Rusty Doors: Repair or Replace?

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50ShadesOfRed
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Rusty Doors: Repair or Replace?

Post by 50ShadesOfRed »

Hi All,

My recently acquired MR2 has a small rust spot on the outer skin of the driver's door, and the bottom seams to both the passenger AND drivers door have seen better days...

Back when I had my first 2' the done thing was to buy new doors and be done with the old ones, but does that still ring true in 2020?
The driver's door looks to have been replaced (or at least painted... Badly) at some point already.
Are they worth repairing, or is it even possible? 🤔

Any advice would be great (and if you know of super red driver's & passenger doors Inc side impact bars for sale anywhere... even better!)


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Chris69
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Re: Rusty Doors: Repair or Replace?

Post by Chris69 »

Whichever is cheaper, still able to get parts on ebay and through breakers although they would almost certainly need repainting anyway, being red the chances of getting a match are pretty slim.
I would always try the repair route first. Sand them back and see how bad they really are, may be ok just to clean up any rust, treat and repaint which if you can do yourself would be the cheapest option by far.
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peteV6R5
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Re: Rusty Doors: Repair or Replace?

Post by peteV6R5 »

its getting / got to the stage where 2nd hand doors have similar issues to your doors.
if I still had mine I would be getting them cut out out and repaired if the doors had that issue.
but thats me now. 10 yeas ago would have looked for good door and respray.
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50ShadesOfRed
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Re: Rusty Doors: Repair or Replace?

Post by 50ShadesOfRed »

Cool, so it's repair time rather than chance new ones - makes sense.

I have a few body shops very local to me so will be getting quotes to fix the rust soon... Also quotes to correct/ machine polish the whole car while I'm at it, to make it one shade of red again 😅

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50ShadesOfRed
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Re: Rusty Doors: The bodyshop strikes back

Post by 50ShadesOfRed »

Lil' update: the local bodyshop has stated that they won't look to fix the doors by cutting/treating/ new metal due to the seams being rusty etc - bad times.

BUT

They have said that if I can provide new doors for the driver & passenger sides they will prep, paint, refit & and also paint both sides of the car to match for £600-700 all in - good times (?)

Sounds like a pretty decent deal to me, unless anyone thinks otherwise? 🤔

So... next mission will be to find the doors, as I can't seem to see/ find a driver's door with side impact bar anywhere... that isn't already sold 😅

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