Van attacked with crow bar repair advice

Flatulentoldgoat

My neighbour had his van attacked, the door was open a crack and someone with a crow bar tried to yank it open. Thankfully they didn't succeed but a nasty dent has been left. Is there anything that can be done to tidy it up cosmetically? Obviously the only other solution would be to replace the whole door but as it still shuts, opens and locks properly they can live with it.

burlingtonfl6

Doesn't look too bad really. Personally I'd give it a t cut and leave it. Replacing the door would be a waste of money

sweetsand

Dear OP
I have worked with crime prevention in the past.
Is the outside of the door damaged?
If it is, clean it up, even fill it in and put a non offensive, non attracting sticker on
it.  Reason I say that is that vermin that break into property look at signs of previous attmepted break ins and will do it again.

HTH

williamgriffin

sweetsand said:

Dear OP
I have worked with crime prevention in the past.
Is the outside of the door damaged?
If it is, clean it up, even fill it in and put a non offensive, non attracting sticker on
it.  Reason I say that is that vermin that break into property look at signs of previous attmepted break ins and will do it again.

HTH

So you're saying the best crime prevention advice is put a sticker on it to highlight a previous attack?

Ectophile

I would think that any decent back-street body shop could fill the dent and respray the area.

tacpot12

williamgriffin said:

sweetsand said:

Dear OP
I have worked with crime prevention in the past.
Is the outside of the door damaged?
If it is, clean it up, even fill it in and put a non offensive, non attracting sticker on
it.  Reason I say that is that vermin that break into property look at signs of previous attmepted break ins and will do it again.

HTH

So you're saying the best crime prevention advice is put a sticker on it to highlight a previous attack?

No, the comment was "... put a non-attracting sticker it"

KimJongUn88

The only time you’d see that damage is when you open the door to get in or out of the vehicle. Personally, I’d leave it. 

Herzlos

williamgriffin said:

sweetsand said:

Dear OP
I have worked with crime prevention in the past.
Is the outside of the door damaged?
If it is, clean it up, even fill it in and put a non offensive, non attracting sticker on
it.  Reason I say that is that vermin that break into property look at signs of previous attmepted break ins and will do it again.

HTH

So you're saying the best crime prevention advice is put a sticker on it to highlight a previous attack?

No, he's proposing putting a sticker on it to hide the damage, as the damage is more likely to attract another thieve to try again.


As the damage looks like it's all internal I'd just clean it up and get on with life.

Scrapit

How has the damage been caused internally? Looks like something was shut in the door rather than an attempt at defeating the lock.

Flatulentoldgoat

Scrapit said:

How has the damage been caused internally? Looks like something was shut in the door rather than an attempt at defeating the lock.

That's what I thought, it looks like something got wedged and it was slammed. But to slam it that hard would surely require tremendous force. Also those other scrapes look strange. The door card is also a bit loose on the dented edge.

Homer_home

Op - somebody is not being truthful here

That damage is in the wrong place for a crow bar attack , the damage would be in front of the lock if the door was shut but ajar , not behind the lock there's no way to get a crow bar there without doing significant damage to the door skin on the outside and the door frame itself

Also as a crow bar needs two points of contact to work there would be two lots of damage not one

However if you pop off the door card you should be able to get behind the dent and pop it out , after a clean and paint touch up , it won't be perfect but close enough