On Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 10:49:39 AM UTC+1, Clive Arthur wrote:
Loads of old panelled Victorian doors in our house. OF course, these
have been painted many times and the panels are immovable and often
cracked. Filling and painting is a bit Forth bridge like.

If I had some thin material which wouldn't crack and looked like wood or
maybe was wood, I could cover the panels with this. The slight loss of
depth probably wouldn't show.

What might work?

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Cheers
Clive

Originally the panels could move so that they wouldn't split. Overpainting them has fasened them to the sides so when they move they split. I would replace them with thin ply but make sure that they weren't painted in.

Jonathan