How to repair a small gash in door?

[edgemaster]

Hi Guys, the wife had an unfortunate encounter with a huge pile of big rocks, protecting a mail box. Had to replace 2 tires, 4 rims and the passenger side mirror.

The only thing left to fix is a 4" gash in the right rear door, close to the wheel well. (Edge 2009). See pic.

I went to a local body shop and they quoted me, after a lot of hem and haw, around $800 +. The + is for "unforeseen difficulties" and I have livid imaginations how that will end.

Since I'm already out around 2 Grand, I'm somewhat hesitant to spring for another $800 + and I'd like to try to fix this myself. It looks like there had been a repair before in the same spot, the gray stuff in that gash looks suspiciously like Bondo.

Can someone point me to a link that describes in some detail how to tackle this problem? I've never done any body repair before and I'm aware that the end product will not look professional but, hopefully, a bit better than it looks now.

The black sprinkles are just from our freshly tarred country road, need to be removed. 

Btw, the pile of rocks she hit still looks pristine.

[enigma-2]

Hundreds of videos on YouTube. 

Here's an example for pulling a dent (I've never tried it, I've always sucked at bodywork.)

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 10:41 PM by enigma-2

[1004ron]

As you've already deduced, it's not a mere dent removal needed - it will need all the badly applied Bondo ground out, prepped, primed and painted.

[edgemaster]

A dent would be nice, alas, it's a little more than that. I think 1004ron is correct, quite a bit of body work involved, I'm not sure I can pull that off, I'm 80! Need all the help I can get. 😨

[Samurai Edge]

Well, just remember - if there was already a repair prior, until you get into it grinding the bondo , you have no idea what is under the paint.  Could be a major dent / gash.

 

If you don't give a crap how the car looks when you are done, go for it.  I've seen people do the on their own before who had no idea what to do and it came out looking like crap.

 

I know you don't want to spend the extra $800+ but it is worth having a professional perform this repair.

 

In order to pay for the extra work, start taking it out of your wife's weekly allowance!

[1004ron]

+1 on @Samurai Edge comment.

 

Another thing to consider is the shoddy job the previous owner did could be rusting beneath the poorly applied Bondo - this is most likely the reason for the "+ is for "unforeseen difficulties"".

[edgemaster]

Guys, thanks for the encouragement. 😁

Believe it or not, the previous repair was done by a large Ford Dealership in Austin, TX.

[Samurai Edge]

In my experience, Dealerships farm out their work to a contract shop, and not just for body work & paint.  Obviously they work out some type of deal, where the dealership gets some type of kickback / payment above the actual cost of the work done by the contracted shop.  Dealerships are not watching, so there is no way to know exactly the level of competency of the work performed.

 

As I mentioned above, if you are up to it to save yourself some money on the work, and you don't need it to be of the highest quality, then go for it  BUT  it will not be as good as a professional shop who knows their business.  Body work is literally a lot of work.  Prepping, priming, metal work, sanding, sanding, sanding, painting, buffing, etc.,  and don't forget how are you going to paint it?  Spray paint from the local car parts shop?

 

I'm not discouraging you, just hoping to give you a good idea of what is involved.