Back in May this happened:

picture 1
picture 2 (you'll have to download and rotate this picture, sorry)
picture 3

My bumper is also not flush now: click (gotta rotate this pic too)

I also ended up with a cracked taillight but I purchased a new one.

Obviously it'll be quite costly to obtain replacement parts or try to repair the dent. It's probably not worth fixing considering the damage appears to have no effect on the vehicle other than being an eyesore (no water leakage, trunk closes and locks fine, maybe just some more road noise now). I looked at courtesyparts for a replacement OEM trunk door and it was something like $600. Crazy. A bumper was around $300. I'm thinking it would be significantly cheaper to find a Pathy at a junkyard to obtain replacement parts (and maybe a roof rack too, the paint is peeling off on mine). Would I need to obtain an entire trunk door for a replacement?

Have you taken it to a body shop for a repair quote?

The sheet metal on the hatch is bent in, but it's still in one piece. It's presumable that a shop could repair that, either by pulling the sheet metal out (with suction cups) or by opening it up and pounding it out from behind. It won't be perfect, but some shops are damn good, and it definitely won't stand out the way it does now.

The bumper, on the other hand... usually with plastic it's not worth the labour costs of fixing, since it's cheap enough to buy new parts. $300 new isn't too bad, though I'd definitely look around the junkyards. You can probably sneak out with one for around $50 - $100.

i was quoted 150 for junkyard bumper,

rear door at junkyard might be 200 or something like that, 300 at the worst

i wouldnt spend more than 500 on fixing that

Densetsu wrote:Have you taken it to a body shop for a repair quote?

The sheet metal on the hatch is bent in, but it's still in one piece. It's presumable that a shop could repair that, either by pulling the sheet metal out (with suction cups) or by opening it up and pounding it out from behind. It won't be perfect, but some shops are damn good, and it definitely won't stand out the way it does now.

The bumper, on the other hand... usually with plastic it's not worth the labour costs of fixing, since it's cheap enough to buy new parts. $300 new isn't too bad, though I'd definitely look around the junkyards. You can probably sneak out with one for around $50 - $100.

I haven't gotten a repair quote. I'll get one soon I suppose. I'll also check the local junkyard for a bumper and door.

Went to a local junkyard yesterday. They had a late 90's green Pathfinder, trunk door looks like it wouldn't fit, and it had no bumper. There was also a '00 blue Pathfinder with no bumper, and the trunk door was missing the glass hatch and rear wiper and was damaged and a bit rusted. I will have to check some other junkyards in a couple nearby towns, and get a repair quote for the dent as well.

Back in i think it was 04, a lady with an excursion backed into the path and i had a the same part dented in as you, except a little more away from the tail light, and it wasnt as severe as yours, and i think the repair was around 1200$ or something cause they replaced the whole hatch etc. I dont remember exact figures.

miamiheat3332 wrote:Back in i think it was 04, a lady with an excursion backed into the path and i had a the same part dented in as you, except a little more away from the tail light, and it wasnt as severe as yours, and i think the repair was around 1200$ or something cause they replaced the whole hatch etc. I dont remember exact figures.

Holy crap, that seems like a ripoff.

The only experience I have with bodywork is when my car was broken into about four years ago. Side window smashed, door dented, lots of scratches. They charged me $275 or so for a new window, dent repair, and touch up paint. I wasn't complaining.

Lol i didn't care, insurance covered it.

Just take off the bumper it took me 10 minutes to do and I like the look as for the hatch just go grab one from a pick a part.

Some junkyard in Texas called me and said they've got a rear door and bumper in a similar color to mine.



This appears to be an '02 Pathfinder from the roof rack. Would the rear door and bumper fit fine with my '01? I'm not sure what the price is yet, need to confirm that the price would be for the metal itself and not the glass hatch, hydraulics, interior trim, locks, rear wiper components, or anything else. This Pathfinder also doesn't have a tow hitch while mine does, would that interfere with the bumper at all? I'm also wondering about shipping charges since it would be coming from Texas, after all. Plus there's the issue of having to get it painted, since the color isn't an exact match unfortunately.

Good search for boneyard parts: www.car-part.com

Towncivilian wrote:Some junkyard in Texas called me and said they've got a rear door and bumper in a similar color to mine.



This appears to be an '02 Pathfinder from the roof rack. Would the rear door and bumper fit fine with my '01? I'm not sure what the price is yet, need to confirm that the price would be for the metal itself and not the glass hatch, hydraulics, interior trim, locks, rear wiper components, or anything else. This Pathfinder also doesn't have a tow hitch while mine does, would that interfere with the bumper at all? I'm also wondering about shipping charges since it would be coming from Texas, after all. Plus there's the issue of having to get it painted, since the color isn't an exact match unfortunately.

The parts should fit with ease, your hitch won't interfere at all. Your only problem should be getting the colour match, which isnt really a problem provided you go to a good paint shop.

They want something like $685 for the rear door (with glass and everything; they're not willing to sell just the sheet metal) and $230 or something for a bumper. I'll have to look elsewhere.

I found this bumper (top, part no 6755-04022661) and it seems cheap (of course, I'd have to get it painted but I'd think that would still be cheaper than finding the part elsewhere). What does it mean by "oversized item"? Unfortunately partsgeek doesn't have any doors for sale, though. Will need to continue scouring junkyards.

I found this green Pathfinder (I'm not sure what year) at the local junkyard. Would the door fit? From what I can tell, it only has rust around the lock cylinder, but I didn't examine it thoroughly or even ask the price. My door looks like the picture posted three posts up.

that green one is an older model pre 99 re-design. i don't think it will fit.

