So, yeah, I backed my van into a pole. Somehow, it evaded all three mirrors and my backup camera. What didn't evade it was my spare tire...

Here's pictures of what I did to the door: https://imgur.com/a/SdzLkmG

And here's a nice little video I made since I had the dashcam footage:
So, my nearest body shop doesn't want to touch the van. Fine, I'll do it myself. The only question is how? Can I just open the door and whack the bent portion with a hammer until it's straight again? I don't really care about the massive dent, at least not right now, though I would like to fix that too if it's possible. My main concern is that the edge of the door got bent inwards, which means there's no seal between the two doors, hence the messy plastic covering I've hastily installed to try and keep water out of the van. Naturally, we had a massive thunderstorm not 24 hours after I backed into said pole.

Now, if I can't just un-bend this, where the hell am I going to find another door in western maryland if my body shop can't find one? Ebay doors need a commercial address with a forklift, and I sure don't have either of those. Oh, and how do you even remove these doors by the way? Like a residential door, where you just jam a screwdriver in the bottom of the hinge and hammer the pin out?

And lastly, how can I work on my van if I don't have a garage to do it in? There are MANY things that I could fix myself on this vehicle if I had a garage to do it in, but I don't. And the list of jobs that I can do in the span of one day are tiny... Like, for example, the front doors. I would like to remove the front doors, lubricate the power windows, replace the window trim, and swap out the vent windows for some that aern't broken. But I sure can't do all of that in one day! And what, am I supposed to just leave my van sitting outside with no door for a week? Or am I supposed to somehow do all of this while the door is still on the van, and just hope that I somehow get all of the window stuff done in one day?

Ugh... it was so much easier to learn how to work on computers... but I've had just about enough of fretting over what shop would and wouldn't do this or that. If the AC conks out again, yeah, back to the shop. But if I can go from never using a computer to being A+ certified in THREE YEARS, then I can certainly learn how to fix up a 1988 chevy van, damn it.

And since there aern't exactly many results online for fixing a vehicle that was built before the internet became mainstream, here I am creating my own, lol

 

I don't remember if those simply unbolt, but I think it would be easier and better to just change the door.

 

If that's the case, how do you remove the doors on one of these vans?

 

Just unbolt the hinges, either from the door or from the van body. Three 9/16ths per hinge.

Any 1971-1995 door will bolt on there. Shouldn't be too hard to find one in a you pull yard for about $50. I think the tire bracket will be another $20, I did buy one at one point. My first van was a 1995 and I put doors on it from a 1985... then kept them and put them on the 1991 I replaced the 1995 with. You may want to have a better paint job than the rattle can job I did, but with white as the base color it shouldn't be hard to get that done. If you don't find one that's white already.

If there's any inserts on the trim panel like on the open door you will have to cut the inner door structure to clear them with a sawzall or jigsaw. Which is all they did at the factory when they converted them.

Keep all the latches out of the old door, they are known for rusting up and getting stiff.

I can't imagine why your body shop won't do it, particularly if there's already a hole cut to allow access inside the door it doesn't look particularly challenging to hammer out. But it certainly will require some labor.

 

Note the tire carrier pushed in, causing the bend. Might try removing that and attaching some kind of grip, handle or something that you can grab with some force. Then try pulling it, slowly, to unbend the door. If nothing else, maybe leave the carrier in place and tie a rope around the mount point and heave. Hard part with be bracing the door while pulling.

Might get lucky, worth an afternoon.