# Spray only - composite/fiberglass faux wood doors



## woodcoyote

Hey everyone,

I just got done doing some experimenting and tweaking and I thought I'd share my progress/info with everyone on here. 

I've been looking at trying to come up with a spray only technique to give those composite doors (fiberglass or otherwise) that wood look without having to gel stain/brush/faux grain etc. The composite doors already come with the 'wood grain' texture already embossed or molded into the door, just have to find a way to bring it out. 

I"m about 90% pleased with the outcome, I have one or two more tests to do to really know if this method will be the one we stick with or that it gives it the best look overall for this type of application method. I will give it a two thumbs up for speed though, just ridiculous time to completion, I did these 3 doors in less than 1.5 hours (ready to hang). Note: Most of that time was spent watching paint dry lol.

Okay on to the good stuff. Pictures are in sequence to the progression of color/final out product. Starts off with materials/machines used, bare door, primed door, finished door, hung up door (inside).

Materials used:
1. Duracraft - wood tone color (light yellow)
2. EcoSelect - kinda ugly looking brownish/orangish color, extremely watered down
3. GF 450 - Chestnut (had it laying around, any color will do)


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## woodcoyote

*images continued*


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## benthepainter

G'day WC


Thanks for sharing they look great : )


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## Jmayspaint

Dude, that is cool. Good,easy way to make cheap doors look interesting. 
Let me see if I'm understanding; you painted the burnt orange color as a base, then basically 'toned them with WB stain? 
I've rarely ever worked with WB stains, how many coats total ?


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## Hog

Very cool, I have an exterior pre finished door I am changing the color on , and have been mulling how I could spray layers of colors, I'm sure I can use your technique , it even appears you grabbed the same spray gear from my van


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## PP&C Services

That's an awesome outcome for spraying them! Once you become accustomed to doing them, no telling how good they'll look. Thanks for the info and photos!


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## woodcoyote

joshmays1976 said:


> Dude, that is cool. Good,easy way to make cheap doors look interesting.
> Let me see if I'm understanding; you painted the burnt orange color as a base, then basically 'toned them with WB stain?
> I've rarely ever worked with WB stains, how many coats total ?


THANKS! 

To answer your question, specifically:
- First, full coat of, Duracraft (wood tone)
- Second, watered down EcoSelect, orangish/brownish color. 
- General Finishes stain color (2 coats, cross hatch pattern)

WB stains are the BEST. Real pain to work with, but in my dry climate it takes me longer to clean the gun than the stain to dry. :O And forget wiping it down on a real hot day, the stain was tacking up on me in less 2 minutes. No joke and no exaggeration, I'm being very serious about the dry time. 

It was about 85 degrees out, slight breeze, and I had dry times of about 15-20 minutes for the paint and about 15 minutes for the stain. 3 steps = 45 minutes. Then top coat, probably another 20 or so minutes. I gave it some time to setup between steps because I didn't hang the doors up but laid them flat, didn't want to mess things up handling them.

Background:

I get this request from time to time, the builders here wish they could do a wood effect to them to spruce up the cheap homes, instead they paint them because it takes sooooo long to gel stain the doors. You also have to have someone that knows that their doing to be able to pull it off properly or it looks like crap. The painters charge more $$$ to get this type of look because it takes so long, hence no one wants to pay for it. Hollow core? Paint it and be done with it, next. Example, for gel stain doors (with texture, some don't have texture) they charge about $75 PER door. 

This is the reason I wanted to try a spray only, speed and hopefully get the same kinda results. It's well worth it considering the time it takes and ease of application. As long as someone has a decent spray technique for the stain, the whole process is dumb and simple.


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## woodcoyote

Hog said:


> Very cool, I have an exterior pre finished door I am changing the color on , and have been mulling how I could spray layers of colors, I'm sure I can use your technique , it even appears you grabbed the same spray gear from my van


Thanks, hope it helps, that's why I decided to post this stuff. Figure I could lend some knowledge to an already knowledgeable board, wish I had this tool when I was learning (still am).


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## Sir Mixalot

Nice work! :clap: 
I'm gonna have to give that a go sometime. :thumbup:


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## michael tust

In order to be worth the set up time.... You must have a Minimum of Doors to Spray ? 
At ant rate, Time is Money ! Those came out good..... Good Idea !


Michael Tust


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## APaintedGal

That looks really nice! It's hard to believe that came from only spraying. Did you swap out the hardware or is that painted as well? If painted, I would be very curious to know how it holds up with use over time. Great work!


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## woodcoyote

michael tust said:


> In order to be worth the set up time.... You must have a Minimum of Doors to Spray ?
> At ant rate, Time is Money ! Those came out good..... Good Idea !
> 
> 
> Michael Tust


Thank you very much. 

As far as minimum doors? I mean more than 1 would be best, hard to make money with 2 gallons of paint + 1 gallon top coat for 1 door at $75. Unless you do quarts, which is doable. 

I used 1 gallon of stain for example and it ended up doing 10 doors, with some left over. I probably could have pushed it to 11 doors, but I didn't want to run short in the middle of the project. 

You use more stain than you do anything else really because the paints are watered down a bit. The first one not much, just enough to flow through the ProShot, the second one is almost like food coloring in water lol, so that one will do like 20 doors probably or more. The stain is 2 coat (cross hatched) so out of all the material that's the one that actually gets used the most (material wise).


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## woodcoyote

APaintedGal said:


> That looks really nice! It's hard to believe that came from only spraying. Did you swap out the hardware or is that painted as well? If painted, I would be very curious to know how it holds up with use over time. Great work!


Thank you. Glad you liked. Yeah I was kinda surprised myself, it can be improved on some I feel, doesn't quite resemble a good gel stained door, but for the trade off of speed it's hard to beat. 

As for the hardware yes I painted it. I'm going to post pictures of that soon too, maybe in another thread or probably this one, seeing as how its related to the doors. I'm curious to know over time how it holds up as well. They have been top coated with a polyacrylic finish so......we'll see. 

Edit: If the painting hardware situation works out, even if its just for 4 or 5 years, which I'd feel is pretty good. It saves tons of money, replacing these handles I was looking at about $23-25 per handle x 10 handles = $250 vs 1 quart color + 1 quart top coat = $30 more or less? Not bad.


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## APaintedGal

Good point on painting the hardware being worth it if it holds up even 4-5 years. I don't have spray equipment in my arsenal, but it's on the "maybe" list for an upcoming cabinet job. I was thinking of scuffing the handles thoroughly, priming, and just using a spray can of oil-rubbed bronze in a regular or hammered finish. I'd prefer the straight finish, but I imagine chips in my future and the hammered finish would be more forgiving with touchups. Some kind of topcoat, too. 

My home has the panel doors just like those you painted along with the same brass handles. I think I'm going to tackle the hardware of just one door, one that gets a lot of use, and see how it is in 6 months or so. I'm probably going to end up wanting to kick myself for not having done this 8 years ago when the home was brand new!

I'd love to hear anything you have to share about what you did with that hardware. I really don't want to spend $25 per door, that's for sure. This house has at least 20 doors in it. Ouch! 

Damn, I'm chatty.


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## woodcoyote

Here's the door knob stuff.

Prep:
Cleaned real good with lacquer thinner, got all dirt/grime off and then cleaned some more with lacquer thinner.

I like the gold color, but I wanted to see something a bit different and blend with the door nicely but yet subtly. So I chose Rustoleum Aged Copper, I think it came out nicely on the finished door, blend away, yet looks refined.

We'll see how they hold up over time, but right now I'm liking the outcome.


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