Before and After
Yes, I decided to fix my car. I figured I could probably do it pretty cheaply and have the car last awhile longer. It has 204,000 miles on it, so its trade-in or resale value isn't that great. I figured it would be best to fix the car I have now, meanwhile saving for the future of a different vehicle.
Here is the old door from my car. I had to really mangle it to get it off the car. The door had been locked and when it got crunched, it was permanently set in the lock position.
So I bought the new door from a salvage place in Lincoln. The website had called the color of the new door "gray". I figured gray would be a closer match than the green one I had found in my hometown. Plus the one in Lincoln had the glass in it and was $25 cheaper.
I had gotten an estimate at a local shop of $1600 for the door plus labor. I was pretty sure I could beat that if I was able to do most of the work myself.
When I saw the new door, my heart jumped. The door was the exact color of my car. (Proving to those of you out there who think my car looks pink-ish or some other awful color that my car must indeed be more of a gray color.) I was able to get the old door off my car in about 3 and a hald hours. It was a pain in the neck. It was a pain in the arm, too, when I put a gash in my right arm on a rough edge of metal. I was able to put the new door on in about half an hour with a little bit of help from my roommate whose strong arms held it in place and helped me adjust it while I tightened bolts. The frame around the door had not been bent at all in the crash which was a huge relief. The door fit almost perfectly. Here it is!
Praise God I was able to find the right door, the right color, at the right price. I saved about $1300 by doing all the work my self.
BTW, the sideview mirror, which was slightly damaged, is back in place now.