Some jackass who's lucky to be breathing decided to make his turn too wide in a traffic circle and he hit me in the rear. His insurance decided that I'm at fault since he claims I tried to cut him off, and its just his word against mine despite the obvious damage showing he hit me. Anyway, I decided I'm going to replace my rear door myself to save money and learn a thing or two in the process. A couple questions:

1.) From what I can tell, a door from a Mazda 3 2010 or 2011 will work fine in a 2012, but can anyone confirm this for me?

2.) Is there an existing how-to on doing this? I couldn't seem to find one anywhere. Anyone with experience on this have any suggestions?

 

if you have reported the accident, then your insurance company will insist it is fixed to their standards being they hold the note on it.
They may squash your plans.

 

Depends on your insurance, some just give you the cash value to fix it, friend crunched his Subaru hitting a culvert and they gave him the fair value to fix it in cash, he just fixed the busted strut and wheel and left the body damage as it is.

 

^^

That's pretty much what USAA has done for me. So, I'm going to do this with the least amount of expense possible. I figure if I get a door from a 2011 or 2012 car with the same color, it might just need a fresh coat of clear coat and be good to go. A coat of clear coat might just be part of getting the body damage taken care of anyway. In any case, anyone have input on my original questions?

 

Personal experience? No.
But I'm sure that as long as the door you get has all your has now (speakers, power window, etc.) that it will work.
I'm sure there is no "How-To" on a door installation. I'm not trying to be a smartass here (really!), but frankly, Ex, it's not rocket science. Anyone with basic mechanical knowledge and tools should easily be able to do it.