so one of my friends decided to open the door too far and it got stuck in the ground on the side of the road....and now the bracket is bent that holds that plastic peice to the door and the back end of it sticks off about a half inch....anyone got any tips to fix it without bending it more or even worse scratching the paint? here's a pic of what it looks like...

 

also notice how the whole door hangs low slightly...and ideas how to fix that too? thanks alot guys.

 

so is your rocker bent or is it the door? hard to tell in you picture


When you open the passanger door does it drop? when you close the door does it hang up on the jamb anywhere?

can you get a closer shot of the damage? while you are taking pictures, take a pic of the body line from fender to door and qtr to door.

when your buddy hung up the door on the ground did you drive off and realize the door was open or did you slowly move car back or forward to free the door?

 

disregard the above, i reread your post and it makes since now.

you may need to take the mldg off and replace any broken clips. sometimes my shops will heat up mldgs to get them to lay down if they are bent. if you do this dont heat it up too much or you will damage the paint and have to buy a new mldg.

 

yea i've tried "banging" the bracket back into place and it worked kinda....but i'm thinking i'll have to take the whole thing off and take a tap to it or a hammer or something that will bend it back to a straight surface...which i really dont wanna do b/ci dont know how well it will stay on once it's removed....and about the door honestly it doesn't move that much, yea it does kinda move upwards a lil' when it shuts but not alot. do i need new pins or what?

 

If you want to fix it yourself I would take the mldg off and inspect all the clips. Might find one or two broke. Replace the broke ones and try and message mldg back straight. Plastic mldgs will go back into shape with a little heat, such as a heat gun.

If you cant get it straight or think you may damage the mldg further, check with some of your local body shops. I would bet they can fix it in 5 minutes and would probably only charge a half hour labor at most to fix it. In most places that is like 20 bucks.

A couple of the shops I go to would probably even fix it for free if you were nice enough and if it only took them a few minutes to fix

good luck


oh disregard my questions about the door dropping and closing hard, I was confused on what was going on. For some reason I thought the door was stuck on the ground and you drove off with the door still stuck. I thought maybe your hinge pillar was damaged. When hinge pillars are damaged the door will drag, drop, or pop open and will be harder to shut.

 

what i was trying to say is that it's not the actual plastic molding that is bent...it's the metal bracket that it's attached to that is bent out of wack....

a lil' harder to fix. i've had to fix my rear bumper with a hair blower i know the heating and cooling trick but this is a lil ' more serious b/c that aluminum or whatever it is isnt' gonna bend from heat from a hair dryer...