There's nothing quite as stressful and sometimes frightening as being suddenly 'stranded', nearby or miles from home. Give us a call...we'll be there to help. And you can rest assured that your vehicle will be quickly and safely transported, either to your home or to the garage.

Whenever you are involved in an accident, be it your fault or someone else's, it is still very traumatic especially if you are unsure about the procedure to follow. We have listed below the process that your vehicle goes through during repair. Hopefully it will help you should you be unfortunate enough to have an accident.

Stage 1 - The Accident
If you are involved in an accident you should not panic. Always try to stay calm and never admit liability. It is up to your insurance company to decide who was at fault. If there has been an injury then you must (by law) contact the police. You may also wish to call them if you are not happy about the situation as a whole.

You will need to exchange details with the other party involved, ensuring that you take note of their name, address, their vehicle's registration number, make, model and colour, the location of the accident and any other useful information such as a brief description of the accident. You will find it is a lot easier to recall the accident if you have made a few notes at the time.

If the vehicle is still safe to drive then your next step is to leave the scene of the accident and contact ourselves at the Accident Repair Centre. If however your vehicle is no longer driveable you will need a recovery truck to attend. We can arrange this for you.

We will inform the insurance company and work on your behalf.,

Stage 2 - Notifying the insurance company
This is the stage where some insurance companies lead their policy holders astray. If you inform the insurance company about the accident they will try to send you to one of their approved garages (i.e. the insurance companies' choice of garage). They may tell you that the vehicle will be repaired quicker, the garage will give you a courtesy car and that the quality of the repair will be better. The real truth is that insurance companies actually receive a discount from "approved garages", so in reality it is in their interest to get you to go to these garages rather than your own choice of repairer.
You have the right to say where your vehicle is repaired.

The vehicle is your property and accordingly no one else can tell you where to have it repaired.

The number of estimates required.
Insurance companies may tell you that if you use your own preferred garage then you will need to obtain 2 or even 3 estimates from different repairers.

This is not the case; in fact you only need 1. Most estimates are produced using a computerised estimating system that works on either "Thatcham" data (Thatcham is an organisation who set times for crash repairs and they also lay out repair methods along with testing equipment and alarms etc) or manufacturer's repair times. All insurance companies negotiate with the repairer and agree a cost for the repair so really the estimate is irrelevant.

The Courtesy Car
All leading repair centres will provide you with a courtesy car for the duration of the repair. Insurance companies will have you believe that only their approved garage will offer this service. The Accident Repair Centre will always provide a courtesy car.

The Length Of Time Of The Repair.
This again is another of the insurance companies' favourite statements and as with all the above it is untrue. They will often state that if their approved garage repairs the vehicle it will not have to be inspected. All vehicles are inspected regardless of where they are being repaired. The inspection can be by video link, via computer or by physical inspection.

Any professional vehicle crash repair centre certified by the RMIF (Retail Motor Industry Federation) or MVRA will offer all of the above and much more. Quite often garages are approved for one or more insurance companies and it is quite possible that your preferred garage will be approved any way. Please do not get the wrong idea. The approved system is fine but you should not feel that you have to do what your insurance company tells you. Most vehicle manufacturers have their own approved bodyshops and this accreditation is based purely on technical ability and not on the amount of discount they are prepared to give.

Now for the booking-in stage

Stage 3 - Booking your vehicle in
Normally, after the estimate is produced and submitted to the insurance company, either by you or ourselves, the insurance company will instruct one of their assessors or an independent engineer to inspect your vehicle.

The assessor's job is to view your vehicle and its damage to ascertain that it is in keeping with your claims form. If your vehicle is still driveable then they will arrange a convenient time and place to inspect the vehicle. This could be at your home, place of work or at the garage. If the inspection is anywhere but the garage the assessor will need to go away and work out the cost of repairs and then contact the garage and agree a costing. Once this has been completed a letter of authority to proceed with the repairs is sent to the garage or to you.

If the inspection was held at the garage as a result of vehicle being unroadworthy or at your request, the time delay from inspection to authorisation is almost non existent. Most estimates are authorised immediately, normally after a little negotiation.
Once your vehicle has been authorised the garage will contact you to book the vehicle in or set aside a slot in their repair schedule if the vehicle is already with them. If it is the latter your garage will, most probably, have already supplied you with a courtesy car but if you are still using your vehicle then a courtesy car will also be arranged for you to pick up when you come in for the repair.

