Your Trusted Auto Body Shop
and Collision Repair

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2023 Lexus GX 460 in the shop. This one looked minor at first, but it's actually structural — the impact tore through the front apron, so we're welding this one back together.

Before you weld on any Toyota or Lexus, there's a step you can't skip: disconnecting the SRS controller. That means pulling the center console and seats — not a big deal, and we're in there anyway for the post-collision inspections to confirm exactly what the repair calls for.

Here's something you'd only catch by reading the procedures. There's both MIG and spot welding on this job, and the procedure calls for ER70S-3 welding wire — not the most common spec. But there's a TSB update that allows ER70S-6, the wire used in most typical autobody work. The kind of detail buried in the bulletins.

Several hours into researching the repair procedures on this one alone — that's what doing it right actually takes.
#lexus #structuralrepair #oemrepair #welding #collisionrepair ... See MoreSee Less

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Back on the Acura MDX Type S. After the body damage on this one, the blind spot monitor called for more than just a wheel alignment — it called for a full verification of the mounting before any calibration could happen.

Turns out that verification needs a special tool we didn't have on hand: an apparatus that hangs on the blind spot monitor to check its mounting angle. So we're getting ahead of it now, ordering the tool in time to do the repair right and get the monitor back in mounted correctly.

One more oddball on this car — it runs air suspension. Before you jack it up or raise it at all, that system has to be shut off. You can do it through HDS, or right through the head unit.

The kind of detail you only catch when you actually read the repair procedures.

#acura #typeS #blindspotcalibration #oemrepair #collisionrepair ... See MoreSee Less

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Ken — shop owner and President of AASP/NJ — out here doing the work: educating, pushing the industry forward, and keeping shop owners in the loop and ahead of the curve.

A recap from the workshop. Talking shop, breaking down what's actually going on out there, and making sure everyone walked out knowing more than when they came in.

#821collision #autobody #collisionrepair #industryeducation #aaspnj ... See MoreSee Less