Okay.

I found a white rear door for $80 at a junkyard down south a bit (they don't have any bumpers, though). Might get it, but it'd still cost a bunch to have it painted.

Would buying that aforementioned $80 door from the junkyard, sanding it down and painting it with the help of a couple buddies sound feasible? Where would I get matched paint?

Go to the nissan dealer, they can probably order some for you, clearcoat it too.

So I bought a white door for $49.95, from a donor 2000 R50. Door looks identical. We've torn out its internals and are in the process of sanding it down now. Matched paint can be acquired for $78 locally, so we're good on that front.

What I'm wondering, though, is why Courtesy Parts has a separate exploded view for 09/1999-01/2000 V & W and 2001 V & W. The diagrams look identical, am I missing something?

I also wonder whether my local Nissan dealership can transplant my old door's perfectly working internals to the gutted new door, after it's painted of course. I would not look forward to doing a DIY job on routing all that wiring and tracking down all the missing clips and small trim pieces... even if Nissan charges a few hours of labor with parts for it I think it's worth the money to avoid the headache. I'll have to pull through the service window and ask. And jebus, $88 for weather stripping... couldn't I just reuse mine?

About 3 months ago, I replaced my moms Chevy Venture back door with one from the junkyard. The new one had manual locks so I switched out the wiring harness aswell, and all the components on door (lock, speakers, fluid nozzel) for good measure. It took about a half a day, but its a pretty easy DIY. Granted a Pathfinder is not a Chevy Venture, but don't rule out DIY yet, routing wireing through holes isn't that bad.

You'd save quite a bit money if your not paying shop hours

Probably, all I'd really need is the trim clips basically, but wouldn't mounting the new lock cylinder and its associated locking mechanisms as well as the bulky rear wiper motor assembly be difficult? We weren't all that graceful with ripping out the guts of the new door, so we don't have much to go on in terms of actually putting it in properly.

Also, a friend's dad just told me that instead of sanding the door down to bare metal, we could have just scuffed the original paint with some 400 or 600 grit sandpaper (I guess to get rid of the clear coat and for the new paint to have something to stick to) and lay paint on top of that, assuming the original and new paint bases are the same, is that right? I mean we have about half the bottom sanded down to bare metal, it's probably not too much of a big deal to finish the job (but the back side has a lot more variation in the surface, which would be difficult to sand down using power tools).

I found that as long as you know how the correct instalation is, ie you old door, transfering them is quite straight forward (In a Chevy Venture). Most of it is bolt in, bolt out and learing as you go.

We were lucky in that we were able to find the same color door and therefore did not need to paint, so I can't really comment on that aspect.

-Also, I broke quite a few fasterners doing the switch, and just salvaged what I needed from both doors.

Yea, we're just gonna continue to sand it down. I'll also get replacement trim clips and anything else I need and we'll just try to do it ourselves, it can't be that difficult... it's really just the lock, door handles, wiper motor, and wiring harness.

Before:



A few months ago I bought a white rear door from a 2000 Pathfinder from a junkyard for $49.25, and a couple of friends and I sanded down and painted the door:



And earlier today the new door was installed with a friend's help.



Unfortunately I overtightened one of the liftgate strut bolts and the head sheared off. A bolt extractor was of no help, and with the strut holding on by one screw the door's misaligned as it stands now. I also lost my spoiler since the new door didn't have the necessary exterior holes for mounting it. An unfortunate oversight on my door choice from the junkyard.


(excuse the upside down third brake light in that picture )

And obviously the paint is not quite the same color, or even texture, due to the paint on the PF being 10 years older, as well as the extremely liberal use of clear coat (we went through two cans of it), and maybe we didn't get the ratios right for the reducer and finisher for the paint earlier too. Not to mention that none of us are professional painters. We also could not pull the main wiring harness through the door, so we left it hanging for now. Plus the wiper protector was applied crookedly and has bubbles in it. I should not have let my buddy put that part on. But I'm not sure whether it's worth another $28 or whatever it cost just for a straight, bubble-free wiper protector that nobody but myself will notice.

So now I'm left with a misaligned door until Monday morning when I'll have the local dealer run the wiring harness properly and hopefully remove and replace the broken bolt and align the door. Might as well give them badges to put back on too. It didn't turn out too badly for a $150 investment for the door and paint/clear coat, I think.

Huge improvement, especially for $150! Great buy/find on the door.

Thanks!

Nissan had to weld the strut bracket on, they couldn't drill the broken bolt out because there was the tip of our broken drill bit in it.



Also, due to other damage caused by the collision to the driver rear quarter panel, the door is misaligned:





The door grazes the taillight every time it closes. I managed to shift the taillight enough so it doesn't significantly scrape the door and the door closes on the first try.



Nissan charged $100 for the weld, and $50 to run the wiring harness through the door. The bolt I broke turned out to be a $100 mistake.

Looks like a Bondo job for the quarter panel, but whatever. Still gotta paint the bumper (debating whether to paint it black or stock trim color) and the quarter panel. MAACO wants like $200 to paint the quarter panel. Should I just mask it off and spray it myself instead for $30?

Looking good though.

Offtopic, but you selling the spoiler on your old trunk?

Thinking about it, yea. Shipping would prolly be an annoyance though. I'll let you know first if I decide to sell it.

K thanks.
Is there really any noticeable performance increase by using the spoiler? I kinda want it because of aesthetics.