The Auto Body Repair Industry, New Requirements and Work Practices
Auto body mechanics Valur Helgason and Gunnlaugur Jónsson have years of experience in car body repairs and say the environment is changing rapidly. Work methods need to follow suit.
The advent of high-tech cars has called for major technological changes in recent years, says Gunnlaugur, and such cars need to be repaired just like any other car. To do this, workshop equipment needs to be updated and learned, which has been a major challenge. Valur agrees and points out that many workshops have been diligent in updating themselves, but also says that more could be done overall.
The main challenges for workshops today are to meet the increasing demands of manufacturers and to follow repair instructions so that the safety of the car is not compromised. It is therefore extremely important that workshops have the knowledge required to implement the correct procedures.
Consumers are often unaware of the changes that have occurred in the steel structure of cars. We sometimes find that people think we are replacing too large a part compared to the visible damage, but we always have to consider the safety of the car and the materials it is made of. For example, the flexibility of a bumper should be spring-like, not hard, and the car's material composition is designed to give way in a certain manner. Consequently, some parts are supposed to break apart on impact, and this is a completely new way of thinking, say the two colleagues.
