Working With An Auto Body Shop To Repair Your Car After A Collision
If you have been in a collision with your vehicle, getting the damage repaired and the car back on the road is essential. Working with an auto body repair shop with the expertise to make the repairs is the best way to get the damage fixed correctly and ensure that the car will drive and operate the way it was designed to.
Vehicle Inspection
The first thing that should happen after your car is involved in a collision is for an auto body repair technician to inspect the damage to the vehicle. The tech will also check parts of the vehicle that may have damage that cannot be seen without getting under the car or by checking the dimensions of the body and frame of the vehicle. While not every vehicle involved in a collision will have damage to the frame, it is vital that the tech looks over all the parts of the car that have the potential for damage to them.
After the inspection is complete, the tech will report the damage to the car and what is required to make the repairs to your vehicle. The auto body repair shop will use that inspection report to generate a work order and estimate for you that will itemize the damage so that the insurance company can sign off on the repair costs.
Making The Repairs
Once the tech starts to make the repairs to your car, they may find additional damage, but in most cases, once the estimate is generated, the auto body repair shop will contact you to let you know what they found. Sometimes the repairs that are discovered are easy fixes but sometimes, a repair that needs to be made causes damage to some other part of the car.
Frame straightening, for instance, can cause panels that were nearly straight to distort, and if this happens, the work required to fix the issue could increase the cost of the repairs to the car.
Insurance Approval
If additional damage changes the cost of repairing the car, the shop may also need to contact the insurance company to get approval for the extra work. Still, most auto body shops have experience working directly with the insurance company to amend the estimate.
If the insurance company does not approve the additional work, you may need to pay the difference in cost or contact your insurance company and submit a request to have the insurance company reconsider and pay for the additional work.
To learn more, reach out to an auto body repair shop in your area.
