Painting a wooden door

[MrFoolish]

How do you go about re-painting an external wooden door that is in reasonable condition but has small cracks in the existing paint down to the bare wood? I'm sure I need to rub down any loose paint. But should I dab primer into the bare bits? Surely I wouldn't need to strip the entire door down to bare wood? It is white gloss paint btw.

Thanks.

[Dod101]

I would just thoroughly rub it down the give it an undercoat and lightly sand it and then apply two coats of gloss.

Dod

[AsleepInYorkshire]

How do you go about re-painting an external wooden door that is in reasonable condition but has small cracks in the existing paint down to the bare wood? I'm sure I need to rub down any loose paint. But should I dab primer into the bare bits? Surely I wouldn't need to strip the entire door down to bare wood? It is white gloss paint btw.

Thanks.

You only need to remove the paint that's flaking. Yes if you go down to bare wood you should prime. You can buy dual purpose primer and undercoat whic will do the trick.

AiY(D)

[Maroochydore]

If you want a top class smooth finish then rub it right down.

If you do as suggested, yes, nice and easy and nothing wrong about it but you will see an uneven surface no matter how much you feather the edges of the touched up paint.

[Gerry557]

You could use a bit of wood filler in the cracks.

Give it a a light sanding to key
Undercoat, Zinner is very good
very light sand
Add top coat once or twice as you see fit

[MrFoolish]

Thanks all. I'm not really looking for a perfect finish; just trying to prevent rot. I've just smoothed a bit of wood filler into the cracks. So some light sanding followed by undercoat and top coat will hopefully finish the job.

[mutantpoodle]

looking for a perfect finish might be your problem
even white paint discolours over time and however you handle the cracked area its likely to be a different shade of white when new coat applied to only that area
i imagine that you will need a new top coat all over

[funduffer]

Beware! Many (most) gloss paints are now water based.

If you paint this over old oil based paint it will peel off.

You need a good undercoat (EG Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3) between the oil based paint and the water based gloss.

If your gloss is oil-based, please ignore this!

FD

[Dod101]

Beware! Many (most) gloss paints are now water based.

If you paint this over old oil based paint it will peel off.

You need a good undercoat (EG Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3) between the oil based paint and the water based gloss.

If your gloss is oil-based, please ignore this!

FD

That is an issue that I had forgotten. I would ensure h that you apply an oil based gloss for a decent and hard wearing finish but you need an oil based undercoat as well. I have used Johnstone’s I think, bit more expensive but worth it.
Dod