restoring old front door

[anniemaccie]

Hi. We recently bought a 1950s house, built in a 1930s style, and it has the original front door, which I would like to keep as it has a beautiful surround with period glass, and would cost a fortune to replace.
It is all in fairly good condition, nothing is rotten, but it all needs repainting and one pane of the side glass has a crack.
However, my main problem is door furniture. The old couple who lived here from when the house was built were clearly security conscious. There is the original lock (I reckon you could open it with a spoon) with built in tiny letterbox, as well as two or three other locks etc that have been added since.
I want to replace the lot with a decent lock and letterbox - at the moment our postie gets fed up having to fold everything to post it,and we have to have two hands free to get in the house, as we have to turn two handles - tricky with a small child in tow!
If I remove this lot can I fill the spaces with wood, or filler, and sand to a decent finish before repainting, adding new furniture in the position I want? Or am I making a rod for my own back?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[WalksWithTurkeys]

Large holes might be best filled with a piece of wood shaped to size and glued in place. For filling smaller holes, I've found two part filler works well, and as far as I can see it does not shrink. It is a devil to sand, so best to fill almost flush, then power sand smooth. It is also horrible and sticky, and a pain to shape when wet, and it dries quickly.

 

[geraldthehamster]

Sometimes it's easier to cover the hole with a plate to match the other door furniture, which is quicker than filling and sanding. Our interior stripped pine doors had big round holes in them, from former Yale locks that had been retrofitted at some point. I screwed decorative reclaimed brass finger plates over the holes. Our front door no longer needed its letter box once I'd built a porch in front of it, so I removed the letter box and screwed a plain reclaimed brass finger plate over it, horizontally, on either side of the door. If that's any help as a suggestion.

Cheers
Richard