Son's house has a locked off door in a wall separating him from next door. It's an old door - I would guess late 1800's and only appeared when he took down the mass of ivy covering the wall. It has some glass panes, some flat panels and quite a bit of detail work with decorative profiles. It has a stonework arch above it and has been pretty well protected from the weather, so is in quite good condition. It appears to have been painted with what I guess is white lead paint (it looks like the red lead I've used, but is white) and on top of this is a coating of very old paint which is peeling.
He tried a heat gun to remove all the paint, but it was extremely hard work and slow. I tried a sander on it, taking off just the top paint, remains of ivy and a skim of the white lead, and thought that was better, but he has given up with that saying the dust was horrendous and progress slow.
He had tried the current Nitromors, but that was useless. The white lead is mostly in reasonable condition, but there are a few places where the wood shows through.
If I can find them, I might be able to lend him a gas blowlamp or two, but I'm a bit concerned about his or my skills with any of this, and I would have carried on just sanding. I like the idea of leaving as much white lead on there as possible. The door is about 100 metres from the nearest power socket, so getting power there between showers takes time and effort.
Has anyone any great insights into the best approach?