Once stripped the door should be lightly sanded with a 120 grit sandpaper to remove any remaining traces of paint and paint stripping product.
Restoring hardwood door rail.
Remove the three hinge pins from the door by placing the flat.
As with any diy project preparation is key.
Wear safety glasses when using a palm sander.
Rot is often caused by water collecting at the bottom of panels in rail and mullion grooves.
Priming end grain areas before reassembly is a good idea especially for exterior doors.
If you leave it too long in one spot you ll damage the wood.
Coat both the mortise and tenon sides with a good wood glue to and tightly clamp the doors back together.
Refinishing your wood door with quality stain every one to two years prevents weather damage and keeps your door looking like new.
Keep the palm sander moving.
Hopefully this will restore the original integrity of the door by maximizing the glue surface of the joints as originally intended and perhaps they will last another 70 years.
Other rot prone areas are the exposed ends of door components since end grain cuts absorb water more quickly than surfaces parallel to the grain.