tips for keeping your teen safe while driving

tips for keeping your teen safe while driving

Consumer Tips for Quality Control Inspections After Collision Center Auto Body Repairs

by Phyllis Hoffman

When you take your car to the local collision center for repair after an accident, it's important you inspect the completed work. Before you drive away from the body shop, you need to perform a quality control inspection to ensure the work was done correctly and your car looks like you expect it to.

Since you aren't a professional auto body technician, you need some tips for looking at auto body work with fresh eyes. To this end, use these tips to accurately inspect your vehicle's new repair job:

Tip: Visually Inspect the Vehicle in the Sunlight

Before you sign off on the repair, ask to have your vehicle moved out into the sunlight if it isn't already parked outdoors. Look at the car from various angles and distances to make sure all of the paint matches and looks identical to the rest of the car.

Getting down close to the paint allows you to see small imperfections or areas with a scratched clear coat, while viewing your vehicle from a distance allows you to get a better look at the overall paint matching job.

Though it can be challenging to match the paint of older vehicles, there should be little to no difference in the look of the newly painted areas and the other existing areas of the vehicle.

Tip: Put Your Hands on the Car and Feel the Repair

As long as the paint matches well, then it's time to use your hands for further inspection. Run your hands over the paint and bodywork areas to feel for lumps or small dents in the new paint.

If the trunk, hood, or doors were repaired, it's important to open and close them a few times. Opening and closing movable parts ensures they are well aligned and open and close as expected without making new noises or other issues.

Put a small amount of pressure on stationary parts to ensure they don't move. For example, if the bumper was replaced, try to jiggle it up and down to ensure it isn't loose and won't rattle as you drive down the road.

Tip: Speak with the Collision Center About Any Issues You Find

Finally, if you discover mismatched paint or damaged areas during your inspection, bring them to the attention of the collision center staff before you sign off on the repair and leave. This allows them to make additional repairs if necessary.

Call a collision and truck service center like River's Truck Center if you need to get your truck repaired after a collision, and don't forget to use these tips when your vehicle is returned to you.


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tips for keeping your teen safe while driving

Are you preparing to put your teenage son or daughter behind the wheel of a car for the very first time? Is your car ready for that? Having gone through this myself three times, I have created a checklist of things to inspect on my vehicles before allowing my kids to learn how to drive in them. I have worked with my mechanic to create a pre-driving inspection that can ensure that my kids are as safe as possible as they learn how to drive. Take a moment to visit my site and learn a few tips that can help keep your teenager safe while learning to drive.