So I went ahead with contacting the ebay seller about the issues I found when installing the headlight.  They responded pretty quickly and offered some solutions, though none were to just give me a quick discount.  So we talked a little and since this was the only assembly with a red door we agreed for me to pull the door, then send the rest of the assembly back.  I came home friday evening from work, pulled the part back out and boxed it up to drop off at fedex.  I’m hoping to have the replacement by mid to late this week so I can get back on the road.

In the meantime I decided to try my hand at repairing the damage to the door that was ripped off by the trash can.  It had some pretty deep scratches going down into the metal on a couple spots.  I wasn’t aiming for this to be an oem level job, just something that was better than it currently was.

I started by sanding the old paint off.  In hindsight, I should have taken the entire door down to metal instead of leaving a good deal of the original primer coat on as you can see the rough grit sandpaper gouges in the original primer if you look closely.  This became more evident after the new primer coat was applied and I really didn’t feel like re-sanding it all over again.

I then wiped it down with alcohol to remove any residues and hit it with a few coats of primer.  Let it dry then gave it a few swipes with 2000 grit paper, another alcohol wipe and a few more coats of primer.

After the last primer coat dried I gave it another once over with 2000 grit and one last wipe down.  I then proceeded to the paint phase.  I picked up some Duplicolor Perfect Match from Advanced Auto to do the job with as this is supposedly the same paint color that is GM OEM.  I went over it with several coats until I was satisfied no primer was showing through, waited a little while and then put on a few coats of clear.

I’m going to let it cure for a few days and then go at it with some rubbing & buffing compound to see if I can make it shine.  Hopefully once that is all done, it will be at least a close color match for the car.