In most instances the repairer will be able to inform you of the exact amount of policy excess you will have to pay at the end of the repair. The policy excess is the amount you agreed with your insurance company when you took out the policy and can vary greatly. Normally the greater the excess the cheaper the insurance premium. If the accident was not your fault then you can claim the amount back from the third party. With own fault accidents payment is down to you. Now it is time for the repair.

Stage 4 - The Repair
This is split into 6 sections:

1. The vehicle strip
2. The panel section
3. The paint section
4. The re-fit
5. The valet
6. The final quality control.

1. The vehicle strip
This is the first stage. Before any repair can take place the associated parts of the vehicle need to be removed to allow access to the damaged section.

The painting process will also need mouldings, windscreens etc to be removed. This will allow a professional job to be completed and avoid any masking of edges. At the end of the strip the job is quality controlled by the panel section.

2. The panel section
This is the part of the repair where the damaged sections of the vehicle are repaired.
The repairing of panels in this day and age is different to that of a few years back. The thickness of the material prohibits large dents from being panished out and often requires new panels and sections to be fitted. This is not to say that any dented panel cannot be repaired but the very bad ones certainly should be replaced.

The design and composition of modern panels provide rigidity and stability to the vehicle in general and are often made from high tensile material. Panels of this nature must be replaced as the operation of repairing them will alter their strength and ultimately may adversly affect the vehicle's behaviour during an accident.

When new panels are fitted they are welded in place using the same number, position and even the type of weld as laid down by the vehicle manufacturer's recommended procedure.

Sometimes the amount of damage is such that the vehicle structure is altered, in which case the vehicle will need to be put onto a "jigging" system. At KAP we use two types of jigging system - one called the Car Bench, which is a bracket system. This works by using vehicle specific brackets that bolt to a special bed which should then bolt on to the vehicle normally using suspension-mounting points and other locations. The vehicle is straight and correct when all the brackets line up with the bed and the vehicle can be bolted to both ends of the brackets at the same time (this is the only approved jigging system for Rolls Royce). The other system is called the "Korrect" which is a computerised measuring system and will measure your vehicle to within 0.1mm. With this system a computerised printout is obtained confirming the actual measurements and alignment of your vehicle. Both systems ensure that the vehicle is repaired correctly and accurately.

At the end of this section the job is quality controlled by the painters and any possible problems rectified.

3. The paint section
In this department the vehicle starts to look like its former self.
The paint process is a three-part procedure:- Firstly the new panel, or repaired area, will need to be primed. This forms the bond of the paint with the panel or whatever is being painted.

The next stage is the base coat. This is the colour stage, even though the primer can be coloured to help produce some of the modern colours.

Once the base coat has been applied then the whole area is 'lacquered'. This is a clear paint similar to varnish and this protects the rest of the paint from ultra violet rays from the sun which will bleach the colour pigments in the paint. One of the worst colours for bleaching is red; I expect you have all seen the older red cars that look more pink than red. This is the result of bleaching.

The lacquer coat also helps to enhance the colour of the base coat. Without the lacquer the base colour will look a completely different colour to the rest of the vehicle.
Obtaining the correct paint colour is a vital part of the process and bodyshops will have a paint mixing area where the colour is matched. This is a very specialised area and involves the use of formulas, computers and a very good eye for colour. Each colour will have a set formula for its production but the colour will then have to be tinted to the exact colour of your vehicle. For some repairs the adjacent panels will need to be 'blended' to avoid visible colour difference between the new and old panels. This process is required for all metallic paint finishes.

At the end of this section the job is quality controlled by re-fit and again any possible problems rectified immediately.

4. The re-fit
This is really the reverse of the strip. The new or repaired panels are re-fitted to the vehicle along with all the other removed components to allow the repair to take place. Once the vehicle is fully back together the vehicle can, if necessary, have a full steering geometry check. This check will assess the complete steering system to ensure it is within the manufacturer limits. If all is well the vehicle is passed to the valet section.

5. The valet
Once the vehicle has passed all its quality checks and has been assembled completely the vehicle receives a valet. This is a thorough clean inside and out and ensures your vehicle is returned to its former glory. The last stage, once the vehicle has been cleaned is the final quality control.

6. The final quality control
Here the completed vehicle is inspected under special light to ensure the complete repair is satisfactory and only when the vehicle passes this stage is it returned to you.

We hope you have found this information interesting and above all we hope we have dispelled some of the myths surrounding the crash repair industry.

(If you can't visit us during business hours, please don't hesitate to discuss your special needs with us. Remember, we are here to serve you!)