Repairing my door muntin (trying at least)

[mkeller234]

Now that I am working on the back porch, I want to repair the damage on the back door and give it a fresh coat of paint. I've used a contour gauge to find the profile of the muntin and cut that shape into a thick piece of vinyl siding that I removed from the porch ceiling. I figured that aiding the repair of a wooden door was an appropriate way for vinyl siding to die!

I have this stuff called "plastic wood" that I planned to use. I had a co-worker suggest that I thin it down with some acetone and get it to the consistency of peanut butter. After that, I planned on using my plastic scrapper tool to shape the putty to the profile of the door.

Any advice before I get much further? Is this plan half baked, or am I on the right path?

Here is what the door looks like. I'm guessing this is the result of the previous owners dog not being let in...
0715152018-00 by mkeller234, on Flickr

My home made shaping tool:
0715152019-01 by mkeller234, on Flickr

[Mick_VT]

It certainly cant hurt to try. If it were me I would make a replica of the profile section out of wood, then use my router to remove a clean square portion from the door to inset the replica into. But as I said, the filler method has to be worth a try if you cant go the above route.

[heartwood]

for a homeowner DIY'er, I would encourage you to give it a try...
good luc!
...jade

[Mick_VT]

specific advice I would give is, add some small brad nails with their heads proud before you start, they should be positioned so they end up totally covered in the filler - they will have the effect of pinning the filler to the wood so you are not totally relying on the adhesive properties alone. Also, build the filler up in multiple coats letting each set between. You will find it much easier to get to final profile that way as you will get support for the peanut buttery stuff from that which is set. You will also be able to trim the earlier coats easily if you end up with a spot that is proud or in some way wonky, and you wont get shrinkage issues that coudl happen with a thick coat. I dont know if you know this but the multi coat thing is pretty much how you apply bondo when doing a car body repair

[Sashguy]

I do this quite often due to pets scratching and chewing on doors. Pull the door and lay it flat. On a good section, tape off a small section for protection with Scotch Tape (appx 3"). Build a small box around the area and fill with Bondo. Once hardened, pull it off and you have yourself a mold. Apply Durham's Rock hard to the damaged area and slide the mold over it to shape the profile. It will not be perfect on the first run, so let it dry and continue doing this until a perfect profile is obtained. Prime and paint.

[Don M]

I do this quite often due to pets scratching and chewing on doors. Pull the door and lay it flat. On a good section, tape off a small section for protection with Scotch Tape (appx 3"). Build a small box around the area and fill with Bondo. Once hardened, pull it off and you have yourself a mold. Apply Durham's Rock hard to the damaged area and slide the mold over it to shape the profile. It will not be perfect on the first run, so let it dry and continue doing this until a perfect profile is obtained. Prime and paint.

That's a clever solution!

[mkeller234]

Setting brad nails seems like a great idea. I'm going try tht out. I like the idea of the mold, but will give this other method a try first. Now I just need to find some time this weekend.

Thanks everyone!

[phil]

if you want you can copy that profile to a bit of old handsaw blade and cut it out with a dremil, the little cut off wheels work good, carefully grind or file the shape you need and then you can make a simple holder for it so you can use it to draw across a strip of wood and make more with that profile, you can also use it to scrape paint or to touch up the contour of your bondo or epoxy wood.
you are painting so filler is fine but if you wanted to show the wood you wouldn't want the filler so much.