Avant driver side door question

[Mke07]

A few weeks back our neighbors daughter backed in to our 07 avant. All damage was to the driver side door shell. Rather than deal with their body shop I ended up settling with her insurance for what I felt was an obscene amount for a dented door, but it's their money to spend.

So now I got a check and a dented door. Thinking about waiting it out till a b7 shows up at the local junker (which isn't often) and swapping the shell. Even if it needs painted I should come out well ahead.

I'm decent with a wrench but know nothing about body work, so first, what's involved in swapping just the shell? Seems straightforward but would like to make sure my plan is viable. I could swap the whole door if needed but mine still functions fine and would rather not fuss with the lock etc.
Second, and I searched the forum to no avail, but just looking at some parts listings it would appear avant and sedan front doors are interchangeable. This would make my search much much easier. Can anybody confirm this?

[vce1232000]

If your referring to a outer door skin. its a little pita. since it needs to be welding in. The front doors are interchangeable from a avant & sedan. The rear doors are different. Imo I would search from a used door same color. This way no paint & bodywork is needed. Most likely all you would need is to buff & blend & It would like nothing even happened

[Mke07]

Excellent. Thanks for the info. I'll keep my eyes on the local yard and see what i can see. I don't daily the car so i can be patient with it. My only concern then would be the lock. Anything special there or is it as simple as swapping mine into the new door?

[vce1232000]

To the door handle assemble from your damaged door you will need to remove the inner door panel. Just a few screws. But I would remove the window to access the handle easier.

[Mke07]

Very good. She was driving some little hyandui so luckily all the damage was down low and the handle, lock, window etc. are all intact. Will add it to my spring project list. Thanks again.

[vce1232000]

..

[fR3ZNO]

The rear doors are different.

The rear doors are actually the same for sedan and Avant. The difference is the window frame (which match the contour of the different roof lines).

If OP is lucky he has a common color like black or silver, finding a door in his color will be easy, otherwise he'll be waiting awhile and better off just getting it painted. In my case, I had to wait a long time before an Ocean Blue car was being parted out.

[Mke07]

I have silver so that helps some. Not interested in paying shipping and the local yards are not the greatest, so that sucks, but i'm not in a big rush either. The damager was backing out of a driveway at an odd angle and claimed she never saw it, but luckily the odd angle meant all damage was to the front driver door, the rear was untouched. Good info to have tho.

[vce1232000]

The rear doors are actually the same for sedan and Avant. The difference is the window frame (which match the contour of the different roof lines).

to know. it shows different on the recycling software @ my friends junkyard. Know I know the reason why

[vce1232000]

I have silver so that helps some. Not interested in paying shipping and the local yards are not the greatest, so that sucks, but i'm not in a big rush either. The damager was backing out of a driveway at an odd angle and claimed she never saw it, but luckily the odd angle meant all damage was to the front driver door, the rear was untouched. Good info to have tho.

My friends junkyard has 2 of them rite now in silver
. But like you said shipping would be expensive