I'm a new owner of a 2001 Sport Edition 4Runner. There is a fairly small dent on the driver door that has a rust on it (maybe the size of a quarter or a little bigger). It's surface rust, it hasn't perforated the sheet metal. I took it in to a shop today and they quoted me $600 to fix it (including painting the front and back doors to blend it in).

I'm really only interested in preventing rust, should I pay the $600 or fix it myself? If I fix it myself should I try and pound out the dent or just sand the rust off and paint it?







Thanks for any advice!

 

get some touch up paint from the dealer. Sand it down. carefully paint over the rust spot. $600 is absurd but not surprising to paint both doors. How nice do you want it to look when its all said and done? If you want it perfect...then pay up. if you want it to not rust anymore and thats it...get some touch up paint.

 

Don't pay $600, even if you want it to be like new I think you can find a cheaper solution. Including a new door from a salvage yard.

You can rustproof it yourself with some POR 15 or other rust inhibitor from the auto parts store. Sometimes called rust converter. It bonds with the rust and creates a rust-proof seal. This stuff usually dries black in color.

You may be able to get the dent pulled or massaged out at a "Dent Doctor" type shop and then treat as mentioned above with rust proofing. You could add some matched touch up paint from the stealer/dealer if you like. This would be less than $600 but will not look like new.

Or go back to the body shop and negotiate. Tell them you are interested in stopping the spread of rust and you want it to look better. Also tell them you don't need it to be perfect. Perhaps if they know you just want to stop the rust they can repair it for less. Always shop around. You'll be surprised how much quotes can differ.

Great job including a pic!

 

who cares?!

 

pound the parts that stick up down with a body hammer, sand the rust and paint off, use a body filler, paint the section or the entire door. It probably wont match perfect, but like zach said, who cares?

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'm going to try to sand, paint with a rust preventing primer, and then paint with touch-up paint from the dealership. If that doesn't work over time I figure I can always try and find a better quote. Since I don't care about the looks I'd bet I can get a good price with less paint and labor. Thanks again!

 

I had some similar damage on my 2002. I've done some body work before so I opted to do it myself. One new trick that I learned this time was using an air brush to paint and feather a small area like that. WAY better than a spray can or a full size gun - with either of those your repair area is likely to extend out 12 to 18 inches from the damaged spot before you get it feathered in nice.

If you haven't done body work before, that job'll take you a couple of days to make it look "near perfect", less if you don't care about it so much. Probably cost you $100 to $150 in materials if you are starting with nothing - (hope you have at least an air compressor?). You need 300 grit, 600 grit, 800 grit, 1500 grit and 2000 grit sandpapers, some rubbing compound, some wax, masking tape, primer, body filler, paint, spot and glazing putty, and a spray gun of some sort. If you want to try for a near perfect repair, you are going to get real familiar with priming and sanding - the primer should be like glass and perfectly feathered before you go for a top coat. Because of the age of the truck, and depending on the paint condition, it might be hard to get an exact match - that might be why the body shop wanted to paint both doors.

If you get into that route, revive this thread and I'll have a bunch of tips for you, I'm sure others have their own experience to add as well.