Understanding What Happens During a Collision is the First Step for Auto Body Repairs
Every year sees innovations in the automobile sector. If you're a shop that performs auto body repairs, it's important that you keep up with the latest advances. However, there are some tried and true principles about vehicle materials that remain consistent.
Understanding them will give you an advantage for every job you complete. In the past, sheet metal could easily be shaped after being heated. However, this is no longer true with the latest versions of this material.
Before a collision, the sheet metal on the exterior of an automobile has a uniform structure below the surface. During an accident, a bend is created that distorts this structure. There will now be an area that is compressed under pressure and a point that is stretched. When the sheet metal is flattened again during a repair, this area will create a bump in an otherwise smooth surface and will remain work-hardened. At this point, repeated efforts to get rid of this bump will only make matters worse by increasing how work-hardened the material is. Unless you understand where all of the pressure points are located after an accident, you won't be able to completely restore the car's appearance.
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