As much as we urge everybody to dive in head first and tackle your own repairs and regular maintenance, there are times when you shouldn’t even consider it. This letter is a perfect reminder that sometimes you should absolutely leave it to a professional: We have a 2007 Honda Odyssey, 6 mos old. My wife took a right corner in the garage too tight, dented the rt side door and rear quarter panel. Bad scrape and dents. 2 estimates, one from [shop name deleted”>, both around $1700. I looked online and found I could buy the replacement outer shell/skin for door and quarter panel for about $1000. [Shop”> said there is much more labor in replacing the panels, but that seems strange since they don’t have to pound out the dents or paint. If I do the repair they want to do, it will still be repainted and I think it will be conspicuous. But why would simply replacing the panels be so much more work ? don’t they have to remove the panels to bang out the dents anyway ? thanks much. — Steve Steve’s lack of experience in body repair could get him into real trouble here. Luckily, he’s chosen to use a body shop to repair his Odyssey. Replacing a door skin is very labor intensive, so much that many shops won’t do it. In short, the dented panel has to be painstakingly removed by uncrimping the entire edge of the door, sometimes it’s even spot welded. Then the new panel must be carefully crimped along its entire edge. An amateur could really screw this up. Steve’s second shop choice is going to use body filler to fill the damaged areas, then repaint. They don’t have to remove any panels to do this. If done right, this can result in an excellent repair. News source: About Auto Repair