Door skin removal, 1994-1998

L

lparsons

Dirt-Old 20+Year Member
May 24, 2004
198
1
18
Upstate New York
#1
I have a dent in my driver's door that I would like to take care of. I already tried the "ding king" from the local auto parts store, and that didn't accomplish anything other than leaving black glue on my door.

Has anyone removed the door skins from the SN95 coupe? I would like to pull it off and pound the dent back out myself rather than take it to a body shop. The dent in question is small, but since it is centered on the lower part of the door (where the skin turns down) I can't deal with it from the outside.
 

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#2
Try this trick, I've been meaning to try it on a dent of mine. Take a hair dryer and heat up the dented area for a minute. Then take a can of compressed air (the kind used to clean out computers), invert it and spray it all over the dent until it freezes over. Then wait. The dent will likely pull itself out.

A video of it being done:

http://lifehacker.com/software/macg...t-with-canned-air-and-a-hair-dryer-254575.php
 
#3
door panel removal is super easy on the 94-98's. they dont rely on those little squish-type pushon things. the panel is just held on by plastic down clips which are molded to the panel itself. just uhook the switch panel and start pulling up and out on the panel and it'll pop up and out.

easy as that. as for the dent, if you have to remove the window regulator to get to it properly, prepare to cuss. the regulator assembly is held in by pop rivets, you'll have to drill those out and then have a pop rivet gun to put new ones in.:mad:
 
#4
stackz said:
door panel removal is super easy on the 94-98's. they dont rely on those little squish-type pushon things. the panel is just held on by plastic down clips which are molded to the panel itself. just uhook the switch panel and start pulling up and out on the panel and it'll pop up and out.

easy as that. as for the dent, if you have to remove the window regulator to get to it properly, prepare to cuss. the regulator assembly is held in by pop rivets, you'll have to drill those out and then have a pop rivet gun to put new ones in.:mad:
Click to expand...

I've found plenty of instructions on removing the door panel - but I want to remove the door skin. Is it not possible to remove the door skin without taking off the panel and disassembling the whole works inside the door? I guess I could see taking off the panel and working on the dent from inside the door, but I think I might prefer to take the skin off entirely, especially since it will need some touch-up paint afterwards, and I'm doubtful that paint will adhere real well to a vertical surface.

I'll try the hair dryer / liquid CO2 trick tonight. I had heard of that one before, I should have thought of it myself. If that doesn't work I guess I'll have to go look for a pop rivet gun (and maybe pick up some scrap metal somewhere to practice on).
 
#6
stackz said:
I could of sworn the actual doorskin itself is spot welded to the frame at the factory. its some MAJOR work to remove the skin itself from the frame.
Click to expand...

That could well be. I did see that the door skin is also sold through 50resto, so I was hoping perhaps that was an indication that mere mortals could replace it.

Which of course is why I am asking around here before I attempt anything too stupid ... :D
 
#8
Well, with that said, I obviously will need to either fix it with the hair dryer / canned air method, or replace the whole damned door. I've been checking junk yards, but that is a PITA. And I don't really want to dish out money to a body shop out here.
 
#9
FWIW, I just tried the hair dryer / canned air method. Nothing happened. I used a full can of air ($7) and there was no response. I have heard of it working before, but I've never seen it myself.
Though I do have access to dry ice, as well as liquid nitrogen. Though somehow I doubt that getting even colder would do much.
I guess I'll be looking for a replacement door now, since the cost of a door skin ($500) is pretty much the same as the cost of the whole damned door, and of course I'd have to pay to have a body shop install and paint a door skin.
 
#10
You don't want to take the skin off to get the dent out. You will ruin your door skin if you take it off. They are glued on from the factory and crimped around the inner shell. To install a new skin, or a used skin, you have to beat it around the inner shell, bondo up all the corners and tack it in in spots with a welder. It ends up looking like crap.

Just call a paintless dent removal professional. A guy I called got out a baseball size dent in my black Cobra. He didn't ruin the paint, and when you see the car now, you never know it was there.
 
#11
Can I ask how much the paintless dent removal process cost? I found a replacement door for $200, and I'm dealing with a dent that is roughly softball size, near the fold on the lower part of the door.
I already tried the "ding king" tool from the parts store, as well as the hair dryer / canned air trick. Neither made a difference at all.
I've pretty much ruled out taking the door skin off, since that is way beyond my skill level. But door replacement sounds pretty doable. Is there a good reason to do dent removal rather than replace the door when I can get the whole door at a good price?

thanks!
 
#12
The ding king stuff is junk...it's a gimmick.

Okay, I had a referall from a customer of mine who owns a body shop.

I had 4 dings in the left door, 1 in the left quarter, 3 dings and 1 big dent in the right door, and 2 in the right quarter.

He did all of them for 200 bucks. Over the phone, he told me 35 for each ding and he'd have to look at the big one, but when he got here, I shot the chit with him the whole time. It took him about 2 hours, but the car is immaculate when he was finished. He even wetsanded the dent area after he was finished. He saw a "Wave" that bugged him...I couldn't see anything, but that's just how good he was.
 
#13
It sounds like you got a pretty good deal on that. I just did a search online for paintless dent removal in my area, and didn't find anyone. Oddly enough the search brought up some muffler places that didn't say anything on their web site about dent repair, as well as local lexus and chevy dealers.
 
#14
Damn, I wish my guy would travel. He is frickin awesome, just awesome. No prick marks in paint, no nothing.

Oh, and don't you love internet search? I hate that. You look up something, and they give you the total opposite!! WTF??
 
#16
Call some "better" used car lots. They buy cars all the time that have dents and dings, then hire a paintless guy to take the dents out so they can sell the car quicker/easier and for more money. Your insurance campany will also have some leads for you.

There are companies that are selling franchises for these PDR businesses. If there is truly not one in your area, maybe you should see about a franchise and make some money yourself. ;)

Good luck!
 
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