I purchased my 110SE back in early November after about an 6 month wait from order to delivery. Unfortunately, my office for now (until I start a new job next week) is in a not great area of Chicago. I came out from work one day someone had hit my Defender on the drivers side (both doors) and they didn't leave a note. Security had no footage of the incident. Very upsetting with a brand new car as you can imagine.

Anyway, so I took it to the dealers body shop for an estimate as they have on their website how they are certified to repair aluminum. The estimate for the damage below is $5500 and they say they need to replace both doors, but that it will likely take months to get as there is no stock. Great. Based on anyones experience having to have bodywork done, is there truly no way to repair the damage and they really need entirely new doors?

It does give me a bit of pause buying vehicles in the future that so highly rely on aluminum.

 

That sucks. I'm sorry you had that happen.

I've had similar damage on steel doors and have had paintless dent repair done. Never on aluminum but I'm told it's similar.

One car was black and, to this day 3 years later you would never be able to tell it was dented, even in the sun.

It does look like you have some paint damage so that gets into a whole other step.

The new doors come unpainted? Assuming they do, you're into blending, matching, fade issues over time etc. just the same as of you had PDR followed by paint.

​​​​​Idk, Ive been impressed with PDR but I have an exceptional guy and there are apparently a lot of losers in that field.

I'd probably lean toward new doors if you can wait it out. $5500 seems low for that.

​​​​​​This is the I guy use for some info on PDR.


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Agree with @_Allegedly . I would go with the door replacement and consider it done/good. Sucks to wait that long, but now you should have NO worries about that side! Sorry to find humor, a friend said you only care until the first ding. The thing I would add to his post is that you should definitely be in the market for a dashcam. I really haven't cared about it on any car I've owned, but with the cost of the Defender I went all in. Now have front/rear that will activate whether I'm driving or not. I'm pretty bullish that it will pay for itself one day.

 

This is a good point, thanks. I have been a little wary of the parking lot at work since I bought it. It's under an elevated train track in Chicago and the first day I drove to work after I got the new car. I got out and locked the doors and someone on the platform yelled out "HEY MAN, I LOVE YOUR DEFENDER!" I was like, uh, maybe this is too flash in this neighborhood...

 

Well, luckily there's a thread for that 🤪.

Still happy with the Blackvue. It's super sensitive to bumps when the car is off.

 

Where we live the streets are narrow... a moving truck, inadequate spotting, slowly drove over my drivers side front fender. The truck sliced into the metal like a box cutter and also beat up the drivers side mirror pretty good. This happened the first week of December. The car was drive-able so I didn't want to turn it over until I was assured my parts were en route and the repair would commence soon after dropping the vehicle. I dropped the truck Jan. 3 and figured I'd get it back in a couple of weeks. Parts delays, poor communication, multiple shipments from the UK, more waiting. It sucks but it's first world problem sucks. Total repair is $7k. It is costing the insurer more to provide me with a comparable quality rental (RR Sport).

I look forward to getting mine back, it's a great rig.

If I were you and I was in Chicago, I'd drive something more tactical and less conspicuous like a beefed up Toyota Land Cruiser. Keep your Defender for your 'everything but the City' driving.

 

Sorry to see the damage to your truck. While the new Defenders are primarily made of aluminum, I think the doors might actually be steel. (A magnet sticks to the doors, front fenders and rear tailgate on my Defender 90, but not the hood or rear fenders). I'm not sure if having steel doors changes your situation, but total replacement seems extreme either way.

 

OUCH! Thats brutal. Definitely not as easy to repair as steel cars. I hope you get it fixed soon. I'm beginning to think the right level of conspicuousness is a 1985 Toyota Camry.

 

I thought only the monocoque body is aluminum. The front fenders, doors and rear door are steel. It should be easily repaired but since it's a brand new vehicle the body shop wants to make it right by replacing the whole door.

 

Ouch! To the original poster, you probably should go w/ new doors.
Those sorts of creases in the front sheetmetal (steel not aluminum doors btw) are hard to fix without body filler... which long term isn't great.
Check out powerfuluk's video's - their white defender had VERY SIMILAR damage last year on the left side of their 110 (someone borrowed their vehicle and sideswiped something etc) ... they got the doors replaced too.