walter wrote:

remove all old varnish by sanding or stripping, plus finish sanding.
Next you use a good quality oil based stain in a medium brown.
Then you use a spar varnish.
I recommend Minwax "Helmsman" Spar Urethane (HD)
apply at least 3 coats.
shows off the grain of the mahogany.
I add a new coat every five years.
Same treatment for the sill.

This is a great plan because it allows me to stain and restore
the mahogany wood door.

On the inside of the door I used "Restor-A-Finish" by Howard Products.
I used Golden Oak finish. You wipe it on with a rag. Works great.

This is interesting. I will look for it at Home Depot.

On Friday, December 7, 2012 9:16:16 AM UTC-6, Tony Palermo wrote:
walter wrote: remove all old varnish by sanding or stripping, plus finish sanding. Next you use a good quality oil based stain in a medium brown.. Then you use a spar varnish. I recommend Minwax "Helmsman" Spar Urethane (HD) apply at least 3 coats. shows off the grain of the mahogany. I add a new coat every five years. Same treatment for the sill. This is a great plan because it allows me to stain and restore the mahogany wood door. On the inside of the door I used "Restor-A-Finish" by Howard Products.. I used Golden Oak finish. You wipe it on with a rag. Works great. This is interesting. I will look for it at Home Depot.

The doorway presently shows the finish is coming off in large random splotches. I don't think all of this is attributable to the sun and rain, especially higher up. Whatever finish (water based?) is presently on the surface, it seems to not be quite compatible with what's under it. Either 1) the present finish was applied without properly prepping the doorway, before application, or 2) the present finish was applied over a previous finish that isn't compatible with the present. Whichever the case, all needs to be removed by stripping and lots of sanding, to make sure you get down to bare wood.

As DadiOH has said, there is some maintenance issues to deal with, especially on the bottoms of the woodwork. If those areas get rained on regularly, then those areas may still be damp, somewhat. You may need to drape off the whole front entrance to prevent further moisture from affecting your work on the doorway, while you're working on it.... 2 weeks time?

If you don't want to trim those blackened areas, for repair or some other maintenance procedure, then you might consider treating those areas with denatured alcohol. Alcohol displaces water and denatured alcohol will evaporate faster than other alcohol products. Denatured alcohol is flamable, so keep flames/smoking from the area. If you elect to use this alcohol treatment, do so after your stripping and sanding.

That doorway will require lots of detailed hand sanding and edge sanding..... with an appropriate detail tool, if you elect to use a detail tool. I would not recommend using a more agressive sanding tool, than a detail tool, on your doorway. Scraping will likely need to be done, also, in appropriate areas. If you are not going to do this detailed work, and do it properly, then hire someone, a pro, to do the stripping, sanding, and prepping job, properly.

I would not use a spar varnish, either. Not only will it yellow with time, but I doubt it would last long enough to yellow, before it starts deteriorating, in those environmental conditions. I would use a good marine finish.. I don't have the confidence in spar urethane, as it's touted to be, for your sun-rain conditions. I am familiar with WaterLox and I would recommend this for the doorway. I would thin it, a bit, and apply a thinned coating first, for it to be absorbed, more so, than non-thinned, then apply non-thinned coats.

Since the doorway is in that extreme(?) of environment, I would recommend a touchup coating of marine finish every 6-8 months.... lightly sand and apply the touchup finish coating. Don't wait for it to get bad, again, before attending to it.

You can't remove the sidelights, to work on them. I would recommend you remove the door, from the frame, to do whatever work needs to be done on it. Make sure you seal/finish the bottom edge of the door, also. You can't seal the bottom edge of the door with it in its hung position.

That's a nice $3K-$5K doorway/entrance. Don't skimp on the work that needs to be done. To repair and refinish that doorway, properly, will not take 2 days to do. It may take some good time, a week?, maybe more?, for a typical DIYer to do.

Sonny