The unknowns of auto collision repair

Or do you just accept what the agent told you was right. Auto insurance is a catch 22 type situation. You may never get a full return on your investment, but if you don't have it you'll need ten times what it would have cost you. Review your insurance policy every time it renews. Avoid what I consider the biggest mistakes. In no particular order they are

High deductibles: consider the savings over a ten year period. Also, can you cover
the deductible if you have an accident.

Rental car coverage: without it, your fault your bill. It's that simple.

Low liability limits: A double edged sword. As the claimant in an accident, yours kick in under uninsured/under insured motorist. If you are at fault, when yours runs out your other assets can go up for grabs.

Towing: Towing and rental car coverage are probably the cheapest, most valuable options you can add to your policy.

Consult your insurance agent about your policy about once a year to see if it needs a tune up.

How did you find him? Referral, trial and error or are you just using the dealer. After an accident an Insurance company will give you a list of their preferred shops. They will usually have a good working relationship with these companies, why else would the shops be preferred. But what do you really know about the shop.

I would like to give you a list of suggestions, in no particular order, that will help you be prepared for a collision repair.

>Use the phone book to research local collision repair shops not body shops. In my experience body shops are geared more toward cosmetic repairs. Make a list and make some phone calls to get some basic info about insurance company relationships, training and length of technician employment.

> Does the dealer you bought the vehicle from offer a collision repair facility? If so visit it. If not use the phone book to find other dealers in the area and call those.

>Visit the shop. Ask for a tour. If they won't give you one scratch them off the list.

>Look for ongoing training certificates. There is a ton of training available for technicians. Better shops will invest in ongoing training to keep their techs as up to date as possible. Check out www.i-car.com to see an extensive list of available industry training.

>How long have the techs been employed there. A high turn over rate can say alot about the conditions of the shop. This is a tough business, disgruntled techs will not stay at a shop very long.

>Ask about the employee's experience. Industry training is a great foundation but nothing beats hands on experience.

>Find out about the equipment that is used to repair the vehicle. Modern vehicles require precise repair techniques. The equipment to preform these repairs is not cheap. A company that is unwilling to stay current with equipment upgrades may not be able to properly restore your vehicle to pre-accident condition.

>Does the shop have an embedded mechanic or a good working relationship with a quality mechanical shop. An in house mechanic can be essential to the turn around time of the repair.

>Does the shop have a good working relationship with insurance companies. Get specifics. Find out which companies and the level of the relationship.

>In my experience a high end luxury vehicle should be repaired by the people that are most familiar with the working systems of the vehicle. Repair equipment for BMW's and Mercedes Benz are are very specific and are not likely to be found at a Chevy dealer.

>In any case the decision on where to have your car repaired is yours and yours alone. Insurance companies, in my opinion, are in business to make money and will do what they can to minimize the amount of money they have to payout in a claim.

Let's use the this vehicle as an example. A preliminary estimate of this vehicle would include replacement of:
the rear bumper, the left quarter panel, right tail light, gas filler door, left rear wheel and tire and possibly the rear axle.
It would also include repair and detrim ( the process of removing interior and exterior trim components of the panel such as moldings, glass and the outer door handle ) time for the rear door. The customer would probably be given an estimated repair time of 5-8 days usually based on the total number of repair and refinish hours divided by an average of 4-5 working hours per day.

Now let's explore the reality of this repair, if it is repairable at all. This vehicle needs a thorough disassembly to determine the full extent of the damage. Without the benefit of a complete tear down I can only speculate on the additional hidden damage based on my experience with similar collisions. I apologize in advance if I get too technical. The amount of deflection at the rear of the panel suggests to me that there is probably damage to the rear body panel ( the panel below the trunk lid). I would also suspect some damage to the rear floor and possibly to a storage well in the trunk that most Toyota's have. If the storage well is damaged, the possibility exists that the entire trunk floor may require replacing.

The proximity of the damage on the bumper suggests that there is probably some damage to the rear bumper reinforcement and mounting brackets along with a possible shift in the rear sub structure aka. the frame.

Moving forward, the inner structure or wheelhouse is probably damaged beyond repair and will have to be replaced. The amount of damage to the quarter panel will require a full replacement procedure. This means that all of the interior trim including the rear seats, carpet, rear speaker shelf, quarter trim, seat belts head liner and rear door will have to be removed to access the repair.

The procedure for the repair of the damage to the rear door is dependent upon the existence of any damage to the intrusion beam, a high strength steel reinforcement designed to prevent the door's structure from collapsing completely during a side impact.

Nothing gave me more distress than being told that I had to replace a panel that I knew was repairable! I had a bit of an advantage over most of the techs that I knew. I had a solid understanding of the Physics of a collision and a knowledge of the metallurgy of the vehicles that I worked on. The lighter weight, thinner High Strength and Ultra High Strength steels that vehicles are made of today are, believe it or not somewhat more difficult to repair than the thicker cold rolled steels used on cars through the 1970's.

This is due to the chemical make up and the manufacturing process of the metal. Cold rolled steel can be beaten, bent, hammered and heated to a certain degree without loosing much of it's original integrity while high strength steels cannot. This information evolved along with the structural designs of vehicles in the last 20-30 years.

As an example I use one of the first training sessions I attended. In 1992 I was sent to a collision repair equipment manufacturer training facility for a 1 week hands on training seminar. My instructor at the facility had over 35 years experience in the industry and 10 with the company as a trainer. He had returned recently from a month long assignment training German technicians on repair techniques using the equipment. Knowing what I do about German craftsmen, I found this the most interesting item in his portfolio.

In 1992 car manufacturers allowed a specific amount of heating and physical "abuse" of the structural components of a car. The rules were simple. Remove as much damage as possible using pressure. When pressure was not effective any longer heat of 1000 degrees could be applied for 3 minutes while using hammer blows and pressure to remove any kinks in the part. This process could be preformed a total of 3 times while allowing the part to become cool to the touch between heatings. Now the manufacturer recommendation for almost every vehicle is to cold straighten the part or replace it.

The reason for this change in procedure is two fold. Heat dramatically changes the structural integrity of high strength steel and most technicians did not have the necessary tools to determine when the metal had achieved the proper temperature thus rendering the frame structurally unsound without even realizing it.

The debate over repair or replace was put to rest when degrees of structural damaged was placed into one of three categories which I will attempt to explain with punctuation.
> First is a bend or ( Repairs of the part to may be attempted but if during the repair further damage occurs replacement is necessary.
> Second is a buckle or > When the metal is folded over more than 40 degrees and a crease is created. The only option is to replace all or part of the panel.
< Third is a collapse or z When the metal collapses back on itself. Again the only option is to replace all or part of the panel.

The reason for replacement of the last two types of deformation have to deal with what's called work hardening or causing the metal structure to change in a way that causes it to become brittle.