Shutters for my house

[Snap Marc]

I just bought a 5 year old house. On the front of it is 22 wooden shutters. They're basic raised panels and simply painted brown. The 2nd day of living in the house, one of the lower level shutters fell off of the metal mounting hardware. It literally rot. The inspector didn't find the rot and the seller got really lucky it happened after we closed.

So, I figured I'd build 22 new shutters. I have the raised panel and stile set and I've been wanting to use my new Rockler router table.

So my question is, what material should I use? These existing shutters are built of crappy finger jointed wood. The look mass produced and cheap cheap cheap. I want to paint them the same color. Can I use plywood? Wouldn't that be the cheapest? Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.

[dlminehart]

Plywood won't stand up to the elements, unless you buy the expensive marine kind. What you want is that crappy finger jointed wood, well primed and top coated. When you're painting over it, what do you care whether it was finger jointed, so long as you've done a thorough job of coating it?

[Snap Marc]

I understand, but what would I use for the center panel inserts? What if I prime and paint the plywood?

What about MDF primed and painted?