Our garage door was hand built by a local joiner out of rainforest
mahogany Ca 18 years ago. It has been well maintained ever since but
now is starting to show signs of deterioration.

It looks like a traditional panelled door but the panels (which are
hardwood faced ply) were fitted into grooves in the framework as it
was being assembled, IE there is no beading holding them in. The door
has just been professionally re-treated with Sikkens.

The problem is the bottom edge of the bottom row of panels (which gets
nearly all the water that hits the door)- the plywood is giving up the
ghost. It looks like it's failing because the edge splintered a little
when they were being sawn to size and some of the splintering has been
exposed for 18 years.

To get panels out would involve a dismantling job of taking off the
sides and bottom. IGWS it would ruin the paint finish and open up all
the joints all round, all in all not condusive to increasing it's
longevity.

The panels are exposed on the inside of the door and from there it
looks like they are not too bad under the paint.

So I'd appreciate suggestions as to what to do to improve the worst
panels which are at the bottom.

Strip off the years of Sikkens finish over about 1" above and below
the join and treat with some sort of hardening plastic sealer perhaps,
and then re-apply the Sikkens ?

Give it a severe wire brushing, re-paint it well and fix a drip strip
to keep the water away from the offending joint perhaps ?

Any better ideas.

Derek