Door refurbing - look for replacements

The doors were in pretty bad shape. They could have easily been yanked off without much effort. The driver's side was the worst. Only three years of use before it got in my hands and the cop shop had held it together with a long screw through the door handle and some transparent silicon caulk.


Hardly any of the hooks that hang on the door frame were intact. The fastest way to new doors; replacements. But it seems hard to find the same grey door spots, in the junk yard or on eBay, especially for an Aero generation. Even though most panels up to 2002 and back from 1995 will work, they all have slight variations in features and coloring.

Here's a civilian one I found from the same year, but the wrong color.  Tan is actually not that bad, but navy blue seems to be more common. I didn't really want to repaint it if I didn't have to, so I left it. I should have grabbed that pull when I had the chance, it's long gone now.

Junkyard replacements can be a real crap-shoot unless you can get there when they first get on the lot. Most people destroy the interiors to get to the part they need the most. There's no delicate disassembly. However most of these pieces were falling apart long before they got to the junkyard. I decided to refurbish the ones I had, and make them stronger than an OEM part.