"Tom Watson" wrote in message
...
On Dec 30 2008, 9:38 pm, Warbler wrote:
My house (vintage 1836) has a beat up exterior wood door that is so
drafty that during [...]

Does the existing door have any historical value?

If it does, it might be worth rehabbing it.
[...]
Rehabbing old doors means taking them entirely apart, cleaning up the
glue lines of the joinery, repairing splits and structural flaws,
etc. If it is a good old door, the exercise can be an education.

This is good advice. I do this all day long professionally. When you are
working with historic buildings the golden rule is you never, never lose any
of the historical fabric unecessarily. That means that I am employed to
repair, repair and repair. Often I repair repairs. A good job is not one
where it looks like new but one where it looks like you haven't touched it.

If the door is old it may have no glue in the mortice and tenons and you
will be able to take them apart.
Don't strip off old paint unecessarily.
Use sharp hand tools and be prepared to resharpen a lot.
Make long scarfs.
wood patches are far preferable to filler.
Patch and repair with the closest you can find to the original timber.
Polyeurethane glue or sometimes epoxy.
Discreet use of stainless steel pins can save the day. ( A favourite trick
with old wobbly joinery is to use stainless threaded studding as a dowel
with adhesive )

Good luck. Ask me if you want any specific advice.

Tim W