Need advice on replacing a door

[jblair]

A couple weeks ago someone ran into the rear, driver's side door of my wagon. Instead of paying a body shop a ridiculous amount of money to fix it, I'm going to try and do some of it myself. How difficult is it to remove/install a door? Any tricks? I can get a door from the junk yard for $30, whereas the body shop says they would charge upwards of $200+.

[magicmike]

its pretty cut and dry really. 4 bolts, 2 at each hindge and the wiring can be unplugged in the kick panel and stays with the door. try to get a similar door from the junk yard to make it easier for you. you dont want a dor that has been stripped of the wiring. the hardest part is lining everything back up again so it closes nice but its not hard, just time consuming. I'd say a level 3 difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10.

[jblair]

Thanks for the advice. I forgot to mention that the door doesn't open because it is smashed in. Any advice on getting it open? I was thinking about undoing the hinge where it attaches to the frame, but I'm not sure if that would do anything or not. I was also thinking about pulling it really, really hard.

[magicmike]

take the front fender off and you will see the 4 bolts for the hindges, take those off and you should be able to "peel" the door away from the b pillar.