I have a 2006 Acura TL (AM). I bought it with the driver-side rear door dented and scratched in several places from a valet rounding a corner with the door open, and hitting a cement pole. There is also a little bit of damage to the rear fender.

I'm weighing my options right now because I have the option to make an offer on a good door, but it's a different color. Either door (mine, or the donor door) would have to be repainted. But the donor door would not have to have any dents repaired.

I haven't taken my door anywhere to get a quote, but the previous owner told me he was quoted $1,000. Does anyone have any recommendation on the cheapest/best route? You can see a little bit of the dent/scratches here:

 

I had a scratch that was dented in across the length of the door and I was quoted $1200 by every shop I went to.
I got 1/2 off from a body shop by doing some IT work form them.

 

it'd be awesome if you could find your color door at a junk yard and just use that.

no painting!

 

Used door is a good option if you don't care about your VIN's matching up. Ive gotten quoted less for painting similar sized doors on other cars but i think something might make our paints particularly expensive.

 

Don't go cheap, it will look like crap. The quote is $1200 because they will probably blend the paint into the other door and fender to get a better match. Color is easy to match (usually) but metallic size, density per square inch and it laying down the same are whats tough. Plus cheap repairs usually mean less clear coat thickness, excessive orange peel, etc.

 

cheapest and best NEVER go together

 

its a bitch with that color cuz if u can avoid it u NEVER want to have to blend. They just tell you its a blend but its actually lacquer thinner being used to help blend, but Im sure you can imagine what the effect is after a few years in the sun, if that long.... I would try and get a paintless dent guy to get the dent out and try to live with the scratch

 

Yeah, ideally that's what I'd like to do. There just aren't very many TLs in scrap yards around here. But I'll keep looking.

Haha I know...I was more thinking along the lines of which route would be a better idea: buy a donor door and have it painted, or have mine repaired (possibly including fiberglass - which I shy away from as much as possible!).

Thanks for all the replies, guys. It looks like I'll keep looking for a good, color-matched door, or just save up money to have mine repaired at a reputable shop.

 

Curious what you ended up doing. I just had a used door put on to replace my damaged rear driver door (minivan backed into me so insurance paid for everything) but it was BBM and needed to be painted NBP. Color matches well with the rest of the car and you would only know it was different if you removed the inside panel. Since I plan on keeping it to 200k miles or so I wasn't worried about the serial number mis-match.