Stain Coming Off

dayspring

About 10 months ago I stained a Fiberglass door unit with Gel stain and afterward applied 3 or 4 coats of poly.

HO called today and said the finish was coming off in a few spots. I have no idea what happened, I cleaned the door unit very good before we stained it. I know it was very difficult to get the stain to blend evenly.

I haven;t went to look at it yet but was told the problem was mainly around the sidelights.

What can I do?

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slickshift

You'll want to post exactly which kind/brand of stain and poly, and what, if any, prep steps were taken

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Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

dayspring

Slickshift, We did prep the door. We completely disassembled the unit, removing all hardware, weatherstripping, etc. We then removed all excess glazing. Then cleaned the unit with mild soap and water and rinsed then wiped dry. Before any stain was applied we wiped everything down good with mineral spirits (not soaking)and let dry.

Stain was Minwax Gel Stain and poly was Minwax Satin , both rated for exterior use.

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artinall

I never use solvent based overtop fiberglass.

- Too much expansion.

dayspring

The kit Therma-Tru offers has an oil-based Gel stain. They didn't offer the color the HO wanted. HO chose the stain.

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slickshift

Minwax satin poly is not rated for exterior use

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Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

Teetorbilt

My guess would be the mineral spirits soaked into the gelcoat/primer and prevented the water-based stain from taking.

I only use MS for oil, for anything water-based I use denatured alcohol or acetone and alcohol on gelcoat.

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slickshift

Mineral spirits can leave a fine coating of oil (it's oil-based) that will lift or otherwise ruin a latex or water-based coating or stain

I'm assuming the minwax gel was oil-based...but I'd guess they could have a water-based one also

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Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

dayspring

The Minwax and the poly were both Oil-based products. I went by the instructions on the Therma-Tru website which was inline with the instructions on the products I used.

I went to look at it today and it is coming off or fading maybe, around the lite in the door, just the trim, not real badbut a little is more than we want

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slickshift

Well, if it's the Minwax satin poly, that stuff is only rated for interior

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Originally Posted by ModernStyle I have never used this crap before and I pray to the paint gods that I never have to use it again, I would rather use Behr

dayspring

I'll have to check, maybe we used semi, I'm sure I used exterior, POSITIVE,
i think

I dunno, Slickshift, you may be right. I would have swore we used an exterior poly though, oops

Now what, if I find that to be the case?

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