I'm Back and door question

[drunken_panda]

Hi guys, I'm back from prob a year off. I have been really, really busy with school and work. Whats new? Hows everyone been? Since last time I was on TN, I've put another 12,000 miles on, so 150,000 miles now, 3 people have hit me, new tires and 4 more speeding tickets (I got out of all of them).

My rear driver door was attacked by a dumpster and has a huge crease in it. When my car was in the body shop getting other work done they told me that to fix it they would have to paint the entire driver side of the car for $3000 (because of my color, lunar mist). I asked them how much just to fix and paint the door, they said $700. I found a used door from a 2004 Camry LE same color, at a junk yard for $300. So my question is: would it be worth it to do the swap? It is the same color, but since Lunar Mist is a hard color to match, would the color be off? Am I going to have a hard time getting the door to realign?

[thapranksta]

What's up? Glad to see you back. Well, I can't answer your door question but I would also try to get a quote from another body shop if that is at all possible. I had my door hit before and it was not nearly $3000. They had to repaint the whole side of my car too.


As for TN, it has been pretty hostile within the last year. Although, it seems to have calmed down a little lately. Threads have been filled with personal attacks and there has been what seems like about 100 "I hate Camry" or "Toyota quality sucks" threads. Though I will not mention any names , I still wonder why some of the people continue to post here if they dislike Toyota Camrys so much.

[gdanaher]

You will need to take the door panels off to unhook the electrical wiring to the window and lock. You might have trouble first cracking the bolts holding the door to the hinges because they should be very tight. Beyond that, it's just a door and a little adjusting and perhaps some temporary wooden shims placed at the right spot to get it adjusted right would help. With regard to paint it likely won't match exactly because of the age and such. Paint will fade some in the sun so if it was parked at a different angle than yours, well, it will be a little different, but it's costing less than 3 grand, and you are learning how to use hand tools.