Replacing an entire car door on a 2006 Toyota Corolla

raptorious
Thu, 17 Apr 2014 04:46:52 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

We had an accident where we accidentally backed the car up with the driver’s side door open. The bottom of the door caught on a rock and bent the door forward ~30-45 degrees beyond it’s usual maximally open point. I’ve already removed the car door and looked at the frame, and I don’t see anything there that looks like a big deal, but I’m also not an expert on car bodies/frames. As far as I can tell, only the door, door hinges, and the front fender are damaged. I do see what looks like it could be some minor warping (i.e. the frame looks slightly curved as opposed to flat) at the points where the hinges attach, but it’s almost imperceptible. Ideally, I’d like to snag a door from a junk yard and just replace the whole thing, along with the fender. So, a few questions:

1. What is the chance that there is invisible damage to the car frame?

2. Is the minor shifting of the metal on the frame where the door hinges attach likely to affect the way the door closes when I attach a new door?

3. If the minor shifting does affect the door opening/closing, is it likely that I’d have to take it to a body shop, or are minor frame distortions like this simple enough to fix on my own?

Thanks,
Dan

13 posts - 9 participants