In article ,
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?

I had the same problem - back in the day when stripped wood was popular.
Still is with me.

I carefully cut the beading off one side. It's a stock moulding in London,
so possible to replace with new if needed.

Bashed the broken panel out - it fits in a groove in the frame.

Found some suitable thickness ply with a veneer that looked OK. Cut it
slightly oversize so it could be wiggled (and glued) into the groove.

On the side of the door where I'd removed the moulding (chose the worst
side for this) I removed it from the other three panels and replaced with
new - glued and pinned. Stained both the moulding and panel to the best
match I could achieve and gave the door a coat of clear matt varnish.

Still pleased with the results. Did much the same to the panelling round
the bay window.

I'm sure there might be a high tech filler to sort the cracks in the
panelling that could be stained to be invisible. They'd certainly manage
that on The Repair Shop. But I'm talking about 40 years ago.

--
*Marriage changes passion - suddenly you're in bed with a relative*

Dave Plowman London SW
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