Hi All,

This past Friday I was driving home from work and as I went thru an intersection, a kid came flying thru a red light and slammed into my drivers side rear door. He slammed on his brakes pretty hard so he didn’t get hurt, but his handlebars left a pretty decent 2 foot long scrape which is also dented in. I checked to see if he was alright and then just continued driving home. Didn’t really notice the damage he had done at the time. It was also quite a bad part of the city, so I was not inclined wait around and call the police.

Since I have a $500 deductable, I’m considering just buying a new rear door and installing it myself.

I saw one or two on eBay in the $500 range but most had expensive shipping or local pickup only.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a supplier who could sell me a complete rear door in silver?

Alternatively, if anyone knows of someone trying to part out a silver Tacoma near Maryland, let me know.

thanks

It will certainly be cheaper to repair it. Take the parts off of the inside and pop the panel back out as close as you can to normal. Grind off the paint, bondo, sand, bondo, sand, spot putty, sand, prime, spot putty, sand, paint. I can't see it costing you more than about $100 in materials (napa mixes paints, at least here in Canada), and you can get a good-enough automotive spray gun for under $100. You won't need much paint since its just the AC door, maybe take the door off the truck for painting?

Note: It is very easy to paint a small panel when it is held away from the truck and as long as you are meticulous with the prep, the result should look factory, even for an amateur. I'm a computer engineer, and I repainted a few panels on my ex's car before she sent it back to GM after the lease expired. It looked factory -- you couldn't tell that most of the car had been dinged and bashed up from drunk driving (she was a disaster, hence "ex" -- replaced with one smarter and sexier).

When you have it apart, you can foam the inside of the panel -- to improve noise dampening and eliminate the "garbage can" sound.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. I am not handy enough to repair the door myself. I am only really considering replacing the whole thing, or taking it to a body shop.

I'm sure if I tried myself it would turn out looking worse than it does now.

If I go the full reppl;acement route, I may be able to recoup some money by selliung my dented door (if I find anyone who wants it).

 

Its not as hard as you think. Just takes patience, a lot of SANDING involved. You mix the goop, slap it on, then sand it, sand it, sand it, until its smooth.

Heck, maybe you don't even need to fill. Just try popping it back out, then some rubbing compound and buff the hell out of the scratches. It might turn out good enough, or even perfect.

 

Anyone have any leads for me to buy a new (to me) door?