Dont drill that door! Get a mini/sink plunger and grease it up good with petrolium jelly and give it a spin. Take a heat gun to it first to prevent paint chipping.

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Look for a paintless repair guy. It's usually about 100 bucks a panel and some of them do really good work.

My euro was the same color but lost its shine I just called it crap brown

I will say that the color is 476 gold brown but was only used up to 1982....can be seen here

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I agree with Zorecoti, find a painless dent repair shop. If you have never seen a skilled PDR tech do their thing, you should.

Extreme Dent Removal - YouTube

I have been doing bodywork as a hobby for at least 25yrs.

I have seen them massage worse than that, back to near perfection..

.

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Dont touch it. If the paint is not cracked then PDR should be able to fix it. Weather changes will bring the damage back where it is visually noticeable after a few years though. Metal memory isnt perfect although a lot of people claim metal memory is the voodoo behind PDR.

I should have suggested the paintless process too. They really can do wonders. I had several small spots worked out on my 2002 Dodge before I had MAACO shoot the green over the black. It came out REALLY well. Their success will depend on how stretched the metal is. If it's stretched much at all it'll leave various telltale signs (depends on how and where stretched).

Dan

An oil can dent can be popped back with a plunger, but if the metal has been stretched, then that won`t work. It will have to be shrunk and worked back to shape.
I would not drill holes and use a Slide hammer to pull a dent. Get one of those guns that welds the metal pins, and a Slide hammer that pulls on the pins. after you are done, then cut and grind off the welds.

A complete door (all components) at PNP is $60 plus tax etc.... then maybe another $100 to have it painted.
I haven't use the paintless dent repair, but if it would need to be painted, then you have both costs.


That is a nice looking 123 and color, I haven`t seen that color much either. I wouldn`t even think of scrapping it.


Charlie

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Thanks for all the replies guys. I will look into paintless dent removal. Wasn't sure if this was in their wheelhouse or not... didn't want to get laughed at haha.

And I should say again, I don't need it to be perfect, just enough to make it a little less noticeable. I can live with some wrinkles and imperfections until I can replace the doors (also needs a pass rear door, lots of bondo on it) and then repaint it. I love the color too, hot chocolate brown is a perfect description.

Here's another angle of the dent:

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WTB: W123 Passenger doors - preferably Brown!

If you go down the paintless dent removal route please post up some pictures when it is done. I'll be really impressed if they manage to pull it out what with the dent being on top of the designer crease and all...

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Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

You guys know I was teasing about scrapping the car don't you? Some of your replies sounded like you took me seriously.

Just havin' a little fun
Dan

You got me!

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I see a crease that may create some difficulties. If you just want it better perhaps the dent repair guys may satisfy you. I do not think they can approach perfection because of the crease but have been wrong before.

There are optical scaning devices that should be able to match the colour pretty close. Or just use the factory color code if the color corresponds.

Now may be the time to get the two doors you feel are problematic replaced. Make sure they fit properly. Remove and prep. Have a shop spray them if you have no equipment to do it and install. Used doors can be had cheap on older model cars usually with a little effort. I probably would repaint the whole car or at least up the the top of the door lower window line myself after changing the doors out.

I would try it myself first, just because I am cheap and I have fixed dents worse than that. I have a Harbor Freight 4-ton Chinese "porta power". It has an expanding wedge that works inside doors. You can also get a short piston. I would try that first to save the paint.

From the outside, I have used a "weld-on" stud puller ($99 HF). It doesn't leave holes like the old "drill hole & insert screw" type. I also have a brace puller that superglues bases to the surface, but haven't tried. I also have vacuum plungers, but they never worked for me. You probably still need to hammer flat the sharper creases. Any of this means a repaint.