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It's been a crap week. I just made it worse.

Damaged the passenger door on my 34 badly; sigh; well this has wrecked my weekend. Photo is attatched.

How do i even go about getting this fixed; whats the first step and what's involved?

post-71190-0-27589800-1353052165_thumb.jpg

Yeh that can't be panel beaten.

New door required - if you can get a good colour match door - it will need a full side respray to blend the front and rear quarter panels.

Might be best off going through insurance if you have full comp and a reasonable excess - cos unless you have panel beater mates (in which case you would have already asked them) you're going to be up for minimum $1500 based on my experience.

If you take it to a real panel beater, they will be able to fix it, and get it back to perfect including colour match, its just a lot of panel beaters these days are not real panel beaters.

however, your cheapest option would be to buy a door from a wrecker or off here.

Okay. If anybody knows any real deal panel beaters let me know.

The panel is curled inward just inside the edge. I could get pliers and bend it out but obviously i'm not going to touch it. I'm hoping skill putty and a respray will get it back to 99%.

I'll take some detailed photos and get in contact a whole bunch of panel beaters in Dandenong. its a start anyway.

As for getting a replacement left side door for a coupe; thats going to be rare and damn near impossible without contacts in the industry.

Damnit. thanks.

Happy f**king friday all.

You've got the real answer.

Cheapest way out is replacement door skin and respray - if you do the removal and refit of the door skin, locks, glass, loom - you will save a chunk of money.

People talking about lack of real panel beaters is partially true - but that's because it's cheaper to replace and respray a panel than to charge hours of labour knocking out bent metal with a dolly and hammer - and not doing another job in the meantime. The customer won't pay for that, and neither will an insurance company. The quotes become uncompetitive.

Keep your eyes peeled on eBay - a door will come up. Remember you only need the skin, not a full door - should cost 250. Paint - 600 to 800 assuming you do the labour. These are estimates - im not in the industry - but have had to do a full side respray before: for much less damage.

Besides - you don't want a door full of bog - especially in that location. It will hit on stuff and chip - looking like ass. Do the right thing for your car, be a man (Russell Peters lol)

+ 1 ring around a few wreckers , or watch out on ebay . there is always cheap parts going . you may even get lucky and find the same colour which could be worthy for a while until you have money to get the side finished again depending how much the color is off.

Okay... yeah ultimately I agree Smoky. I'm pedantic about this car and Looking at a half arsed job every day is just going to irritate me.

I went to the only wreckers in dandenong... it just so happens that they had a 34 coupe wreck that had nothing on it except a passenger door and window.

Not sure wether i'm incredibly lucky or unlucky. Bah.

I Can pick up sedan doors for 300 off ebay. This one was... a little more expensive than that. I decided to be a man but it wasn't even close to being firty four fifty dollars.

And its white. So i have to pay a spray painter to do all that blending bullshit on one side of the car and yada yada; exactly what you said in your first post yay and now i'm going to have to eat beans.

Agree on replacement. beating that out would be the same as 3 second hand doors. I had a dint in mine, 50c size and thinking if replacing it, got a quote for $220 for a complete door. Quite cheap tbh.

I assume you reversed into something whilst the door was open?

Someone offered you an undamaged R34 coupe door for 220 dollars? Um. What kind of mates do you have? Are you Sure thats not a Sedan door....

I was vaccuming the car in the garage and rolled it back a meter because it was too close to the wall. It ran away an extra couple of feet down the gutter slope backwards. when it hit the bottom of the gutter it jumped the passenger door open. Grabbed a brick wall.

I've lost longtime girlfriends I've loved before and i have never felt as sick as i did when that happened.

Someone offered you an undamaged R34 coupe door for 220 dollars? Um. What kind of mates do you have? Are you Sure thats not a Sedan door....

I was vaccuming the car in the garage and rolled it back a meter because it was too close to the wall. It ran away an extra couple of feet down the gutter slope backwards. when it hit the bottom of the gutter it jumped the passenger door open. Grabbed a brick wall.

I've lost longtime girlfriends I've loved before and i have never felt as sick as i did when that happened.

You should be thankfull instead! if it had rolled into somone or over a small child(or onto the road in front of a passing car) you would be feeling real sick. the car is easily fixed

Someone offered you an undamaged R34 coupe door for 220 dollars? Um. What kind of mates do you have? Are you Sure thats not a Sedan door....

I was vaccuming the car in the garage and rolled it back a meter because it was too close to the wall. It ran away an extra couple of feet down the gutter slope backwards. when it hit the bottom of the gutter it jumped the passenger door open. Grabbed a brick wall.

I've lost longtime girlfriends I've loved before and i have never felt as sick as i did when that happened.

My bad, just rechecked the email again and it's shell only for a coupe and for $225. still good though. From wreckers, not mates.

  • 3 weeks later...

Sadly silver cars Never match up and it will stand out from a distance at best case

Tell me about it, took ages to get the mazda matched. I repaired the guard, got it looking brand-spanking new. The very next day after the final polish it copped a hit to the same panel, this time rippled the crap out of it. Not happy!

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