When it comes to repair information, vehicle makers use a wide variety of terminology for replacement parts. All of the different names can be confusing, especially when repairing a variety of vehicle makes and models. Thankfully, General Motors (GM) uses terms that most of us are familiar with.

This article originally appeared in the November/December edition of Fixed Ops Magazine.

Collision repair professionals are no different than any other professional – we are resistant to change. It took many years for repairers to make the switch to “MIG welding” for welding early unibody vehicles. (For this article we’ll use the term gas metal arc welding (GMAW) metal inert gas (MIG), or GMA (MIG)). (More on the reason, later.) It was a technology that was unfamiliar to many and there wasn’t a perceived need for change. History would prove otherwise, as there may not be a collision repair business in the country that doesn’t have a GMA (MIG) welder.

When you visit the Audi OEM Information page on the RTS website, you will see a new icon for videos.

With the latest addition of the OEM Hybrid And Electric Vehicle Disable Search to the RTS portal, we have also added a new icon to the OEM Information pages to help you with quicker access.

A new search function is now available on the I‑CAR Repairability Technical Support (RTS) Portal and we're calling it the OEM Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Disable Search.

We've added a new feature to the RTS Portal to help you get more of the information that you are searching for through I-CAR training courses.

On November 11, 2014, Ford announced that the 2015 Ford F-150 production has begun for delivery this month. It's been a month, have you seen one yet?

Now that the 2015-2020 F-150 Instruction Sheets are available on the I CAR Repairability Technical Support Portal, you may also want more details about the procedures. For that information, the best place to look is Ford's repair information website: www.motorcraftservice.com. This is a pay site, with short-term access options.

FAQ: What is the purpose of the part numbers in the upper right corner of the 2015-2020 F-150 Instruction Sheets?

Answer: The part numbers are used for two different replacement options:

In case you missed it, Ford released the 2015 F-150 Collision Repair Sheets. There have been some minor edits to the following sheets and the updated versions have been replaced on our website.

With the release of the 2015-2020 Ford F-150 Collision Repair Instruction Sheets there are bound to be a few questions. So lets take a look, at first glance it may be slightly overwhelming but it really is simpler than it may first appear. Each sheet has a list of all the part numbers and quantity of the rivets that may be used in a particular spot. Due to the fact there are different fastener options there are multiple part numbers for each of the attachment locations.

When it comes to repair information, vehicle makers use a wide variety of terminology for replacement parts. All of the different names can be confusing, especially when repairing a variety of vehicle makes and models.

During routine research, we noticed that the Mazda website was missing body repair manuals on their website. After contacting Mazda, they quickly updated their collision repair information website so all the manuals are back online. The updated site includes easier navigation to access the body repair manuals.

I-CAR^®, the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair, announced today that 51 collision repair instruction sheets, just released by Ford for the now launching 2015 Ford F-150, are now available on the I‑CAR Repairability Technical Support (RTS) Portal. The 2015 Ford F-150 collision repair instruction sheets provide important detailed instructions on part removal and installation procedures for front rail (apron tube) installation, pillars and rocker panel installation, roof and roof rail installation, and more.

Mercedes-Benz is revising the vehicle model naming in 2015. For those that are unfamiliar with the different vehicle names this might be a bit confusing. In a recent press release Mercedes-Benz details some of these changes, so lets take a look at the SUVs.