Victorian front door restoration: is this door beyond help?

I live in a Victorian terrace. My front door has been covered up with sheets of fibreboard on both sides for as long as I've lived here. Years ago a decorator had a look under the fibreboard and said he thought it was the original front door.

I've recently removed the fibreboard on the inside. Underneath, the two top panels of the old door were completely missing. They'd obviously been glass at one point. The glass didn't look original - it looked like the panels had either been reglazed, or glass had been used to replace solid panels.









I've hung a temporary front door and moved the old door inside to have a better look at it and hopefully restore it.

Removing the fibreboard from the front (the outside), it's even more knackered than I thought. It's got the remains of cricket bat panels in the lower half. But parts of the panels - the wood surrounding the cricket bat centres - are missing. There's nothing left of the upper panels at all.





I've removed the weather bar for now and pulled out all the tacks and nails. My plan was to strip the paint, put new flat panels in the top half and possibly remove the lower cricket bat panels, leaving them flat. Then I thought I'd fill all the holes and add bolection mouldings around the panels. But maybe I'm kidding myself - it is in a much worse state than I'd expected and I'm definitely not an expert carpenter. Plus the paint probably has lead in it so perhaps I should leave it alone.

Anybody got any tips or suggestions?

It is definitely restoreable. On the plus side the main structure and joints appear to be OK - in fact that planted-on strip at the bottom may well have helped prolong its' life. On the minus side the letterbox opening is a mess and there is some other frame damage, like that big split.

Much of the damage I'd deal with by using a router and chisels to regularise the damaged areas. I'd then glue-in repair patches and once the glue had set I'd trim them with a sharp hand plane.

The two cut-out panels I'd replace - probably by a couple of plywood panels (slightly loose fit to accommodate timber movement) with softwood raised centres pinned and glued on (the "coffin lid" mouldings, to match the other two panels). Whilst it is hard work to do these raised pieces by hand I'm sure there must be a local joinery shop who'd be able to run you off a couple of repos.

Finally, you have to deal with the front mouldings around the panels. This would be some form of bolection moulding as you say and getting a match (right period, right proportion, right rebate) is going to take some sleuthing on your part. If or when you find some you'll need a handsaw and a mitre box to cut it

Repair timber should ideally be the original species (possibly Quebec yellow pine), or failing that some joinery grade redwood (not B&Q banana pine!)

The minimum tolerance kit I'd need (apart from pencil and tape) would include:

Fine tooth hand saw
Sharp chisels
Try or combination square
Rampin (to drive panel pins)
Nippers (to remove them)
Hammer
Nail set
Sharp block plane
Mitre box
Sharp jack plane (possibly)

good advice from jxk
that letter box position is shocking it has removed both the full mortice and the full tenon giving no support or strength at all
my thoughts are separate enough and although not ideal lift it up enough to fit a false tenon 'chunky dowels or other fixing to be firmly fixed to a stepped or half paired [front and back sections ] to fill the old letter box space that is tied in to surrounding timber and fully glued but not to panels where a couple off spots are enough

Trigger's Broom!

Andy

@JobAndKnock Thanks. That's very helpful advice. It's not as hopeless as I thought then!

So on those 2 lower panels, I assumed there was originally more to those panels but the raised parts are all that's left . Could I just fill the space between raised centre and the surrounding frame with bolection mouldings? I guess I should be aiming for a design a bit like this...

@big-all Thanks for your advice about the letterbox. I see what you mean - they've completely cut out the joint between the middle rail and the mullion. Where would you position the letterbox? Just lower down? Or would you avoid having a letterbox in the door altogether?

Door is definitely repairable.

Here's my tip: when sanding back filler, get yourself some double sided tape from screwfix and use it to stick strips of abrasive to bits of flat wood. Also you can stick abrasive to bits of dowel or rod, copper tubing, whatever to - sand in the mouldings.

Why?

Because if you want to sand filler dead flat you need abrasive on a hard backing surface, that way when sanding it flattens down the high spots.

If you just use your fingers, you will end up with a ripply surface that will show through the paint.


And don't be tempted to use a high gloss paint, but use eggshell - gloss is very unforgiving of flaws and all the repair work will telegraph through gloss.

Thanks. That's a really useful tip.

chriseastlondon said:

So on those 2 lower panels, I assumed there was originally more to those panels but the raised parts are all that's left . Could I just fill the space between raised centre and the surrounding frame with bolection mouldings?

Click to expand...

Yes. The other two (butchered) panels will need the same type of moulding as well, but they will need new "coffin lid" mouldings and new flat panels as well

Would those coffin mouldings be able to be inserted into a new surround, creating a new panel for the door?By cutting the damaged border off, then either rebating a new surround into the old lozenge, or using a band saw to split the lozenge down it's length into two panels and screwing them to a new solid panel front and back?