Dealing With Damage To The Body Of Your RV Or Motorhome
Owning an RV or motorhome allows you to travel easily around the country, but the more time you spend on the road, the greater the chances you may be involved in a collision with another vehicle. Damage to the RV's body panels can create some issues you need to address, and finding a shop to help with RV body repair is essential.
Inspecting The Damage
After a collision that leaves your RV with body damage, it is vital to take it to an RV body repair shop and have the RV inspected to determine how bad the damage is. If the damage is only cosmetic, you may be able to wait to fix it. However, if you have structural damage to the RV, it needs to be addressed right away.
The body of your RV is constructed on the frame and is tied together to create a durable box, and if there is an area that is separated, bent, or dented badly enough, it could cause damage that weekends the entire structure. The repair may not be difficult, but if you don't have the inspection completed, you could be driving around with an RV that has damage that makes it unsafe to drive.
Making Repairs
Modern RVs are sometimes made from fiberglass, but there are still units on the roads constructed from aluminum panels. A collision with a fiberglass body shell will often break the material off in pieces, and repairing it requires the RV body repair shop to remove the areas with damage and graft in replacement panels.
An aluminum body may tear and dent, so repairing it is equally important, but the method used is different and can be more like traditional auto body repair. The RV body repair shop will discuss the damage with you so you can see what is affected before they start repairs. In some cases, the repair can take some time, so you may have to cut a trip short while the work is underway, but the shop can give you an idea of the time frame for the repairs once they complete the assessment.
Interior Panels
Most RVs have panels inside and outside that make up the body structure. If there is enough damage, the RV body repair shop may also need to deal with some damage to the interior structure.
A hard impact on the RVs body can cause some intrusion into the interior and requires the repair shop to remove some interior components to make repairs inside the body shell. The pre-repair inspection should indicate if you have interior damage, and the RV body repair shop will go over the interior damage with you at the same time as the exterior to ensure you understand the damage and what it will take to make the necessary repairs.
For more information on RV body repair, contact a company near you.
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