Let’s talk about car doors for a few minutes. I know, it’s not the sexiest subject we could talk about; it’s not on the same scale as talking about bumpers or fenders, but few things are, right? Still, car doors deserve their moment in the sun so let’s do it.
How many of you out there have had someone open their car door and hit yours in a parking lot? Nearly all of you raised your hands on that one. Or maybe your son ran into your car door with his bicycle or the neighborhoods kids hit your car door and windshield playing baseball. The point is things like that happen every day; it’s called life.
So what do you do? Well, if you have like zero money you just ignore it. If you have a little money you consider replacing the door yourself. And if you are rich you go to your favorite mechanic and let him charge you an arm and a leg plus your next born to replace that door with a new aftermarket door.
So just for the sake of argument and discussion let us suppose you have a little money and you want your car door fixed. What do you do? A new car door will cost you hundreds of dollars and then having it replaced will cost you hundreds of dollars for labor on top of that, meaning that the one car door you want to replace is going to cost you in the neighborhood of $500. OUCH!
But there is an alternative! Go to a salvage yard like All Import Auto Parts and buy your replacement parts there; if they don’t have your door on their junk yard lot they can find it quickly through a computer search. Used car parts, otherwise known as salvage parts, are much, much cheaper when purchased from a salvage yard, so give this some serious thought. Now, who is going to install that door since you are trying to save money and not pay a mechanic $50 per hour?
Simple…..you are! Replacing a car door is not difficult like replacing a transmission or an alternator. Most car doors are held in place by one bolt; when you pull the bolt free of the hinges the door will pull off easily; then you put the replacement door on and slip the bolt back into place. The only difficulty is getting the bolt out; some bolts have been in place for awhile and are hard to pull out; some are difficult to get to and require taking the front panel off. Nevertheless, it is still an easy repair and you are saving hundreds of dollars because you are willing to get some dirt on your hands.