An ignorant girl smashed my door in (1 Viewer)

[Gunnermon]

An ignorant girl smashed my rear left hand door about 4 inch in while turning and talking on her f*cking mobile phone. How hard is it to take the door off? Has anyone got it off? Please, give us a piece off advice. (Would be brilliant if with some pics) I haven't been able to find anything to use on the search etc. The door is not opening, thus making it difficult to get the inner panel off even though the lock is apparently open.
(Photo is not mine, I got it from here on MUD as my car is still at Insurance company yard (stupid Mongolia law) but looks like I'll not get muc from the girl but expense for a second-hand door) The damage is pretty much identical, but only rear door is damaged and everything else look to be allright.

 

[jvazquez53]

Unless you have the right tools, you might need the help from a body shop to get it opened. If you all you want to is to get the door out of the way, they should not charge you much. If you can get a hi lift jack, that will most likely do the trick. You can also try to rip it off with the assistance of other vehicle.

 

[The Moe]

First I'm glad you are safe... and welcome to mud... I wish it was under better circumstances.

A friend and I used this method on ford f150 driver side door.

Like jvazquez53 have said earlier... x2 on using a second vehicle... CAREFULLY ...

You can punch / drill some holes in the door and try to loop rope / cable through them by running the cable multiple times for redundancy. Pull the door out using a second vehicle enough to gain access to either the latch or the hinge arms. ( make sure you stop the pulling process before you start cutting ) That is when you will need a reciprocating saw to cut off what you can before resuming the pull.

That worked for us. But I might say that we had a plan B in mind ( we never needed it ) but here what it is.

1. Salvage all you can salvage for the inside part of the door assy. i.e. door card, speaker, connectors etc...

2. cut off the largest portion of the door body with the saw trying to get as close as you can the hinge and latch sections.

3. after you remove the large section work your way with the saw chopping what's in your way on both sides untill you clear everything.

Never tried that one cause our first method worked well enough.

Good luck.

 

[Tools R Us]

Without pictures, it is hard to say what you are working with. If the door is destroyed, it will often affect the linkages, latch, etc. The method that I have found to be most effective is to remove some/most of the outer skin. This allows access to the latch, etc, and weakens the door, allowing for easier removal. If you need to drive/use the rig, I wouldn't do anything until you have a replacement, once open, it is likely that you wont be able to close it again.

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Seriously, Mongolia?

 

[KliersLC]

I have had luck having someone pull on the latch and then kicking the door from the inside....

 

[S.CarolinaFZJ80]

Drill some holes in the outer door (after removing any reuseable inner parts), run a chain through the holes and hook up to one end of a "come along" hand winch. Hook the other side to some thing real sturdy and crank away.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Seriously, Mongolia?

Must be Mongolia, he used "ignorant girl" rather than "stupid b!tch".

 

[Gunnermon]

Thanks for all advice guys. Just got paid for replacement door and repair by the girl's father and managed to find an identical door as well as body shop to open the door. They are replacing the door at the moment. It's different world out here. But parts are easily found as the Mighty 80 is the best thing to have in a country with not much pavements. But off-roaders' dream haven, Id say. Actually, mine is imported from LA couple of years ago. There are lotsa import from Japan. But they're all right hand drive in a country with left hand drive system. As I'm in tourism business, RHD is not very good safety-wise. Planning to sell this and getting another from the USA next autumn.

 

[azTony]

Removing a door using another vehicle makes no sense to me unless I am missing something. You risk the possibility of damaging more than what is already done.

IMHO I agree with Tools, cut the out skin off and see where the "hang up" that is preventing the door from opening is. One you find the source address the issue and salvage as much as you can.