Are you tired of looking at your faded, chalky, aluminum garage doors? Revitalize your garage doors with Minwax gel stain. Gel stains come in several colors and provide a nice finish that will last for years. We used Minwax gel stain on our aluminum garage doors back in 2015 and they look great.
Gel stain works great on other surfaces too. According to the Minwax website “Gel Stain can be applied to non-wood surfaces, including metal, veneer, and fiberglass”, as long as the surfaces are properly prepared. It’s a great product and easy to work with. Give it a try. You won’t regret it!
Recommended Materials For Applying Gel Stain
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To help get you started, below is a list of recommended materials you’ll want to have on hand to get started. There are a couple of application methods listed, so use the one you prefer or have available. I am including links to some of the material for pricing and informational purposes.
I am required to let you know that some of our links are “affiliate product links”. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, we could make a small commission, at no extra cost to you. This helps offset the cost of maintaining our website.
- Minwax Gel Stain – When checking the price, be sure to select the desired color, because the price does vary between colors.
- Paint brush or Clean cloth – A good, natural bristle brush is recommended.
- Nitrile Disposable Gloves – Rubber gloves are highly recommended. Along with staining your skin, this is a petroleum product, so avoiding contact with your skin is best.
- Scotch Brite Pad – Scotch Brite pads work great for loosening debris and cleaning the surface to be stained.
- Mineral Spirits – Mineral spirits is required to clean up gel stain.
- Painter’s Tape – Needed to tape off surrounding areas to protect them.
- Drop Cloths or plastic sheeting – To protect cement and garage doors for drips. Gel stain is a thick product designed to be applied to verticle surfaces with minimal dripping. However, drips and spills can occur, so this is an added precaution. Plastic sheeting or large pieces of cardboard can be used as well.
- Minwax Clear Coat (exterior) – Although Minwax recommends a clear coat, we did not use one and the results and durability have been just fine here in Michigan.
How To Prepare A Surface For Gel Stain
As with most painting and staining projects, surface preparation is very important. We used Minwax Gel Stain on a bathroom vanity during a bathroom makeover project and it worked great. But for this article, we’re focusing on gel staining aluminum garage doors. Some materials, such as certain woods, have slightly different preparation requirements. So be sure to follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the surface you’ll be painting.
For the aluminum garages doors, they will need to be clean and dry, with no oily residue or loose debris. There are a couple of ways you can prepare them. Wash the doors using a mild soap, that leaves no residue, with a sponge, and rinse them well. For more thorough cleaning, you can use a Scotch Brite padinstead of a sponge.
Another option, which we used, was to use our pressure washer to clean the doors. This works well. After the door is completely dried, wipe them down with a clean, dry cloth to make sure there is no loose debris.
Things To Do Before Starting
Be sure to use painters tape to tape off the weather stripping and trim around the doors. Use a drop cloth, plastic sheeting, or cardboard under the door to prevent any stain that may drip from getting on your concrete floor. If you accidentally get the stain on any surrounding surface, use mineral spirits or paint thinner to clean it up quickly.
How To Apply Gel Stain
Once the cleaning preparation is done, applying a gel stain is much like painting. Below are the steps we used for a nice even finish.
- For best results apply the gel stain at temperatures between 55 and 85 degrees.
- Be sure to stir the stain thoroughly prior to applying.
- Usea good quality, natural bristle brush to apply the stain.
- You should start by doing the raised panels first.
- Finish with thin even strokes, in the direction of the embossed wood grain.
- Additional coats can be applied to achieve a darker finish, but allow at least 6 hours between coats.
- UPDATE: For additional protection, we are now recommending that you use the Minwax clear protective coating. We did not use the clear coat on ours and it looked great for several years. However, after 5 years of Michigan’s weather, we are starting to see some minor flaking beginning. We would hope the additional protection will extend the gel stain’s life to 10-15 years.
Update: Gel Stained Polebarn Garage Door
This little project has been on our radar for quite a while, but we finally got it done in 2019. The door was beginning to show its age, so we had to do something. The gel stain transformed the old faded aluminum door into a door that looks brand new.
As with the garage doors attached to the house, we couldn’t be happier with the results! We think it gives the place a nice consistent look. Even though the garage door gel stain is 5 years older than the polebarn door, they have held up very well.
However, now that we’ve started seeing signs of flaking on garage doors, we will be applying the clear protective coating to our polebarn door. We will also redo our garage doors and seal them as well. We still love the product.
Enjoy Your Efforts
Applying gel stain to your aluminum garage doors is something you can easily do. It will certainly spruce up your home and improve howit looks. Give it a try and let us know how it turns out. We’re confident you’ll love the results!
If you have any comments or questions, you can leave them in the comments section below or you can email us at [emailprotected]. FYI, we do not collect or share email addresses. We will only use them to reply to your comments or provide answers to your questions. We are also required to let you know that some of our links are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, we could make a small commission, at no extra cost to you. This helps offset the cost of maintaining our website. So, if you like what you’ve seen, please be sure to give us a “Like” and “Share” on Facebook and Instagram too. Thank you for reading and good luck with all your home projects!
