Having car body damage repaired can be a costly experience, especially if you don’t know or are unsure of what type of repair that is required and by what type of service. The correct understanding what type of damage you have received can be used to identify the correct type of repair service and repair method that is required in order to have the damage fixed.

Identifying the damage

Most types of car body damage can be classified into two types, Light collision damage and Heavy collision damage.

Light collision damage is usually caused by slight impacts such as parking scuffs and scratches or gentile knocks when vehicles collide. The types of light collision damage are those such as bumper scuffs, bumper scratches, small dents, stone chips, key scratches and panel scratches, and are generally located on a single panel (if the damage is on multiple panels it can be considered as a larger collision damage). Trying to distinguish whether a dents can be considered as light damage all depends upon its size and location, for example if the dent is no bigger than the size of a cricket ball and located within the panel away from any edge then its light but if the dent is on an edge or larger than a cricket ball it would be heavy collision damage.

Heavy Collision Damage is cause by larger impacts such as in a car accident at higher
speeds where the damage is at an extent that the panels effected would need to be replaced and fully resprayed, or if the car has be keyed and requires multiple panel resprays. Also included within this category would be any mechanical damage no matter how slight. Rust is another type of car body damage that can be placed within both categories, if it’s only just started to fester it would be considered as light damage but if the rust is left to get worse and requires a panel replacement to fix it then it would be heavy damage.

By identifying which type of car body damage you have it can determine the best method to fix it, for example if the damage is light then a smart repair or mobile car body repair service as it also known would be the best option for they are competitive on price, come to you for the repair and are numerous throughout the country. But if you have heaver collision damage then it’s a body shop for they are the best equipped and experienced to handle such repairs.