Towncivilian Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 (edited) Back in April or May of 2010 I acquired this dent: A few months ago I bought a white rear door from a 2000 Pathfinder from a junkyard for $49.25, and a couple of friends and I sanded down and painted the door: And earlier today the new door was installed with a friend's help. Unfortunately I overtightened one of the liftgate strut bolts and the head sheared off. A bolt extractor was of no help, and with the strut holding on by one screw the door's misaligned as it stands now. I also lost my spoiler since the new door didn't have the necessary exterior holes for mounting it. An unfortunate oversight on my door choice from the junkyard. (excuse the upside down third brake light in that picture ) And obviously the paint is not quite the same color, or even texture, due to the paint on the PF being 10 years older, as well as the extremely liberal use of clear coat (we went through two cans of it), and maybe we didn't get the ratios right for the reducer and finisher for the paint earlier too. Not to mention that none of us are professional painters. We also could not pull the main wiring harness through the door, so we left it hanging for now. Plus the wiper protector was applied crookedly and has bubbles in it. I should not have let my buddy put that part on. But I'm not sure whether it's worth another $28 or whatever it cost just for a straight, bubble-free wiper protector that nobody but myself will notice. So now I'm left with a misaligned door until Monday morning when I'll have the local dealer run the wiring harness properly and hopefully remove and replace the broken bolt and align the door. Might as well give them badges to put back on too. Edited April 17, 2011 by Towncivilian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phantom01Pathfinder Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 debadge it!! personally i like the look of debadged. i kept pathfinder on there, but got rid of LE 3.5... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted April 17, 2011 Author Share Posted April 17, 2011 (edited) Perhaps I will, I'll decide by Monday I'm sure. I'll need to get a new Nissan badge from the junkyard though, as the pins on mine snapped off. If there isn't one at the junkyard I guess I'll silicone my broken one in or maybe buy a new one from Nissan. EDIT: Whoa hell no, new one is $27-ish. There's currently just a strip of masking tape over the holes. I reused my old weather stripping. It easily snapped back into place, and it still seems solid enough to seal properly. I guess I'll see when I wash the car on Monday. Edited April 17, 2011 by Towncivilian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted April 27, 2011 Author Share Posted April 27, 2011 (edited) Nissan had to weld the strut bracket on, they couldn't drill the broken bolt out because there was the tip of our broken drill bit in it. Also, due to other damage caused by the collision to the driver rear quarter panel, the door is misaligned: The door grazes the taillight every time it closes. I managed to shift the taillight enough so it doesn't significantly scrape the door and the door closes on the first try. Nissan charged $100 for the weld, and $50 to run the wiring harness through the door. The bolt I broke turned out to be a $100 mistake. Edited April 27, 2011 by Towncivilian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devonianwalk Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 That stinks. Honestly though, I'll bet that IF you don't point out the misalignment most people won't even notice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted April 28, 2011 Author Share Posted April 28, 2011 You bet. Basically, myself and a few friends are the only ones who will ever notice the small imperfections of the new back door. To be honest maybe it was just better to leave the dented door on to save some cash, as after all everything still worked. But, whatever! I think it looks great for the relatively little amount of money spent. I'll have to ask around at some body shops to fix the quarter panel, primarily to fix the dent underneath the taillight and secondly to get the door closing properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
808R50 Posted April 28, 2011 Share Posted April 28, 2011 Take out your tail light then us a block of wood & a small sledge hammer to bump the quarter over. Go easy.... a few bumps at a time then recheck your fit. Repeat as needed till your gap is where you want it. I cant believe they charged you a hundred bucks to put that mickey mouse weld on your strut bracket. Ouch!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Towncivilian Posted May 20, 2011 Author Share Posted May 20, 2011 Looks like a Bondo job for the quarter panel, but whatever. Still gotta paint the bumper (debating whether to paint it black or stock trim color) and the quarter panel. MAACO wants like $200 to paint the quarter panel. Should I just mask it off and spray it myself instead for $30? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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