The collision damage that's invisible from the outside

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:

"The collision damage that's invisible from the outside"

Summary:

Mike explains that modern cars are designed to take the impact so the driver doesn't, unlike the solid-steel cars of decades past. Today's vehicles use crumple zones, impact areas, and reinforcement bars engineered to collapse, even at 20 mph, to protect occupants, and there's a great deal of plastic behind the visible panels. As a result, after a rear impact a bumper can pop back to looking fine on the surface while the bumper absorber is busted and the reinforcement bar is bent or the bracket collapsed underneath. One of the most important hidden hazards he highlights is door damage: doors contain two or three intrusion beams designed to protect occupants in a side impact. If there's any impact to an intrusion beam, the door must be replaced, because the shop will never compromise customer safety over a beam that's bent or slightly out of place, even when the door's exterior looks okay.

Answer:

What kind of damage is completely invisible when looking at a vehicle in our parking lot? Cars are designed to take the impact. Twenty, thirty, forty years ago, even into the 50s and 60s, cars were solid steel; they were built like tanks. Cars nowadays are really designed to take the impact so the driver does not. There are crumple zones, impact areas, and reinforcement bars that are designed to collapse, even at 20 miles an hour, so that the driver doesn't get injured. If you understand that, and that there's a lot of plastic behind the vehicle, then if you get rear-ended in the bumper, the bumper after the accident in a lot of cases can just pop right back. You're looking at the surface and you'll see that the bumper looks fine, but underneath that you have a busted bumper absorber, a bent reinforcement bar, or a collapsed reinforcement bracket. It really just depends on the accident. One of the biggest things we see is when a car gets hit in the side of the door. There are intrusion beams in doors, typically two or three, that are designed to protect the drivers. If we see any impact whatsoever to an intrusion beam on a door, the door must be replaced, because we're never going to compromise customer safety over an intrusion beam that might be bent or slightly out of place. It's just not worth it; always replace. So on the outside the door may seem okay, but on the inside the intrusion beam is bent, and the door must be replaced for your safety.