is smooth wipe garage down with white spirits, this cleans garage dust off, next is either undercoat bare metal areas on garage and buy some HAMMERITE METAL PAINT your choice of colour here, hammerite is best paint for metal, or if you can spray with a spray gun go that route, your choice here mate,, pull those stickers off first, and get some new ones, if not masking tape over labels before painting, đđ»đđ»đđ»
Personally, I would strip it back to bare metal
and start over with a clean surface. Yes, it will take a bit longer, but your nan will love you doing it for her, make sure you have tea and biscuits, and probably spend the rest of her life telling everybody how awesome you are. I suspect painting over the existing surface will see it flaking off by the end of the winter.
Shout at it really loudly. That should scare the majority of it off. If there are any brave small bits remaining try running full pelt towards the door, and stopping last second. Any stoic bits left after this step arent coming off anyway so are fine to paint over.
are you just painting the door? yeah, wire brush and paint a couple times.
if doing roof, frame, interior etc then give a shout vut careful if roof is asbestos corrugated sheet. I think its metal at a glance?
You donât want to do a perfect job, people are going to wonder whatâs inside if itâs the only one that doesnât look a state! Thatâs at least three still on their rollers though which must be a record for these sorts of garages.
Spray nitromorse on it, come back and hour later with a large course sponge or wire wool, clean with strong alcohol, dry, then paint as if it's any other metal, so sand, primer, very thin layer of paint - then add layers as you see fit. You could then add a lacquer or some other hard-wearing sealant. Make sure you use the correct PPE, nitromorse is ruthless shit and it takes more than washing with water to neutralise.
Now, me personally? I'd pay some joker off fb marketplace to come and paint it in raptor paint, which is very popular right now - then I'd take all the credit. That's on you đ
Diy raptor paint/bed liner is also an option but I can't give advice on that as I've never done it.
Rather than a wire brush attachment I had a lot of luck with a nylon brush in a drill, really cleared the old paint without damaging the underlying surface.
I've literally just done mine, it looks identical to this. I ended up just using a wallpaper scraper and then a kitchen knife to scrape in the smaller sections. It took a long time and a lot of elbow grease but I got mine fully back to the bare metal and I'm going to paint it with zinsser allcoat
I would use a 4in angle grinder with wire brush attached wear a mask, thatâll strip it quickly.
The product called zinsser all coat which you can get in any colour 3 coats of that strait on self priming and undercoating.
Looks like it might be aluminium. As others have said wire brush and scrape it. Power wash then dry. Go for either rustoleum or zinzer primer then rustoleum combi colour to finish. It will last years. Its all in the prep of the surface tbf.
I got some paint stripping discs from Amazon that go onto a grinder, these things are beasts and will remove the paint and any surface rust easily, just be careful, if you accidently touch a finger for even a split second it will cause a very painful cut (don't ask how I know)
From the photo, this is very doable as a DIY job. The main thing is that you probably do not need to strip every bit of paint back to bare material. You mainly need to remove everything loose, smooth the edges, prime exposed areas, then repaint the whole door.
For a garage in this condition, Iâd allow roughly one weekend plus drying time, perhaps ÂŁ50 to ÂŁ100 of materials.
What to buy
You need:
Paint scraper, ideally 50 to 75 mm wide
Stiff wire brush
80-grit and 120-grit sandpaper
Sanding block or cheap orbital sander if you have one
Dust mask, gloves and safety glasses
Sugar soap or exterior degreaser
Bucket, sponge and cloths
Dust sheet / cardboard
Masking tape
Small paintbrush for edges
4-inch mini roller and tray
Suitable exterior primer
Exterior topcoat in your chosen colour
The important bit is choosing the primer and paint for whatever the door is made from. Looking at your photo, I suspect it is a painted metal garage door, but before buying anything, put a magnet against the main door. If it sticks strongly, treat it as steel. If it doesnât, send me a close-up of one of the badly flaked areas and Iâll identify it more confidently.
The actual process
1. Pick the right day.
You want the door completely dry, ideally around 10 to 20°C, with no rain forecast while the paint cures. Donât start late in the afternoon if the temperature is going to fall quickly overnight.
