4 doors: replace or repair?

[funcrew]

My '88 sedan has a lot of dings and shallow oopses, 80% of which are on the doors. All that needs to be fixed prior to paint.

In addition, the power windows are getting really flaky on all 4 as well. How hard would it be to source clean, straight doors (maybe from a 318i?) with crank-it-yourself windows and install those? Does it require shimming and fussing with the gaps like on old American iron? I'm in Las Vegas, could source parts anywhere in SoCal.

Any ideas pro or con? Anybody ever do this? My sedan has little collector value, so I'm not that worried about losing the OEM power windows.

[kronus]

Sedans with manual windows are a pain if you ever want to open them while moving.

If you haven't, disassemble and clean your window switches. They're about 80% of the problems with power windows in my experience.

[funcrew]

Sedans with manual windows are a pain if you ever want to open them while moving.

If you haven't, disassemble and clean your window switches. They're about 80% of the problems with power windows in my experience.

In my case, the switches work fine, but the glass shudders on the way down, and whatever limiter gizmo turns off the motor at the bottom of travel does not work, and the motor grinds until I let off the button. Also the glass sticks up half an inch. And the sheetmetal is dented.

That said, I didn't know that the switches were serviceable. How do you open them up?