• by Montgomery Miller
•  June 15th, 2020

Why Standard Body Repair Techniques Cannot be Used to Safely Repair Modern Vehicles Built with Advanced Alloys

Once upon a time, body repairs were relatively simple. Welding, cutting, grinding, sanding, Bondo body filler and paint…all the steps that could get you back on the road looking OK. Today, modern vehicles are essentially complex computers in a shell made of advanced alloys and surrounded with hundreds, perhaps thousands of sensors that significantly impact the safety and performance of your vehicle.

Back in the day, and even now, many shops used Bondo or comparable fillers for automotive body repairs. While this may have served a purpose at one time, this type of repair does not result in restoring a vehicle back to original manufacturer specifications. This is especially true today due to the fact that so many new vehicles are built using advanced metal alloys that cannot be repaired using standard repair techniques.

Online, you’ll find “experts” recommending the use of new fillers that contain special adhesives that are supposed to bond with aluminum, for example. You can research and find these quite easily online, but don't expect miracles, aluminum is a very hard metal to bond to. And even if you are able to successfully bond to the aluminum, that structure will no longer perform as it was intended by the manufacturer. The best course is to look for a body shop that has a facility designated specifically for advanced aluminum repairs and uses only original manufacturer replacement parts for those repairs. Avoid shops that use Bondo or special fillers. If your insurance company tries to steer you to a shop that uses fillers, tell them you want your vehicle restored back to original manufacturer specifications.

Another reason the old standard repair techniques are no longer sufficient is the increased use of sensors in modern vehicles, as many as 60-100 currently, with more coming as vehicles get “smarter”. There are literally sensors everywhere on most luxury vehicles including sensors associated with the vehicle’s safety features, breaking and traction systems, airbag deployment, rear and side cameras and beyond. All of these sensors are sending critical data to the vehicles’ onboard computer which in turn helps to manage the performance and safety features of the vehicle. After an accident and once repairs are completed, all of these sensors must be calibrated to be sure they function as the manufacturer intended them to function.

Finally, your safety and the performance of your vehicle are at stake. Old, standard repair techniques that may include the use of junkyard parts, reconditioned used parts or third-party replacement parts may succeed at making your vehicle drivable, but it will no longer meet original manufacturer specifications for safety and performance.

If you’re modern vehicle is ever damaged in an accident, look for a modern, I-CAR Gold Class Certified body shop that uses advanced repair techniques and only uses original manufacturer replacement parts in the repairs. You and your family will be safer, and your vehicle will perform as the original manufacturer intended it to perform.