Hi,
My dad just gave me his old car. It is a 2015 Toyota Avalon. The car has 135,000 miles on it and it has an automatic transmission.
The car drives great, there's only one problem. There is a significant dent in the fender on the driver's side of the vehicle. The car got side swiped a year ago in a hit and run. My dad took it to a body shop but they wanted thousands to fix it, so he let it be.
Here is the link to the pictures
I am able to open the driver's side door with no problem so I was going to leave it alone, but I noticed that the opening of the car exposes the door hinges to the elements such as rain. I took a flashlight and found no rust on the inside, but I live in Florida and we can get pretty heavy rains. I'm afraid that over time the door hinges could potentially rust due to the opening caused by the dented fender.
Should I get this fixed or just leave it be?
Thank you for your time
I am able to open the driver's side door with no problem so I was going to leave it alone, but I noticed that the opening of the car exposes the door hinges to the elements such as rain.
Even if you didn't have that dent, water still gets into the door's hinges when it rains- they're located outside the weatherstripping that leads to the interior of the car. I live in Ohio, and I've never had issues with door hinge rust. Nowadays, the ends of those steel hinges are either galvanized with zinc, or zinc plated steel. Have a 2017 Mustang, the base of the hinges are still just oxidized zinc. All of my door hinges are just fine -even my '79 Pontiac Catalina still has the original door hinges. Salt is a lot more corrosive to steel than humidity alone is.
@justin-shepherd Thanks for confirming that for me
Justin is spot on. everything outside the gasket should be considered exposed.
That being said, it looks like you might be able to pull out that panel yourself with a flat bar and some rags. It's not going to be perfect, but with a few minutes it could look loads better.
It's not a problem. There have been plenty of cars manufactured with exposed door hinges from the factory.
So if you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars for the repair, yet you are concerned about the hinges rusting, etc. then you could occasionally spray the hinge with a product such as WD-40 Specialist Silicone Lubricant, advertised to be a quick drying spray that lubricates, waterproofs and protects from rust. They state that this product dries to a clear thin protective film that is not sticky so it doesn’t attract dirt and you only need to reapply once a year. Or use a similar product. 😉
