IS IT BENT? WMABA LEARNS ABOUT STRUCTURAL DIAGNOSIS AT ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP DINNER

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Is It Bent? WMABA Learns About Structural Diagnosis at Annual Membership Dinner

“Is it bent, and how do you know?” Shawn Hart (Audi) read the title of the structural diagnosis class he was about to teach as he quipped, “Is that a trick question? When we discuss vehicle structure and damage analysis, we first talk about body structure because when a technician seeks to remove one damaged part, they often have to take six other parts off the car in order to remove that one part. I assure you there isn’t a laboratory in Germany where evil engineers are thinking up ways to screw body shops - everything that’s done to the body during production is done for a purpose.”

WMABA welcomed Hart for a presentation on “Structural Diagnosis: Is It Bent? How Do You Know?” during its Annual Membership Dinner at PJ Skidoos in Fairfax, VA.

The body structure of a vehicle is supposed to do two things: absorb energy and transfer energy, according to Hart. Crumple zones were designed to absorb as much energy as possible, but once that energy reached a point where nothing more could be absorbed, vehicle manufacturers had to find a way to transfer it.

“Engineers developed different load paths for that energy to follow, so that it goes around the passenger compartment and not through the passenger compartment,” Hart explained. “Because of these load paths, we get damages in places where people don’t think about, such as a car that was hit in the front and there’s a buckle in the roof. For example, on an Audi A8, the upper rail is part of that load path that helps direct energy up into the A pillar and into the roof, and you’ll see the lower, smaller frame rail transfers that energy into the engine crossmember and down underneath the car, so that energy has someplace to go.”

Hart identified several visual cues that can help technicians identify potential structural damage while they’re diagnosing a car, including the appearance of cracked paint or body sealer, stressed and split seams, broken welds, panel tension, bent or broken interior components, NVH (squeaks, rattles and vibrations) and out of spec panel gaps.

“You have to have the right tools for the job when we get to the point of measuring things,” Hart stressed. “Those tools are used to more accurately determine where things are broken and bent, but you also need to reference the specifications to double check your work and make sure things are bent or not bent.”

While measurements are necessary, they’re pointless without the manufacturer’s specifications which are also useful for demonstrating to the customer that the repair was performed properly.

“In Audi’s repair procedure manuals, we provide information on measurements which show the different dimensions that can be checked, but it also gives the technician some additional information they’ll need, like the tolerances on our vehicles when they’re measuring,” Hart said.

Vehicles manufactured by Audi have a strict structural tolerance of only two millimeters, and “if it’s outside that dimension in either direction, one of two things is happening on most of our cars,” Hart cautioned. “If it’s on the front, either something’s getting cut off and replaced, or straightened, depending on the model.”

Hart shared that Audi only permits cold straightening these days, before he dove into some of the precautions that technicians need to take into consideration with modern cars and electrical control modules, especially on hybrid and electric vehicles.

“Technicians need to understand how to disconnect the battery because it’s not as simple as ‘disconnect this lead or this lead;’ when you look at our batteries now, they have a lot of leads so you don’t always know which one you need to disconnect,” Hart elaborated. “You may need to follow a procedure to de-energize the battery or the whole system, and it’s important to note that most of our cars now have a secondary 48-volt system. If you disconnect that without de-energizing things, that’ll put you down.”

Hart reiterated the importance of reviewing OEM repair procedures before performing any repair, structural or otherwise, and suggested that a valuable resource for this important information is oem1stop.com.

Shawn Hart Jordan Hendler

State of the Industry

Prior to Audi’s presentation, WMABA Executive Director Jordan Hendler updated attendees on some of the association’s key initiatives, such as representing its membership at national meetings including the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) and SEMA, and stressed the value of WMABA’s affiliation with national organizations like the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) and the Alliance of Automotive Service Providers (AASP).

WMABA is also a sponsor of the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG), a website where “you can submit inquiries about database times and missing operations, parts, numbers, procedures…anything you find wrong with any of the databases, and they’ll go to work for you on it,” Hendler indicated. “Those databases don’t have the budget to conduct time studies, so the only way they know there’s inaccurate information is if you tell them, and DEG is the way to do it - plus you’ll be helping the rest of the industry.”

Referencing WMABA’s consumer document (available for download at wmaba.com/consumer-information), Hendler encouraged use of this association-provided resource that can be used to educate consumers on proper repairs.

Addressing some of the biggest industry news of 20212022, Hendler discussed challenges related to Labor Rates, paint and materials increases, the technician shortage and parts supply issues.

“The pandemic has exposed a lot of the issues in our industry, but it’s also been an opportunity

for change to happen. If there 5was ever a time to understand what constitutes your Labor Rate WAYS FAMILY TO KEEP YOUR SAFE AFTER AN - the cost of materials, training, ACCIDENT retooling, equipment - it’s now. You need to do the research.” WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AUTO BODY ASSOCIATION | WMABA.COM

Hendler encouraged WMABA’s consumer attendees to “look outside your document is available at four walls and have conversations wmaba.com/ with other people around this consumerinformation. room about what they do in their shop and vice versa. I understand that you typically see yourselves as competitors, but I promise you that you are not - you’re colleagues, and this is the perfect time for each of you to recalibrate whatever it is in your business that can put you in a position to do better and be more profitable in the future.” H&D

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