1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

external door panel / rear quarter panel crash

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Snarkshark, Dec 10, 2019.

  1. Snarkshark

    Snarkshark New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2019
    3
    0
    0
    Location:
    Los angeles
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    Three Touring
    Hello all and much love to my Prius, and the prius community.
    I had a tear to the outside panel of the passenger rear door, extending to the rear quarter panel due to swiping a sharp piece of metal hanging off a building in a narrow ally.
    Wondering does the outer sheet metal for the door come off/is replaceable? or do I need a whole new door.
    The tear is through the sheet metal and Im not to handy with the bondo (plus i dont have a compressor or paint gun)
    If it is replaceable is anyone wanting to sell a passenger side rear door panel? Also looking for the rear fender/quarter panel.
    My color is mint green!
     
  2. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2014
    2,002
    745
    0
    Location:
    Finland
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Door skin can be replaced but it's so much more work that just replacing the entire door. So that's what is normally done. New skin would need to be welded on and painted anyways. So replacing the door is much easier even if it's different colour.

    Quarter panel is much more complicated to replace. You will need to cut it and the replacement panel and grind the welds to remove the old one. New panel then would need to be welded and glued in place and then bondo and painted.

    Because how complicated replacing the quarter panel is if it's not badly damaged it's normally just repaired with tools like spotter, welder etc. And the bondo and paint is applied.
     
  3. Snarkshark

    Snarkshark New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2019
    3
    0
    0
    Location:
    Los angeles
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    Three Touring
    Thanks so much for your insight!
    You know I recently replaced the front quarter panel on my GF wrecked prius and it was a bolt on bolt off situation, You think it is different for the rear?
    THanks again for the insight.
    To be honest I dread the painting aspect more than anything, i did a rattle can job on the GF car and it just looked bad, I think the clear really looks different with a gun which i dont have. plus i went through a lot of rattle can paint and it was expensive
     
  4. valde3

    valde3 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 28, 2014
    2,002
    745
    0
    Location:
    Finland
    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
    Yes. Rear quarter panel (normally just called quarter panel) is not a separate panel (and is not a bolt on panel) like front fender (sometimes called front quarter panel).

    Painting is least of your worries with quarter panel. Fixing it is complicated.
     
    SFO likes this.