Solid timber look door restoration? A little help?

So I was gifted a gorgeous Timber door, solid core, with nice features and a pretty glass panel. The issue is that the veneer type coating with the woodgrain and varnish on it is peeling from the botton where it has had weather. My plan is to paint the door, it's going on the front of my house, which gets full on Western Queensland sun.
So I have started to sand it back to get rid of the varnish but my query is, should I peel off the veneer and just take it back to the timber underneath or is that going to remove a protective layer and leave the door more vunerable to moisture etc?
I plan to give it a few good coats of exterior paint so not too worried about the woodgrain etc, I figure it will mostly sand out anyways? just added some pics, the first is a centre feature panelhttp://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...p-100_3835.jpg this is the worst of the bottom edgehttp://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...p-100_3836.jpg

Cheers Maz :2tsup:
Attached Thumbnails http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...p-100_3836.jpg http://www.renovateforum.com/attachm...p-100_3835.jpg



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