It is a safe bet that a large percentage of people reading this article have had a dent in their car door at one time or another. How could you not?  From car accidents to careless people opening their door to wide in a parking lot, to runaway shopping carts at the local grocery store, sooner or later you are going to need to replace your car door.

Now, you can certainly take it to your mechanic, but be forewarned that between the cost of the new replacement door, and the labor costs, you are looking at a minimum $300 job.

Or you can do it yourself for at least half that cost, and do it in about one hour using regular tools you already have around your house.  Are you interested?  Well, then, here’s how you install a replacement door.

Go buy a replacement door at your local salvage yard for your used body parts.   Make sure you get the correct door for your make and model of vehicle, and make sure you match up the color correctly.  No worries about the color. There are enough salvage yards around and it will not be a problem matching factory paint, whether you have a Toyota, a Mercedes, a Nissan or a BMW.

Once you have your replacement car door, set it aside and open your damaged door and disconnect all power devices that are attached to it.  Take off the instrument panel bezel and unplug the electrical connector wire harnesses.  Remove the inside panel and feed the electrical wiring out through the open ports.

Now disconnect the door from the car body.  It is either bolted on or is held by pins, which will have to b punched out with a hammer.  Have one person hold the door while you disconnect it.

Remove the inside panel from your replacement door before you install it.

Insert the new door into place, holding it while you attach the bolts or pins.

Thread the electrical wiring from the car through the door, and attach the electrical connectors.  Then put the door panel back on.  Finally, put the hold open door spring back into place, compressing the spring using a tool from an auto supply store.

And that’s all there is to it.

As we mentioned before, the total time for this job will be about an hour, and total savings of at least $150 and quite possibly $200.  During these tough economic times, don’t  you think those kinds of savings are worth it?