Collision Repair Glossary
The words you'll hear from shops and adjusters during a repair, defined in plain English, so nothing in your estimate is a mystery. 57 terms, covering the estimate itself, the repair work, the paint, and the parts of a claim that your insurer decides rather than the shop.
If a word on your paperwork is not here, ask the shop to explain it before you authorize the work. A term nobody will explain is a reason to slow down.
A
- ADAS
- Advanced driver assistance systems. The camera, radar, lidar and ultrasonic sensors behind features such as lane keeping, adaptive cruise control and automatic emergency braking. Collision damage near a sensor, or replacement of a part a sensor is mounted to, can put the system out of specification.
- Aftermarket part
- A replacement part produced by a company other than the vehicle maker. Fit, thickness, coating and crash performance can differ from the original part, which is why the estimate names the part type.
- Airbag module
- The control unit that decides when a restraint deploys and records data around a deployment event. After a deployment, the estimate will state what the manufacturer requires for the module and the related sensors.
- Alignment
- Setting the suspension angles back to the values the manufacturer specifies. Impact damage, a replaced steering or suspension part, or structural repair can all move those angles.
- Anchoring
- Clamping the vehicle to a bench or frame rack so that pulling force acts only on the damaged area and not on the rest of the structure.
B
- Betterment
- A charge that appears when a worn item is replaced with a new one during a repair. Your insurer, not the shop, decides whether betterment applies to your claim.
- Blend panel
- A neighboring painted area included to manage the color transition between repaired and existing finish.
- Blueprinting
- Writing the complete repair plan after disassembly, so that parts, procedures and sequence are settled before the repair starts rather than during it.
- Bonding
- Joining panels with a structural adhesive where the manufacturer specifies adhesive instead of, or alongside, welding.
C
- Calibration
- A procedure that establishes the alignment or reference required by a particular vehicle system.
- Clear coat
- The unpigmented top layer over the color coat. It carries the gloss and most of the weather protection, and it is the layer that usually fails first when a finish is damaged.
- Color match
- Bringing the new finish to the existing finish on the vehicle in front of you. The paint code is the starting point, not the answer, because the same code ages differently on different panels.
- Corrosion protection
- The coatings, seam sealers and cavity waxes that go back into a repaired area. Removing a panel exposes bare metal, and what is put back matters as much as what was taken off.
- Crumple zone
- Structure designed to deform in a controlled way and absorb energy in a collision. Because it is designed to fail, it cannot be judged by appearance alone after an impact.
- Cycle time
- The measured span a vehicle is at a shop for a repair. It is a record of what happened on past jobs, not a promise about yours.
D
- Deductible
- The amount your policy makes you responsible for on a covered claim. It is set by your policy, not by the shop.
- Depreciation
- A reduction an insurer applies to the value of a part or finish because of age, wear or mileage. Ask your insurer how it was calculated if it appears on your estimate.
- Diagnostic scan
- Reading diagnostic information from vehicle systems as part of an assessment or required repair checks.
- Diminished value
- A claim that a repaired vehicle is worth less than an equivalent vehicle that was never damaged. Whether it can be claimed depends on your policy and your state, and it is settled with the insurer.
- Direct repair program
- An arrangement between an insurer and a shop. A shop that is not in such a program works for the vehicle owner, and the owner chooses the shop.
E
- Estimate
- A written description of the damage found, the parts and procedures planned, and the prices for them. It reflects what could be seen when it was written.
F
- Feather, prime and block
- Tapering the edge of a repaired area, applying primer and then sanding it flat so the repair does not telegraph through the finish.
- Frame rack
- Equipment that holds a vehicle and applies measured pulling force to bring structure back toward the manufacturer specification.
- Full frame
- Construction in which the body sits on a separate ladder frame, common on trucks and on many recreational vehicle chassis.
G
- Gap and flush
- How evenly panels sit next to each other and how level they sit with one another. Uneven gaps after a repair usually point at what is underneath, not at the panel.
