Properly blueprinting vehicles before starting repairs is key to smooth, efficient, and quality repairs. Knowing what you are dealing with at the beginning eliminates the risk of costly delays when you’re trying to deliver the vehicle by the promised deadline. To help educate you on this process, Collision Hub’s Repair University Live is focusing next week’s episode on blueprinting. Let’s see when we can tune in.

Believe it or not, programming has been done now for decades. When On Board Diagnostics (OBD) became the standard, it brought along a lot of processes that had not previously been needed. Even though many collision repairers have been around this technology for a long time, many still don’t understand what programming is or what it is doing. Often times, programming can only be done with a high-level aftermarket scan tool or by a dealer with a factory scan tool. For the most part, when a module was replaced, a technician’s involvement was to send the vehicle to the dealer with an SRS light on, and it came back without the light on. However, there are more components than ever on vehicles that require programming. For example, you may not be able to change a tail lamp without having to program it. What does it mean to program something?

Panel layering often comes up in the collision repair process. The order that overlapping panels were put on at the factory may affect how parts are replaced during the repair process. The build sequence may also affect access to the joints that require separation for replacement parts.

One of the top technical inquires received at Ask I-CAR, “Is there a sectioning or partial replacement procedure available?” To help answer this question, RTS has an OEM Partial Part Replacement Search available. Here you will find information on if these procedures are available on a specific vehicle. Let’s take a closer look at the 2017 Volkswagen Jetta.

As a collision repair technician, there is one part of a service manual that houses all of the information you would ever need…right? This is not the case with modern vehicles. You may be required to look in numerous manuals to find the information required to safely repair the vehicle.

The Repairability Technical Support Portal (RTS) has videos posted to show you how to navigate specific OEM Body Repair Manuals (BRMs), but this sometimes just gets you in the door. If you are looking for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) information in the BRM, you may not find any information at all. ADAS information is not normally located in the body repair manual. You may have to go into the service manual to find ADAS or a separate manual altogether. Luckily, the RTS team has already navigated most of the OEM repair manuals and we’ve found the ADAS information. Let’s see where to find ADAS information from Ford/Lincoln.

One of the top technical inquires received at Ask I-CAR, "Is there a sectioning or partial replacement procedure available?" To help answer this question, RTS has an OEM Partial Part Replacement Search available. Here you will find information on if these procedures are available on a specific vehicle. Let's take a closer look at the 2017 Cadillac Escalade.

An important part of collision repair is set up, measuring, and pulling on vehicles. Many technicians are either not comfortable with these steps, or simply don't know how to do it. Going hand-in-hand with this topic is repair tolerances, what is acceptable and what isn't. Repairer Driven News (RDN) has published several articles that helps to shed light on these topics.

We often receive the Ask I-CAR inquiries: "Does Ford have a position statement on pre- and post-repair system scanning? Do they plan on coming out with one?"

Normally the quality of a collision repair technician can be measured by whether or not you can tell they were ever there. Meaning that the damaged vehicle was returned to pre-collision condition. You shouldn’t be able to see welds, mismatched paint, or parts that don’t fit. We want to hide the fact that someone was there. However, sometimes the OEM does not make that possible.

After watching the latest I-CAR 360 video, see below, on the 2018 New Bright R/C Ram, you may have some questions about the Unique Proprietary On-Board Wheel Alignment System (UPOBWAS) found on the vehicle. This article is designed to explain the system's simple operation and cover collision repair considerations.

Hyundai released two position statements this week relating to collision repair. Let’s take a look at what these statements are about.

You may have heard or seen some of the new features available for towing trailers. Some of the features include, trailer back-up assist and blind spot monitoring for trailers. These features can cause complications when it comes to collision repairs. Let’s take a look at how these systems can affect repairs.

One of the top technical inquires received at Ask I-CAR, “Is there a sectioning or partial replacement procedure available?” To help answer this question, RTS has an OEM Partial Part Replacement Search available. Here you will find information on if these procedures are available on a specific vehicle. Let’s take a closer look at the 2017 Subaru Crosstrek.

The word calibration is thrown around a lot in the collision industry today, but what does it actually mean to calibrate something? How does "calibrate" fit into other words that we use to describe similar processes, and what are some of the differences?

As part of the I-CAR Repairability Technical Support (RTS) OEM Linking Pin activity, we are helping to connect the collision repair industry to the vehicle makers. We recently noticed that some of the Mazda body repair manuals (BRM) were missing for certain model years. We reached out to Mazda for clarification.