I have a dent in my 91 camaro driver door. The deepest point of the door is about 3/4 of an inch. Would this damage be too much for bondo? Is a replacement door the only way to go? How would you fix this?

I have a picture of the dent below




Heres my dent

 

easily accessible from the back, dolly it out or pull. Don't fill it up with bondo.

 

pound/pull it out , much too much to fill with bondo . a skim coat with bondo/filler is what you want . good luck & welcome ..........

 

stud welder and slide hammer the dent out, get a set of body hammers and hammer it as close as you can. then break out the bondo, and longboard it until nice and straight. due to the inner webbing of the door I don't think it will be too easy to dolly it out from behind

 

Thanks guy, im pulling the door panel off now to see if i can pound it. I will keep the thread updated for anyone that might be in the same situation i'm in...thanks again!

 

Yeah man i just got the door panel off...seems like i might have my work cut off for me if i try to dolly it off from the back...I have a slide hammer tho

 

Right in the body line too......DANGIT!
You have good advice here already though......good luck!

 

The dent is no prob, getting that body line straight and crisp on the other hand is a pain.

Too much to bondo. That much filler will just crack and fall out after shutting the door a few times.

Pull most of it out with slide hammer, then use bondo to fill, and smooth.

 

Yeah man that body line is pretty rough. I took the body trimming off and there a dent ( about a 1/8 of an inch deep ) within the bigger dent that runs to where the bigger dent starts to straighten up. My slide hammer isn't really helping me at this point but i got the overall dent close to being about 1/4 of an inch deep at the deepest point. I'm going to try to bondo it from there but I'm definitely going to look for a replacement door this weekend

 

Or i might just order a door skin like this one at summit racing

 

Interesting I didn't know they made door skins.

Based on the cost of that, I would still consider getting a new door though. Taking the door off isn't really all too difficult. The worst part is dremeling/girding away the top door hinge pins. Once those are out, you can pound out the bottom pins/ unplug any wiring you may have and the door is out.

I think I would notice a skin covering the door every-time I open it which would start to bug me. You probably could have good luck finding a good door in a junk yard for pretty cheap. You could even keep all your power options or glass from your door if they are good. Based on how the skin is applied and lined up, it could save you some time, but it might not be all too much.

 

I was thinking about that, even tho the skin looks like the easier route, it may not be the best for appearance. Theres several junkyards in the area, I'm going to definitely look for a replacement door first and just swap everything over before i invest in the skin. I read somewhere that the skins made now are a different material than oem skin which are not made anymore

 

the body line is tough but with a longboard sander you should be able to get it done, just go easy on the point of the body line. horizontal strokes up to the body line at first and then lightly start going above the body line with the same horizontal motion. keep the longboard as even as you can and add a little more pressure to the undented metal than the bondo patch. that way you wont cut too much bondo out since the solid metal body line wont turn to dust like the bondo will

 

but for what its worth, getting a junkyard door in decent shape is probably your best bet

 

Buy a 50.00 door and replace that door for less than the cost of mud and sand paper.

 

it looks like the door damage is too much . i would replace it and be done

 

If you are local to GA. I part out third gens and have a few doors for sale.

 

I'd get another door while they are still cheap & easy to find.

 

Why would you grind the pins off the hinges? They unbolt from the body....

 

Haha... yeah that's true. I was thinking of when I just replaced my hinge pins because they were worn. I had the door off because the pins were out. I completely forgot that the hinges completely unbolt from the door since I never didn't remove the hinges. That will make swapping it out a little faster. However, if the pins are old on the door, it sure would be a great time to replace it!

 

Yeah man I'm located in Ga...Flowery Branch area. Where are you located????

 

Good deal man.. I'm in Bowdon, GA. about 2 hours south west of you. Last exit in GA. on I-20, exit 5 IIRC.

I have 10 third gens right now to part out. PM me and I can send you some pics and my contact info.

Heck just look on craigslist.. Type Bowdon into the search box on there and scroll down till you see a bunch of third gen cars, parts, etc and those will be my ads. I have like 50 ads on CL right now.

 

I definitely want to buy a door from you. I'm going to PM you. You still have the chevy 350 engine?

 

Cool deal. Yeah I still have that 350.
If it's up on C/L I still have it. I remove ads with in 2 hours of selling an item.

What's on CL is just a very small sample of what all I have. lol