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so I was backing out of my garage with the drivers side door open for some reason. the rest is history... I'll need a new door and trim. My insurance company excess will come out to 1000 bucks (youth comes with its pitfalls), I was thinking of dropping by a wreckers to get a door, priming it myself and getting it resprayed and slapped on out of my own pocket.

tell me, should I call my insurance and foot their bill or do this out of my own pocket and avoid denting my insurance record? I've never had an accident or made a claim so I'm a novice in handling things like this.

i did exactly the same thing a couple of years ago

i bought a door from the wrecker (mx5 factory in melb) and painted it with a spray can, and fitted in myself. looks crap but it works. i wasn't too fussed as the paint on my car is crap anyway. but i reckon you could get the door painted proffesionally before fitting it to the car and it'd still be cheaper than going thru your insurance company.

new door or panel beater? the door is difficult to close and the window wont close unless I have it opened first

That is certainly fixable. Fixing it yourself does require some knowledge and tools and it is harder to get it right than one might imagine. If you do not have any equipment you might know someone who will help and have the tools.

The small dent guys may be able to assist and also traditional panel beaters- get some quotes. I reckon you may well be better off taking the not claiming route. Red is solid colour and not as hard to paint as metallics and you may be able to paint it with an acrylic paint if doing it as a DIY. If you buy a secondhand door it still has to be painted but well worth checking your options.

Do you have any other pics? My first thoughts were repairable (EVERYTHING is repairable, just depends on $$$) but I am concerned about the ripples under the mirror.
Not sure if that is an effect of the light or a twisting of the door skin. If the door is twisted/buckled then it will be hard to close and window operation will be impaired.
In your case, it could be something not as drastic, but the ripples in the pic are of concern.
Also suss out your door fame post (where the hinges are) for any sign of visible damage ie. paint flaking
Does the door flex/move when you lift it up from the end? By that I mean, open the door and then lift it up to see if it moves on the hinges.
Let us know how it goes.

Forget insurance for that. Going through insurance will cost you more than the excess due to lost NCB from making an "at fault" claim. Get a new door from a wrecker, and if you can't get a red one, budget a few hundred for having a pro paint it and refit.

the ripples come from the door itself, so the force of it being bent in the opposite direction must have compressed the door and caused the ripples. I'm kinda picky about the paint since I bought it with a year old paintjob so the red is still very deep and shiny. I'll be driving it to mx-5 mania tomorrow to see if they have any wrecks for me to look through. The real pain in the ass is that i've had front splits and dynamat done to that door, so I'll need to drill a new hole at the top of the door trim for the tweeter and resheat the inner skin with another wad of dynamat. so much time that I dont have.

franco wrote:the ripples come from the door itself, so the force of it being bent in the opposite direction must have compressed the door and caused the ripples.

bugger
of well, as you have probably guessed, a second hand door is the way to go. This one I would class as non-repairable.
Best of luck, shame about the damage.

Don't feel so bad about doing this, as it is very common.

Some years ago, my father was reversing my mother's car out of the garage, and he forgot to close the driver's door, and WHAMO! took the door right off!
Made a real mess of the front gaurd too.

Maybe Mania have a door already in the same colour. It would save all the hassle of a repaint.

I have a mate who reversed up his steep drive, parked his ute in the garage and walked inside.

His wife went to put the garbage bin out and came back and asked where the ute was. “In the garage” he said. “No it isn’t”, she said.

No not stolen.

Seems like he forgot to put on the handbrake and the motion of the fuel slopping backward and forwards in the tank was enough to make the car roll a little bit forward.

You can guess the rest. It had taken off down the drive, across the road and crashed into a tree in the local park. It was a right off!!

It took a lot of explaining to the insurance company.

well I found myself a door and some spare time tomorrow afternoon. I had a look at the hinges and it seems simple enough. one thing that is confusing me is the middle "hinge". the bare metal attachment that seems to be held in place with a pin that has no nut or screw and it seems to bulge out at the top slightly. ideas?

franco wrote:well I found myself a door and some spare time tomorrow afternoon. I had a look at the hinges and it seems simple enough. one thing that is confusing me is the middle "hinge". the bare metal attachment that seems to be held in place with a pin that has no nut or screw and it seems to bulge out at the top slightly. ideas?

IIRC that is the door limit "strap". Stops the door opening out too much. Pretty sure it has a plit or clevis pin in it that you tap out. But I could be wrong

i used a punch to remove the pin when i changed over my doors. If i remember correctly you need to tap it up and through the strap

Don't forget to swap over the lock from your old door to your new one. If the new door comes with glass and a wing mirror, list your old ones on ebay. I stripped my old red NA and got the equiv. of $100 for the driver's side wing mirror! (this was in the UK).

Parts on MX5's are gloriously strippable and very sellable!

Benny wrote:Don't feel so bad about doing this, as it is very common.

Some years ago, my father was reversing my mother's car out of the garage, and he forgot to close the driver's door, and WHAMO! took the door right off!
Made a real mess of the front gaurd too.

Yeah don't feel at all bad.I had a Bugeye Sprite parked in the carport,opened the door and turned towards the back of the car to push it a couple of metres and crunched the door against the carport pole, bending the door, hinges, and into the bulkhead.

Good luck with the refit

Peter.