car hit by mystery offender: repair of door damage - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

The Mighty XE · 08-22-2002, 22:24

Yesterday my girlfriend arrived back at her car and found some #@%#$% had put a big dint in the side and failed to leave any form of a note.

The damage (rear passenger door) is shown in the attached pic, car is a early 80's Mazda 929 wagon. She's pretty upset about this, especially since got the car off her grandfather who recently passed away.. she can't really afford a pro repair job at the moment so I was wondering if any folks out with some experience would be able to tell me how easy it would be to do some panel beating and repairs ourselves or suggest possible other cheap repair options...

Thanks,
Matt

MADNC_8 · 08-22-2002, 22:45

not sure how you'd repair that easily but im no panel beater lol

what id do if it were my car is find another door and get it painted then fit it but not too sure of the availability of a early 929 door

laminge · 08-22-2002, 22:49

Mate you may be able to heat the panel up and try to "guide it out from the inside" but I doubt it will work as it looks like some serious bends.

Any idea how much a pro job would be?

Sundeep · 08-23-2002, 02:19

Here's my amateur temporary job idea:

Bang it all out from the inside until it is sort of in it's original position. Then go to K-Mart, get a big can of body filler. Grab one of those cement scraper things and smear the bog on nice and smooth till it is it's original shape. Then, sand and prime.

That's some advice from the son of a Taxi driver lol!

Sundeep

cogo_81 · 08-23-2002, 03:26

I'm a penal beate rby trade and I dont think that you would be able to do anyting to it without making ti look dodgy but price a second hand door and then have ago at fixing the door yourself.
start by pushing out on the depersions with a big bar or somthing and gently tap the high spots around the egde of the dint, then just bash it out a bit and bog it up.
dont bash it out to much because the metal seems to be very stretched and you will end up with hump in your door

creature3 · 08-23-2002, 05:44

throw the door away and get another one. It will be much simpler and new ones aren't that expensive, after you add up all the preparation costs

Aussiblue · 08-23-2002, 07:15

It will be difficult as you will probably find right behind the dent at that point on the door is a side intrusion bar. This will make both getting at the dent from behind and getting the panel to resume its shape difficullt. Not the best place to make your first try at panel beating. But you have to learn somewhere and there are some good demo video tapes around that will show you how it's done. If it doesn't work you can always get a second hand door from wreckers.

Venom XR · 08-23-2002, 08:41

Being a white car, it might be possible to find a replacement door from the wreckers of the same colour, though the colour fade might be a little different.

FoMoCo4eva · 08-23-2002, 22:01

jeez that piss' me off..sorry to hear about it

some little bugger snapped by areial when it was up (electric one) now its screwed!!

XF 5.0 S · 08-24-2002, 00:13

Quote:

Originally posted by creature3
throw the door away and get another one. It will be much simpler and new ones aren't that expensive, after you add up all the preparation costs

agreed. My XF was side swiped (front and rear drivers side doors), went to pick and pull and got 2 doors for $15 complete each - straight as - then got a book on how to paint your car and ended up with a professional result - its not that hard to do it yourself.