# Peeling kitchen doors



## KevM (16 Jul 2014)

A friend is going through some hard times and wants to improve her kitchen on a minimal (basically non-existent) budget. It's a ~20yr old Magnet kitchen that's in surprisingly good order, except the outer door 'skins' are peeling away in a couple of places revealing the MDF cores, the skins are cracked and shrunken so gluing them back in place isn't an option.

Is it possible to cleanly remove these skins (heat/solvent?) and paint the MDF to a reasonable standard?

Cheers,

Kev


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## Distinterior (16 Jul 2014)

Hi Kev,

It may well be possible to remove the vinyl/paper wrap on the doors, but it will depend on how well the rest of the covering has adhered to the MDF doors.

I would suggest you try a little application of heat on one of the worst affected doors, but make sure you do it in a well ventilated area (I would suggest outside....!!!!) as the fumes of the adhesive that is used can be a bit noxious.

If you have an electric paint stripper, that is probably your best bet. Take your time don't apply the heat in one area for too long, keep the hot air moving around over the area you are trying to remove. Just keep tension on the vinyl and it should peel off. If the doors are all peeling, it should be relatively simple to strip the covering of them all.

Hope this helps!

Tim.


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## NikNak (16 Jul 2014)

Hi Kev

I'm betting they're only peeling around the bottom edges, or an edge that's next to the cooker etc..? 

So.... worst case is you're thinking about totally stripping them..? a lotta hard (and possibly smelly) work....

How about you just try with a nice new Stanley knife/blade and trim the flakey / peely bits away and see how they 'clean up'..? 

If that works... give them a good clean then use some melamine primer followed by a top coat of kitchen cupboard paint..? 

Try it on (i was going to say the worst door...) any door, as it sounds like they all need something doing with them. A lick of paint and some new door handles and they'll look like new..... trust me we've done it twice now. (when we moved in 12 yrs ago the fitted kitchen was old then.... very 1980's dark oak. Cleaned, quick rub down, primer, topcoat, new handles.... WOW..!! Dark oak turned into cream. Then 6 years later another top coat of v light blue and new handles again... bammm new look kitchen again..!)



Nick


oh.... remove door from carcass, remove handles and remove hinge.... makes it all soooo much easier


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## Mike.S (16 Jul 2014)

I suspect removing that foil/vinyl covering and glue will be very difficult. If the skins aren't too widely damaged then it may be worthwhile just removing/planing/sanding the loose skin and fill the holes with a good 2 part filler and sand flush. A good primer (e.g. Zinsser BIN) should cover the vinyl skin and filler, ready for a finish coat of choice. 

Alternatively, if they're overlay doors and any drawers etc are also to be refinished, then fix 3mm MDF as a veneer over the surfaces, flush trim bit to edges (fill and paint or apply iron on veneer) and they're ready for finishing. 

HTH.


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## KevM (17 Jul 2014)

Thanks for the advice guys.

Yes it's the doors/drawers that surround the oven that have suffered - the rest look like they'll clean up pretty well with some degreaser, I'm planning to use some Virosol for that.

I like the idea of trying to fill/patch to start with and see where that gets me - any tips for gluing the vinyl wrap back down, will some gentle warming and pressure do the trick? I've got a venerable but fantastic Raychem heat gun I rescued from oblivion in a skip a few years back, it's got controllable heat so I may be able to just tickle it - although I'm not planning to do anything with heat over the next few days - it's officially "_Scorchio - brrr!_" 

I've got a feeling this whole episode could end up falling into the category of '_why did I ever start?_', but nothing ventured nothing gained.

Thanks again all!


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