I
- Inspection
- Looking at the vehicle to decide what is damaged and what the repair needs. Some damage cannot be seen until parts are removed.
L
- LKQ
- Like kind and quality. A used original part taken from another vehicle. The estimate should say when one is being used and for which line.
M
- Mil thickness
- A measurement of paint film depth. It is one of the ways a previous repair on a panel is identified.
N
- Not-included operation
- Work that a labor time does not already cover and that therefore appears as its own line. Estimating systems publish which operations are included and which are not.
O
- OEM
- Original equipment manufacturer. On an estimate, the term commonly identifies a part supplied through the vehicle maker.
- Overlap
- A deduction applied when two adjacent operations share the same preparation work, so the shared time is not billed twice.
P
- Paint code
- The manufacturer code identifying the color the vehicle left the factory in. It is usually on a label in a door opening, under the hood or in the load area.
- Paintless dent repair
- Working a dent out from behind the panel without refinishing. It depends on access behind the panel, the size and shape of the dent, and whether the finish is intact.
- Panel replacement
- Removing a damaged panel and installing a new one, as opposed to repairing the existing panel. The manufacturer procedure decides how a structural panel may be attached.
- Parts procurement
- Ordering the parts on the approved estimate and tracking them to the shop. Back orders and superseded part numbers are a common source of delay.
- Post-repair scan
- Reading vehicle systems after the work is complete to confirm no fault codes remain from the damage or the repair.
- Pre-repair scan
- Reading vehicle systems before the repair plan is finished, so that faults which are not visible on the outside appear on the estimate rather than at the end.
R
- Refinishing
- Preparing a surface and applying the specified coating system.
- Repair authorization
- The customer's approval for the work described in a repair scope.
- Repair order
- The shop's working document for the job. It carries the vehicle, the customer, the authorized scope and the changes made to it.
- Repair procedure
- The manufacturer's published instruction for how a specific operation is to be performed on a specific vehicle. It is what settles questions about sectioning, welding, adhesives and calibration.
S
- Seam sealer
- The material applied along panel joints to keep water and contaminants out. It is replaced when a joint is opened during a repair.
- Sectioning
- Replacing part of a structural component at a location the manufacturer permits, instead of replacing the whole component.
- Setup and measure
- Mounting the vehicle and taking structural measurements against factory dimensions, which is how structural damage is established rather than guessed at.
- Squeeze-type resistance spot weld
- A welding method many manufacturers now specify for structural panels, because it reproduces the factory joint more closely than a plug weld.
- Storage
- A daily charge for keeping a vehicle on the property. Ask what applies, and when it starts, before a vehicle is left anywhere.
- Structural repair
- Work on the parts of the vehicle that carry crash loads. It is governed by the manufacturer procedure for that vehicle and it is measured, not eyeballed.
- Sublet
- Work sent to an outside specialist during a repair, for example glass, upholstery or wheel refinishing. It appears on the estimate as its own line.
- Supplement
- An addition or revision to an earlier repair estimate, usually identifying added or changed work.
T
- Teardown
- Disassembly that makes concealed areas accessible for inspection.
- Test drive
- Driving the vehicle after the repair to check that it behaves normally, which is separate from the system scan.
- Three-stage finish
- A finish built from a ground coat, a translucent mid coat and a clear coat. It takes more work to match than a single-stage or two-stage finish, and the estimate reflects that.
- Total loss
- An insurer's determination that it will not pay to repair the vehicle. The threshold is set by the insurer and by state rules, not by the shop.
- Tri-coat
- Another name for a three-stage finish.
U
- Unibody
- Vehicle construction in which the body structure forms an integrated load-carrying assembly.
V
- VIN
- Vehicle identification number, used to identify the specific vehicle.
W
- Wet sand and buff
- Finishing work that levels and polishes the new clear coat so its texture and gloss read the same as the panels beside it.
Where these words show up
Most of this vocabulary appears on an estimate or a supplement. These walk through the documents themselves:
Talk to us about your repair.
Call Orange Coast to arrange a vehicle inspection.