Clean all the paint off the damaged area (wire wheel in a drill) use Bondo to fill the dent, sand flat, and paint the whole door.

Experience with body work helps. The area must be coarse ground to bare metal without grinding through. The Bondo holds well to that surface. I use a Surform to shave off most of the excess Bondo as it nears being hard. Then sand and prime. I then use glazing putty and let it dry for 24 hours. Wet sand with 600 grit. If satisfied with the repair, prime again and paint.

Thank you - I'm rather intimidated. I've never even heard of Bondo and it sounds like something that's rather expert. Is there a "specialist" to call for this? An auto body shop? Should I take the door off the hinges and take it to a body shop?

I KNEW this door was a bad idea when we bought it!

THANKS Everyone!

"An auto body shop? Should I take the door off the hinges and take it to a body shop? "

A small shop with little work might be interested, but they are liable to charge almost as much as a new door.

Bondo is pretty easy to work with (it smells bad though).

It uses a catalyst to harden up the material (styrene monomer with fillers).

You would scoop out a small amount of material, apply some catalyst, mix thoroughly, then smooth over the clean damaged area with some plastic putty knives.
The smoother you can get it before it sets, the less work in making it flat.

While we're on the subject of body shops, one of the paintless dent removal services might be just the ticket. If you bought your car from a dealer, ask your salesman to find out what day the ding guy comes around. It's usually once per week. Stop by and ask him if he'd would take a shot at your door and what it would cost. I'm thinking $40-$50 would be a fair price. Then take the door and a couple of sawhorses so he has a place to work.

Unlike a vehicle that has nothing on the other side of most of the sheet metal, a door has a filled core (often foam to increase R value).

If you simply pull the metal back to flush you are going to leave a hollow area behind that will be very easy to damage again.

mommabird -- you can buy the appropriate filler at your local paint store - its a 2 part material (mix 1 part "a" with a small amount of hardener "b"). Rough sand the door. Spread on with a plastic spreader. sand lightly (look at the directions for long before doing that), then apply a second coat and sand with finer/fine grit. a little primer, then repaint the door. this is done all the time.

Mama bird,

I'm probably way too late. I just saw this post looking for a way to fill a dent myself. I'm sure you have solved your problem already, however, if you have not may I suggest trying this before you go to all the expense and hassle of all those other options. Try pulling it out with an extremely strong plunger. Some Mobile Mechanics will do this for you. Hopefully there's no damage to the door other than the dent. This could be a viable option for you. Sorry I came eight years too late.

Sorry, but a plunger is not going to pull out a dent like that. A dent typically results in metal deformation and, on a flat surface like a door, it's not simply a matter of pulling it out. The metal has been stretched and you can't unstretch it with a plunger.

I suppose a suction cup device might work on very shallow superficial dents, but Kudzu is correct -- any significant dent stretches the metal.

My days of studying and doing auto body repair are long over, so things may have changed, but the traditional way to straighten a panel is to work the dent from the outside to the center. If you can access the panel from behind, you bump with a hammer and dolly. If not, you use a slide hammer puller from the front (this leaves convex holes in the panel that you have to grind smooth and braze over).

When the metal is as close as possible to its original contour, the dent that remains in the center represents the stretched metal. You heat this remaining dent with a torch to soften the steel, so you can bring it back as close to level as possible.

A really good auto body craftsperson (I was never anywhere near that good!) can get the steel so close to its original contour that it needs only a mm or so of polyester filler (Bondo is a brand) for final leveling. The real old-timers used to use lead for leveling, but that was a long, long time ago.

What little I know of current body repair practice seems to suggest that not many shops straighten panels any more. They replace them. So this is a kind of roundabout way of saying that your local auto body shop may not be of much help.