[ferrisworld]

Many years ago, I was walking back to my apartment and got a good look at my car from a distance. I noticed for the first time that the drivers door was damaged at the bottom. I know that it hadn't been before, and the door had to have been open for it to happen, so my guess was it happened at a shop that I took the car to, but as it had been in a few shops, I couldn't be sure which one it was.

Anyway, this is what it looks like, and I'm trying to decide if it would be better to try to fix it, or just get a new door from pick'n'pull and paint it. They have 77-79 Devilles and Fleetwoods all the time.

 

[markmnj]

It looks like the door bottom caught something like a curb. That isn't too bad to DIY straighten out by using a length of wood clamped along the outside of the door bottom in two or more places, protecting the paint first of course. Then use another clamp and smaller block of wood slightly larger than the pushed in area to pull it straight without going too crazy and crushing the door pinch/bottom. Basically you would be sandwiching the door bottom between two lengths of wood and forcing it to conform to the straightness of the wood. Polish out any associated scratches and/or use a small amount of touch up.

However, it looks like your door bottom also has some corrosion in the damaged area. If that's the only spot of "patina" on the door bottom, it's well worth saving the door and having a small amount of painting and blending performed. A small area on a door bottom will blend with the rest of the car far easier that an entire repainted door.

 

[larryinalabama]

Ive been trying to pull a dent on my 79, those cars are made of some real metal.

Id try and pull that door, its not that easy to replace a door on these cars.

I plan on ordering these to help my situation out.
http://www.tooltopia.com/steck-autobody-20046.aspx

 

[ferrisworld]

Alright, thanks guys. It's not corrosion, the paint just cracked off of that area, so I threw some primer on it a few years back. I think more of it will crack off if I straighten it, so I'll most likely have to paint the whole thing. I think the whole car could use paint anyway. It seems like it would be easier to do the work if I take the door off, but I guess I need to weigh that against the difficulty of removing it and reinstalling it.