5 hours of labor? Wtf (politely)

A mechanic or diy person can have that off and swapped in under an hour, 90 minutes taking extra care not to bend that weather strip putting it on or pulling it off.

I can pull the skin off an S-Series door in 15 minutes or less.

The skin is self aligning when you attach the bolts in the proper order. There's nothing to adjust. If the frame is Not Bent and the door frame is Not Bent then it should fit exactly the same. You just don't tighten all the bolts down until they are all installed but not snugged.

The key is knowing where the retaining tabs are on the inside face of the skin so that you don't snap them off. Also be aware it does not take much of a bend in that weather stripping for it to never fit right again. One end or the other will end up not quite coming down over the top lip. It therefore can't snap in place and the end will always be sticking up a little. I was actually told by my Saturn Tech friends that it should be slid along the top to avoid distorting it. That was kind of possible on the s cars. No clue for a Vue

 

I agree, the five hours of labour is WAY more than should be required for this job (maybe if I was doing it!), and I anticipate that it will be probably half of that number, so that will bring the cost down to more of a $550-600 range, which I can live with. Having a driver door that is no longer rubbing against the front quarter panel and doesn't need gorilla tape to keep the skin and frame together will be a nice upgrade.

 

Our door hinges are stiff and wifey barely closed rear pass door and backed out of garage and caught door edge on garage door opening and shattered door skin. My fault. 100%. I should lube door hinges. I got a used door skin for $40 at junkyard and it was on in 1/2 hr. Yes, all the captive screws in plastic door skin twisted out. The bottom edge of door skin is subject to 18 yrs of road salt spray. Almost all door skins in junkyard had same sheared lower screws. I checked quite a few.

 

Does the door close and seal properly or did the collision bend the door frame or shift the hinge? Small adjustments are reasonably easy to make to the upper edges of the door frame. Hinge location, that's different animal entirely.