Liviu Marcus
When you are giving a body shop your car to be replicated or maintained, you need to be sure that they did not botched the job. Whatever you are doing, be it paying them or your insurance company is paying them, it is important to make sure your car is returned to you as expected. There must be no surprises and no extra charges after the work is finished. Fortunately, there are some ways to tell if your car was fixed right; read this article too: https://automobilegator.com/car-check-service/
Introduction
In the event of an accident, broken portions of your car, such as a cracked windshield, will be wrapped with collision wrap. Premium-quality crash wrap and other supply items for auto dealerships can be purchased from MBR Marketing at https://mbrmarketing.com/body-shop-supplies/crash-wrap.
Ask for the Original Parts Back
If the body shop replaced a part of your car, you should have received the old part back. Take a look at any parts that were replaced and make sure they look like the originals. If a new fender was put on your car, check to make sure it looks like the ones that came with the car.
Unethical body shops will use aftermarket parts or counterfeit ones if they save money for the shop and charge you a higher price for the parts they replaced. You should also ensure that all replacement parts are still in working order and do not look like they were taken or used from other vehicles.
Any parts that were re-machined or welded should be smooth to the touch. If they have rust around them, it is a good indication that the part was not replaced. If rust cannot be cleaned off and repainting is required, it means they did a poor job on the original repair and likely did not replace the part.
Examine Your Vehicle for Damages that Weren’t There Before
Take notes and pictures of where all dents, scratches, scuffs, and chips were located prior to your body shop claiming they fixed everything. Once your vehicle is returned, see if those marks are still present. Pull up your notes and photos so you can quickly compare the before and after for each mark.
You should be comparing the differences under different lighting conditions. You can use a flashlight, but if you didn’t use one before, you may help identify more problems that you didn’t identify in the first place.
Walk around your vehicle multiple times using different angles and lighting. Try to examine closely, and don’t forget about your tires either. Determine whether the body shop did the job correctly, and don’t be afraid to point anything out that looks odd. Remember that you’re the one paying money for the repair. If you’re not satisfied with the repair, ask your body shop what they can do differently to satisfy you and rectify their mistake.
Look at the Paint and Compare it to Your Vehicle’s Original Color
If you got a paint job done, hold a small mirror or a piece of clear plastic with light shining onto it against the freshly painted surface. If there is any irregular reflection on the newly painted surface (for example an orange peel effect), then you need to get that area repainted and have your body shop paint over it better.
You should also look for signs of overspray or knicks in paint, as they are signs of sloppy workmanship. If you see the clear coat is fading or looking dull, it usually means that they did not perform a quality paint job and have used low-quality paints.
Here are some examples of what you might see when a body shop has not done the paint job correctly:
- The paint is not blended with the rest of the vehicle and appears to be a different color.
- The paint is not flat and it has a shiny or glossy (if it is a clear coat, it could have been applied too thin) appearance.
- The paint does not match the rest of your vehicle, but the body shop says that is because you got paint spilled on your vehicle and they had to repaint it. Thus, you can go to the shop and ask for the written proof from the manufacturer that the paint matches your vehicle.
- The clear coat is bubbling and peeling off the top layer of paint.
Test Every Component of Your Car
One of the useful practices before taking your car to the body shop is, writing down all the stuff that is not working about your car. Take, for instance, you’re going to have your air conditioner fixed because it’s not working properly. Presuming that all other aspects are in good condition, you’d record that it’s only the air conditioner that needs to be repaired. The possible thing is to tell the body shop that every other part of your car is working correctly as well. Naturally, you must be truthful about this to prevent any legal issues.
Thus, when you take your car back from the shop, you can test all the parts of your car to make sure everything works. Start the test and try the heater, windshield wipers, stereo, Bluetooth, auxiliary cord, windows, emergency break, brakes and all other features your car has. If all your components are still working in a normal way, you’ll be sure that the body shop didn’t do anything else wrong.
Nevertheless, if you realize that something is not right or is not working like how you remember, take your car back to the shop and show them what is wrong. They should then return your car and fix the things that need to be fixed to put everything back to the normal state. If the body shop made a genuine error that resulted in something to not work correctly, you should not be forced to pay for it.
Conclusion
If you discover that eventually your car is having the same issues that you got fixed for, let the body shop know right away. Remember that after a few weeks or even months, the same problem could come back if it was not fixed correctly. If this occurs, check if you have a warranty for the previous repair you did. If you’re still covered by a warranty. You should be able to get a new repair for free with no inquiries whatsoever.
