Precision Body Works

Fall starts tomorrow. Before the wet weather settles in, deal with exposed metal. Any chip or scratch that goes through the paint is where rust begins, and it moves faster once the roads stay damp for weeks at a time.

Myth Buster Friday: bumper damage is only skin deep. That cover is plastic, but behind it sit energy absorbers, brackets, and increasingly the sensors for parking, blind spot, and collision warning systems. A scuff really can be a scuff. A solid hit usually is not, even when the cover pops back out.

Color matching is not looking up a paint code and spraying it. Factory finishes fade and shift over years in the sun, so matching means measuring the panel you actually have and blending into the ones beside it so the repair disappears.

Trivia Wednesday: a small chip in your windshield with no crack yet. What happens if you leave it? A) It often spreads once temperatures swing B) Nothing, chips are stable C) It only matters if it blocks your view. Guess below.

Working with insurance is routine for us: estimate, approval, repair, and a vehicle that looks the way it did before. The part people are most often surprised by is that the choice of shop is theirs, not their carrier's.

Walk around your car in daylight this week and actually look at it. Door dings, scuffs, a cracked lens, a chip on the hood. Catching those while they are small is what keeps them from becoming rust and body work later.

Today we pause to remember the lives lost on September 11, 2001, and to honor the first responders who ran toward the danger. Twenty five years on, that day still shapes what service and community mean to a lot of us. Take a moment today.

After a collision, the estimate is only the starting point. Behind a bumper cover there are absorbers, brackets, and often sensors. A proper estimate accounts for what nobody can see standing in the driveway looking at it.

Trivia Wednesday: in collision repair, what does OEM stand for? A) Original Equipment Manufacturer B) Overall Estimate Match C) Optional Extra Materials. Take a guess below.

Summer sun is hard on paint and trim. Fading, oxidation, and clear coat that has started to lift are all worth looking at before winter moisture and road salt get their turn at it.