Didn't See The Car That Hit You? How Collision Repairs Can Help

My parents told me that when I was a little kid, all I ever asked for on my birthday and other holidays was toy cars! I do remember having fun playing with them, but they have told me many funny stories about how obsessed I was with them. When I was finally able to buy my first car after I turned 16 and got my driver's license, I really had fun putting aftermarket parts on it and customizing it. However, when something important needed repaired on it, I had no idea how to do it! I took learning more about cars as a challenge, and I have studied up on how to do my own maintenance and even perform small repairs over the years since. I want to share my knowledge on a blog and help other people realize that learning about their cars can really be fun!

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Learning More about the Cars You Love Is Rewarding

My parents told me that when I was a little kid, all I ever asked for on my birthday and other holidays was toy cars! I do remember having fun playing with them, but they have told me many funny stories about how obsessed I was with them. When I was finally able to buy my first car after I turned 16 and got my driver's license, I really had fun putting aftermarket parts on it and customizing it. However, when something important needed repaired on it, I had no idea how to do it! I took learning more about cars as a challenge, and I have studied up on how to do my own maintenance and even perform small repairs over the years since. I want to share my knowledge on a blog and help other people realize that learning about their cars can really be fun!

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Didn't See The Car That Hit You? How Collision Repairs Can Help

29 August 2017
 Categories: Automotive, Blog

If you were in a collision late at night, or you just did not see the other vehicle coming, you may not have seen anything about the car that could have helped you with the police report. There may be some tell-tale signs in the damage on your vehicle. As a technician in an auto body and collision repairs shop works to restore your vehicle, ask him or her to save anything that would help you identify the other vehicle. Here is how this will help you.

Scrapes of Paint from the Other Vehicle

Every make and model of car ever made is painted with auto paint that is unique to the manufacturer. One car company's white is not another car company's. When the technician begins to remove the paint scrapes from the side of your vehicle, ask him/her to be really careful and save you some of the scrapings or chips. You can give this to the police to have them check it in a lab. That will at least tell you what the make of the car was.

Height of the Damage

The worst damage on a vehicle is where the fender and front of the other vehicle hit. A hard enough impact betrays the height of the front fender of the vehicle that hit you. For example, if you have a massive dent in your vehicle, but the dent is at or above two feet from the ground, it is very possible that you were hit by an enormous SUV or a truck. If the force smashed both windows on one side to bits, you are looking for a car or truck that has a very high and very wide front end. This helps narrow down the list of vehicles with the manufacturer when the manufacturer compares paint color and size of vehicles to known products.

Bits of the Other Vehicle

Somewhere in the scraping and sanding process to make the dents smooth again, the technician may find bits of glass, pieces of plastic, metal, or auto lights, and other traces of the other vehicle. Anything that is clearly out of place and belonging to the vehicle that hit you is evidence. It will help you and the police track down the owner (and possibly the driver) of that other car. Thanks to the collision repair technician, you may get just enough evidence from your banged-up car to sue.