A collision repair estimate broken down line by line

Hey folks! This is Mike and Tom from Pacific One Collision and Restoration.

Welcome to another Q&A session where I answer questions from you all on the internet.

Today's question is:

"A collision repair estimate broken down line by line"

Summary:

Mike acknowledges that a collision estimate is hard to read if you aren't well versed in them, so the shop works to help customers understand the paperwork. He breaks an estimate into three primary categories: body repair, paint repair, and mechanical repair. Using a fender as an example, he describes how a single line item might show a two-hour body repair, with paint time of around 2.1 hours noted across the same horizontal line, and an additional line below for clear coat. Depending on the vehicle, there may be a further line to add for tri-stage, since some finishes, like the candy-like red pearls and certain Toyota pearl whites, use three layers of paint instead of two. He also offers a useful gauge: in the industry, a one-hour repair is typically about the size of a credit card.

Answer:

When breaking down a collision repair estimate, it is somewhat difficult to read at first if you're not well versed in them. And what we try to do here at the shop is make sure that customers understand what they're seeing on the paperwork. There are three primary categories that are usually on a collision estimate. The first one is body repair, the second one is paint repair, and the third one is typically mechanical repair. So you have body, paint, and mechanical; three groupings there. If you look at a fender, for example, and you have line item one for a fender, it'll say repair, two hours of body labor. And then across that line, on the same horizontal plane, it'll say 2.1 hours of paint time. And then right below that, it'll usually say add for clear coat. Sometimes, depending on your vehicle, there will be another line below that that says add for tri-stage, because there are different types of paint out there. A lot of the pearls, the beautiful red pearls that almost look like candy, and some of the pearl whites, like a couple of beautiful Toyota pearl whites, are three layers of paint and not two. So there's an extra line item for that. That's a typical fender repair. You would see a two-hour repair, and in our industry a one-hour repair is typically about the size of a credit card, so keep that in mind as you're looking at your estimate.