Hi all,

I've owned my Blazer (01, 4 door, 4WD) for about 5 years now. With a real job on the horizon, there are a few long awaited repairs I'd like to make to it. Primarily, the front passenger door has a very large dent (I don't think "dent really does it justice) from about the plastic trim panel-logo thing to the bottom of the door. Looks like a very small car backed into it slowly sometime before I purchased it. Anyway, I was wondering what the feasibility of removing a several foot long dent is. The edges of the dent don't appear to be creased, the plastic trim panel probably helped cushion the blow. Some paint had chipped around the edges of the dent,which the prior owner tried to help with touch-up paint, so rust is also very minimal at the moment. I was thinking about contacting a paintless dent removal company to restore the metal moderately closely to the original, and then getting a paint shop to just paint from the crevice above the trim panel to the bottom of the door (I'm thinking the crevice would be a good place to hide the color transition, as I want it to look better, not perfect.) Is a dent that size feasibly fixed? Will a body shop paint only part of the door like that? I'm totally new to this side of repair work!

 

That could be repaired, but it may be better to replace it. If you do have it repaired, the entire door will need to be repainted. If you find a shop that will "just paint that section"- run the other way.

In order to do a proper repair, both adjacent panels will have to be blended for color match as well(if repaired or replaced). So you're looking at having the fender, the front door, and the rear door painted in order to do that the correct way. That would nean removing and installing your body side mouldings, door handles, interior trim panel, belt mouldings, window weatherstrips, rt headlights, grille, antenna(which will probably break) and front bumper.

 

So basically...pick up a $200 undamaged door from a salvage yard? I guess that'd be a good excuse to have the hinge bushings changed out too before they go out on that side as well

 

Yup, find one in your color. It might not match 100% but it will be damn close. Otherwise you're looking at a 1500+ dollar job from a quality bodyshop

 

Was just going to comment this.

Ran into a similar issue with my wife's Buick. Hail dented it something fierce, and insurance totaled it. Instead of taking it into a hail dent service, I went to the man mall and pulled a new hood and trunk. Good as new...almost.

 

I would agree, just replace the door if you can find one that is a matching color. May be able to get it cheaper if you can buy just the shell if they're willing gut it for you, then just transfer all your internals, electronics, and glass to the new door.


The first time I changed the hinge pin bushings on my driver's door I dropped the damned thing and curled the bottom corner in... I managed to find a color matching door at the local salvage yard on a truck that had like 50k on it, and as a plus the holes for the hinge pin bushings weren't worn open so it was a fix fore more than one issue lol. Color ended up being a dead on match, but I had to remove the pin striping and plastic cladding as it didn't match what was already on my Blazer. No big deal though, and to this day I have pin striping and cladding/plastic strip on the passenger side and nothing on the driver's side lol I never notice, can't see both sides at the same time

 

Thanks for the input! After some looking around, I've found the most reliable salvage yard around here charges about $187 for an undamaged door. Sounds like a deal to me compared to body work! Plus, it's an excuse to change the window motor and hinge bushings out. I probably won't be getting this done for a month or two, but I'll report back once I get the ball rolling on that!