There's a panel on my front door (facing outdoors) where the laminate is bubbled and peeling. I guess the laminate was applied there to cover the damaged wood below it.
Would I be better off removing laminate and trying to repair the original wood(sand and stain to try to match original color), or finding a new laminate piece to match? Is the current laminate piece repairable and worth re-applying? Would it be wise to apply polyurethane over the repaired area (regardless of which method is used) to protect from the elements?
Thanks!

This is a toughie.

If it were my door, I would consider removing the laminate and trying to sand down the original surface and refinish it If it's really too badly damaged for that, you could try to replace the laminate. It would probably stick better after you've sanded down the surface of the door.

Another option would be to replace the door.

What type of damage is on door panel under laminate?

Remove laminate and sand original panel. Stain to match existing and coat entire door with 2 coats exterior poly.

Chuck

Thanks for your replies.
The damage to the original wood is not too bad, as far as I can tell. There are scratches and a gouge or two. Looks like they stained half of it very dark (see picture), and didn't like it. Maybe that's why they glued laminate on top.

If I sand it down, will I be able to successfully stain it to match the rest of the door, or will the dark stain that they applied on part of this panel make that impossible?

Thanks!

If the stain was a penetrating stain the chances of hiding the dark stain are very slim.

Chuck

Don't know how much your into this door but from the looks of it I would buy a new paneled blank and start fresh. Then you can stain it all and use Exterior Spar urethane to seal stain. It also looks like the door was damaged because of the brass cover at the knob area which indicates more then not the door split on its end.

You will love yourself to start fresh and have a new door that matches on all sides. The time you fool around with that an experiment, you could have hung a new door on the old jamb. The added cost here is a door blank.

Just subtract buying laminate and stain that won't match.

Repairing/hanging old doors for too long and this one needs replaced...