Thread: Door Restoration

I assume Jackson Wy is Wyoming USA?
We are mainly Aussies here, so not familiar with with common wood or stains from your area
. I'd start by visiting your local paint finish supplier and seeing if you can find a similar finish. Could be a stain or a coloured varnish.
Then I think you will need to use some filler, probably multiple layers as some of those gouges look pretty serious. Bad dog....

Sand and refinish as per can instructions. Because the colour looks fairly solid, and the raw wood is very light, I don't think matching the grain is likely to be an issue.

And if you are really lucky, someone who knows more may offer a better option...

Originally Posted by russ57

I assume Jackson Wy is Wyoming USA?
We are mainly Aussies here, so not familiar with with common wood or stains from your area
. I'd start by visiting your local paint finish supplier and seeing if you can find a similar finish. Could be a stain or a coloured varnish.
Then I think you will need to use some filler, probably multiple layers as some of those gouges look pretty serious. Bad dog....

Sand and refinish as per can instructions. Because the colour looks fairly solid, and the raw wood is very light, I don't think matching the grain is likely to be an issue.

And if you are really lucky, someone who knows more may offer a better option...

Thank you for your advice! I went to the lumber store and garbed some wood scraps - pine, Douglas fir and oak. Grabbed a peace of sanding paper and it turned out it is Douglas fir. I saw a similar door there that had a clear coat and it looked exactly like mine as far as color and grain. So now I know it is clear coat finish. Which makes me feel nervons to match the filler with wood because most fillers come with white color or some come with their own and it would be hard to match Douglas fir. Do you know of a product that would match Douglas fir? Thank you!

Must be a trick of the light, quite possible, as it looked like the finish was a different colour to the bare wood.
If you have a scrap you can experiment with various options to see what effect they give.

I see only 2 options though.
1 Fill and stain, maybe use a pen or fine brush to add false grain
2. Route/chisel the damage to allow you to inset some new wood

If fill and stain doesn't work you can always remove it and try the inset. But getting a good patch requires some careful work.

Then refinish the whole door..

Check out Thomas Johnson on YouTube - he does some great restoration, including occasional patching with inset timber.

Again, check your local paint/finish supplier for a suitable filler.

As russ 57 said. His two options are right.
The best way to fix the big missing piece would have been to have kept the piece the dog ripped out if he/she didn't chew it up as well. And glue it back in.
Next best way is to get some scrap and find a patch that comes from the same direction to the heart of the tree that the missing piece came from. That's not hard . Almost every piece of wood you pick up can be rotated to find the direction by looking at the end grain to where the circular growth rings get smaller. The smaller the circles get the closer its getting to the heart/ center of the tree. By checking that and what will come out of it when a patch is cut from it you can get a matching patch that if put in right will not be noticeable.
So if you can cut a stick out large enough to run the full length of that panel where the mould around it ends at its quirk, the little step down before the sloped bevel starts, you have a place to finish it at the ends that will work well.
You then shape the stick so it has a tiny 1 or 2 degree slope each side like a plug works. Hold or clamp it in place over the missing piece and finely scribe or mark with a fine pen maybe both sides and carefully route then finish the sides of the new Channel with a chisel. The correct plane would be better but they are specialist items that you probably dont have . A Stanley 98 and 99 for example. Stanley No 98 & 99 Side Rabbet Planes - Tool Exchange . If done right the patch will tighten in its channel as it gets pressed in with glue.
Then when dry plane it back and sand and re finish. It would most probably still need some colour matching to get it matching well.
Edit . Just sand it flat on the sides with sandpaper on a stick to get it smoother than the router leaves it if it needs it.

No filler will fix that missing piece and look good unless you fill it with a lighter filler to the lightest part of what colour is already there in the timber. And then paint a false grain back in to match the surrounding wood leaving it level with the original finish that then becomes one with the original when that is revived with more finish. It takes some experience to get good at doing that. And a range of the right colours and finishes to use.

Douglas fir is a timber that looks light/ sort of white ish when newly exposed or cut but with a little time (months) it goes very Yellow / orange. I would have guessed your door is more likely one of the other many pine, softwood or Cedar types you get to see in the US. The grain can be very similar looking. The oxidized colour after a year or two though changes a lot in the different types compared to DF. The colour of your door compared to the fresh holes doesnt look quite as DF like as I would have expected it to look. The strong yellow look.
I assume the door you saw at the lumber store that looked the same was labelled Douglas fir though . Was that the case?
Good detective work and stick with DF then .

We get a lot of DF here, from cheap New growth stuff to good quality tight grained old growth stuff. I used some nice DF in a job a couple of years back and bleached the yellow out of the wood before finishing. That worked . The strong yellow it goes was not good for me otherwise in that particular job.

Rob