Neighbor Backed Into My 98 ES Help!

[Raredude]

A neighbor who has personal problems (husband abandoned her and two kids, plus she has early stage alzheimer's) backed into my car just behind front driver's side wheel well. Bent the cladding behind the wheel well and pushed in the cladding on the door.

After I bent out the cladding behind the wheel well with my hands, the remaining damage to the door is not that noticable from a distance, but in the right light you can see the cladding is caved in.

The door is spung and I can only close the door if I put slight pressure at the top of the glass. To drive the car, I must enter on the passenger side, which looks pretty strange in public given that my car is in very good condition otherwise and the driver's door doesn't look damaged.

The cladding (and whatever is behind) looks as though I can pop it back out somehow and I guess the door is adjustable. I don't want to go after my neighbor for the repair money, she has enough problems and was very upset when this happened. Footing the repair bill myself would be a tough pill to swallow, so I'm hoping that someone can give me some pointers on how to pop out the cladding and adjust my door.

Thank you

Raredude
1998 ES 300
221,000 miles (160K of them mine)

[MR2Jedi]

You can loosen the bolts holding the door hinges onto the body. Use a jack to either raise or lower the door while in the open position, tightening the bolts till you get it right.(trial and error)
As for the dents, if they're not too bad, you may be able to pull them out with big suction cups. The ones I've seen on TV that people use in there showers may have enough gripping power to work.
Just some ideas.
BTW, very nice of you not to hit her with the repair bills and try to do it yourself.A rarity in this day and age.