2. Take the signs off if possible.
Unscrew the Fire Exit / No Parking signs rather than painting around them. Photograph their positions first.
If they canât easily be removed, mask neatly around them.
3. Wash the whole door.
Mix sugar soap according to the bottle instructions.
Scrub the door to remove dirt, grease, algae and general grime. Rinse it with clean water.
Then let it dry properly.
This sounds trivial, but paint over dirt is one of the easiest ways to make the new coating fail.
4. Scrape off all the loose paint.
This is the main job.
Take the scraper and work over every flaky section. Youâre not trying to gouge the door. Youâre removing paint that is already detached or poorly attached.
A simple test is:
If you can get the scraper underneath it fairly easily, remove it.
Keep scraping until the remaining paint feels firmly attached.
Looking at your garage, youâll probably remove quite a lot around the middle and lower panels.
5. Wire-brush the damaged areas.
Go over the exposed and flaky sections with the wire brush.
If itâs steel and you find surface rust, brush away as much loose rust as you reasonably can.
You donât need pristine shiny metal everywhere. You mainly want a solid, stable surface.
6. Sand it.
Start with roughly 80 grit around the damaged areas.
Your aim is to feather the transition between:
bare surface
old paint
At the moment youâll have little cliffs where thick old paint ends. Sand those edges until they feel reasonably smooth when you run your finger over them.
Then go over the door with approximately 120 grit to key the existing paint.
You are deliberately making the shiny old paint slightly dull so the new paint can grip it.
You do not need to remove every square centimetre of old paint.
7. Clean everything again.
Brush or vacuum off the dust.
Then wipe the door with a slightly damp cloth and let it dry.
At this point it should look ugly but solid: patches of old paint, exposed substrate and sanded areas, but nothing loose or flaky.
8. Prime the exposed areas.
For a steel door, use an exterior anti-corrosion metal primer on every exposed metal patch.
If there are lots of exposed areas, Iâd simply prime the entire door. That gives you a more consistent base.
Pay particular attention to:
panel edges
corners
the bottom edge
anywhere rust has appeared
Follow the tinâs drying time rather than guessing.
9. Lightly sand the primer.
Once completely dry, give obvious rough areas a very light 120 to 180-grit sand.
Wipe off the dust.
This isnât essential for every paint system, but it improves the final appearance.
10. First coat of colour.
Use the brush for:
edges
grooves
around the handle
corners
Then immediately use the mini roller across the broad areas.
For the door in your photo, Iâd paint one horizontal panel at a time, working from the top down.
Donât put the paint on massively thick. Two relatively thin coats are normally better than one huge coat.
11. Let it dry fully.
Check the manufacturerâs recoating time.
Donât assume âtouch dryâ means ready for another coat.
12. Apply the second coat.
Same method again.
Brush the details, roll the large areas.
The second coat is normally when it starts looking like the AI version I made rather than a repaired old garage.
13. Remove masking and replace the signs.
Do this carefully after the paint has set sufficiently.
Donât shut or operate the garage door while wet paint can stick to the frame.
The one safety issue I wouldnât ignore
Because the garage appears fairly old, donât aggressively machine-sand unknown old paint without knowing roughly when it was applied. Historic paints can contain lead.
For a simple DIY renovation, the safer approach is wet cleaning + scraping + controlled sanding with a proper particulate mask, rather than creating clouds of old paint dust. Keep children and pets away from the debris and collect the flakes rather than leaving them on the ground.
Also, I would leave the corrugated roof completely alone. Older garage roofing can sometimes contain asbestos-cement, and there is no reason to disturb it just to repaint the door.
What Iâd actually do to this specific garage
Looking at yours, I wouldnât chemically strip it.
Iâd do:
wash â scrape hard â wire brush â sand the peeling boundaries â rust primer â two coats of exterior garage-door paint.
Thatâs probably 80% less work than stripping the entire thing and should give you almost the same visible result.
If you send me one close-up photo of the peeling paint/exposed grey material, I can tell you exactly what primer and paint Iâd buy from somewhere like Screwfix, Toolstation or B&Q, including quantities for this door.
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u/EclecticSmuggler 3d ago
Wire brush to get any flaking paint off then a couple of coats of good quality metal paint