Damaged Door: Replace with NEW or 2nd Hand or Repair?

Prosper

Registered User
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285
Stupidly scraped and dented rear door on a lampost. It's 8 years old but only 50,000km on the clock. What's the downside in only going the repair route? I bought the car from family earlier this year. I always had a company car but since 2008 I've had no car. Despite never having an accident in my 25 years of driving around the country as a rep, the insurance company said that the insurance cost would come down once I had a track record with them for a while. So I don't want to put the fixing of the current problem through a claim. To me that means the best option is to have the door repaired and repainted. Any thoughts?
 
What part of the country are you in? Someone on here, could recommend a repair shop for you. Have you cracked through the paint / dented it badly - more that it being "buffed out" so to speak?

Depending on how large the area of the damage, you may have to get front door / rear wing of door sprayed also, so as to better blend things. Ideally, go to a few places and get a number of quotations - tell them that you are not going through insurance - costs might not be as high as as insurance claim :)

Let us know what part of the country you are in.
 
If the door still opens and closes fine, a local independent panel beater or crash repair shop will likely do a good job for not a lot of money. It may even cost less than your insurance excess, let alone what a claim would cost you over the next few years.

Next best, and slightly more expensive option would be to source a replacement door from a breakers yard. One the same colour would save respray costs.

It would not make financial sense to buy a brand new door for an 8 year old car.
 
Prosper,
Can you put a picture of the damaged door on here with it opened and closed and with no sun shining on it? That will get you a lot better response from people who know what they're talking about.
 
Scraped and dented doesn't sound too bad. Suss out a local repair guy and get it fixed for cash. I put a dent over back door of jeep carrying timber and I paid a local guy €200 to repair it.
 
I've used Dentpro in Dublin to remove a dent where the paint was cracked on the hatch back door of my car. They did a great job for €280. They are based off Airton Road in Tallaght. They can also remove dents easily where paint isn't damaged for around €80. Not sure if you're based in Dublin but I'd give them a try if you are.
 
I replaced a door in my sons first car by getting a similar one in the breakers yard, it is an easydiy job, wait until you get the right colour, the door cost €80 at the time.
 
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