Items You Will See on an Auto Body Repair Estimate

If you have a vehicle that is in need of auto body Portland, you may want to know what some of the things on the estimate mean so that you have a better overall understanding of how long it will take to fix your car and how much it will cost.  Some of the most common terms include repair, replace, R & I, Sublet, and Miscellaneous.

Repair is the most common term on an estimate, and is often very discretionary.  This means that the technician at the auto body in Portland where you took your car may say it will take five hours to fix a dent, but the insurance adjustor will assert that it should only take four hours.  Of course, they will have to work out a compromise, since the insurance company only pays for the hours it estimates for things like dents.

Basically, if it measures near the same size as your fist, it will take approximately three hours to repair, and then there are things that could add to or subtract from that time.

Replacing is much more cut and dried because replacements are determined based on government standards that are set to specific times.  For instance if the book of standards says that a certain kind of bumper will require 4 hours for a replacement, both the auto body in Portland and the insurance adjuster will agree, because that is exactly what the insurance company will agree to pay.

R & I is the short version of ‘remove and install.’  This means that something must be taken off the car and then re-installed later on.  Sometimes a part that is not damaged must be removed by the auto body in Portland to allow access to the damaged areas of the car.  This access can be for repair or even for repainting.

 The undamaged part such as the headlight should be removed so that the fender can be painted.  If painting is being done and you are not seeing charges for R & I, you may find that the shop is simply taping them up, which can actually cause flaking or peeling in the future.  These times are set by the industry standards just like the replacement times.

Sublet means that some of the work must be done by someone else, usually a mechanic who works on items under the hood.  Miscellaneous items include things like hazardous waste removal or covering the car for overspray so that your windows don’t receive a smattering of paint when the vehicle is being painted.