[AndrewC]

Hi Guys,
My girlfriend has a '60 plate early 2011 i30 hatchback (I'm not sure of the specific model, how would I find out?). Last night, she took a shortcut through a carpark a bit too tightly and scraped the drivers' side front door past a bollard, leaving several dents and grazes down the height of the door.






I took it to a body shop this morning and they quoted £1500 + VAT for the repair, (new door, paint and labour) which is not going to happen! She doesn't want to go the insurance route, as she has already had a claim after a deer charged into the front wing a couple of months back.

I am looking at how repairable the dents themselves are, but a fallback is to get a used door off ebay or from a scrappy.

My question is therefore this:
I know the first generation i30 ran from 2007 to 2012, but are the hatchback doors from this whole range compatible? i.e. could I fit a 2007 door, or would it need to come from a narrower time range. Was there a facelift or something part way through which changed the door shape?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer!

[Dazzler]

  Sorry to hear that.  I'm 99 % certain all the series one (FD) hatches would have identical doors. In fact I suspect the Wagon (CW) varient would also have at least the same front door as well.

So if I am correct that makes your chances of getting a good one in the right colour from a wreckers/ breakers yard reasonably good I imagine.

Hopefully you can find one that has a good mirror and working window mechanism as well so you don't have to swap bits over.   

[AndrewC]

Thanks for the information Dazzler, you are right, hopefully it means we have a lot more choice!

Fingers crossed we won't have to swap anything other than the inner panel over (if that!).

Thanks again

[tw2005]

The front doors are same hatch and CW. Pretty confident you won't have an issue except getting a door to line up again with the rest of the car could be challenging.

Trying to find same colour?

pay attention to paint code and year of build.

What's that N5S code? Over here that was on the FD update mid to late 2010 with black trimmed Headlights

We had Hypersilver, codes were MAD with 2 variants and the N5S also called Hypersilver which is much lighter,
9A steel gray we had until 2009, darker again.

Sometimes living with a dented aligned colour matched door can looked better .

[nzenigma]

The front doors are same hatch and CW.   

Sorry my mate is over worked. The CW ( wagon) doors  do NOT fit. They are 50mm taller than the hatch ones.

All FD hatch will fit.

Paint code will be on the black plate on LH 'B" pillar

[MT-RED]

Just curious, what was their justification for a need to replace the door as apposed to repair it? Its difficult to tell from the pictures and obviously they have had a proper look at it in person, but to me it looks reparable.

My wife did roughly the same but I was lucky as most of the 'marks' you could see on the door (Which looked bad) was actually just secondary paint residue from the post itself and the scrapes on her door actually had not penetrated beneath the clear coat. I therefore got away with a guy I know performing PDR on the door (removing 4 or 5 dents), then I set about it with a DA Polisher and it came up like new - total cost was £60 for the PDR work.

Even it thats not an option, in the Midlands, I would estimate £250 / £300 for a door respray, possibly up to £100 to have the dents sorted (Inc Labour). For me it looks like a sub £500 repair job .... but it is difficult to say without seeing it of course.

[MT-RED]

Sometimes living with a dented aligned colour matched door can looked better .

Completely agree, the issue with finding and using a scrap car door is getting the perfect match is just about impossible in my opinion. Even if it is the same paint colour the chances are it it will look noticeably different. It may be older or newer, aged differently based on cleaning techniques, differing levels of exposure to direct sunlight, etc.

If a scrap door is needed, to get the best match you might as well just go for any colour and then have it resprayed (if you can afford that approach). A good body shop will colour match really well and also feather the paint into the neighbouring panels so any very slight difference is lost in the feathering - making it extremely difficult to tell its been repaired.   

Getting a good and trusted body shop is key as the amount of poor finishes I have seen here in the UK is beyond a joke. It is not always immediately noticeable either, especially if the issue is with the clear coat, as you may not actually realise how poor the job was until months later when you are faced with lacquer peel issues all over the panel.

I know where I am there are some 'body shops' which are nothing more than an open rented small unit on an industrial estate. They don't even have ovens, etc in them. I could prob get a door respray done for £150 at one of these but I would not trust the work.... sooner pay double that and know I am getting a decent job done.

As with all trades, go off recommendations from friends and family if you can - Ideally someone who can show you the quality of the work they had done some weeks / months or years later. Failing that you might have to go off reviews from people in the area, if they can fit you in quickly you have to ask why? Most good shops should be busy and you should expect a bit of a wait, thats a good sign if you ask me 

I know an amazing PDR guy who covers the East Midlands and a really good independent body shop in Nottingham. Neil (PDR) and Mozza (Body Shop) are both the owners, great guys who are very meticulous with their work. I suspect unfortunately they are too far a field  for you but I am more than happy to DM you their details if it would help.

[nzenigma]

From plenty of experience_I never trust photos of damage.

Yes agree, it looks quite repairable from here. 
but not just a PDR job. It will need paint and to do a good match you need to also spray into surrounding panels.

If replacing the door get the same colour if possible, even if you are going to repaint it. Stripping seals and doing inside takes alot  of time.

[tw2005]

The front doors are same hatch and CW.   

Sorry my mate is over worked. The CW ( wagon) doors  do NOT fit. They are 50mm taller than the hatch ones.

All FD hatch will fit.

Paint code will be on the black plate on LH 'B" pillar

  Thanks mate, had not checked that part of the equation. Knew internal and external panels are the same, forgot abot the raised roof line.

76004-2L010 door hatch
76004-2L210 door cw

76121-2L010 skin cw
76121-2L010 skin hatch

[MT-RED]

If replacing the door get the same colour if possible, even if you are going to repaint it. Stripping seals and doing inside takes alot  of time.

Yeah agree, same colour is best if possible, even if you are having it resprayed for the best match. Finding one here in the UK of the correct size and colour at a local scrappers though could be a bit of a mission TBH. Not as common here as some other manufacturers.