FAQs
Answers to the Questions Owners Ask Us Every Week
In short
Getting started, cost and payment, insurance, timelines and logistics, and what we can and cannot repair. These are the answers our estimators give at the counter, written down so you can read them before you call.
Nothing here is written to sell you a repair. Several answers below will tell you to do something that costs us money, such as getting a second estimate or keeping the vehicle while a part is on order. Those are still the right answers.
Getting started
Before you bring the vehicle in
What to photograph, what to bring, and why we will not price a bonded panel over the phone.
What is the first thing I should do after damage happens
Photograph it before you clean anything. Wide shots that establish where the damage sits on the vehicle, then close shots of each area, then anything visible from inside. If water is involved, photograph the interior staining and any soft spots before they dry out or before you pull carpet. Then, if a claim is likely, report it to your carrier. After that, send us the photographs with the year, make, and class of the vehicle and a plain description of what happened. That is usually enough for us to tell you what the repair involves before you move the vehicle anywhere, which is worth knowing before you pay for a tow.
Do I need an appointment or can I just come in
Walk ins are welcome during business hours and insurance walk ins especially. Calling first is still better, because it means the right person is available when you arrive rather than being mid repair on another vehicle. If your unit is not drivable, call before arranging a tow so we can confirm we have space and can stage the right equipment for the arrival. Sending a large vehicle to a facility that cannot receive it that day is an expensive way to lose a week, and it is entirely avoidable with one phone call.
What information should I bring with me
The registration, your photographs, and the carrier name and claim number if a claim is open. If you have paperwork from a previous repair on the same area, bring that too, because previous repairs on used vehicles are extremely common and are frequently the reason the current damage propagated the way it did. If the vehicle came to you used and you have a pre purchase inspection report, that is useful as well. Beyond documents, be ready to describe how you actually use the unit. Full time living, seasonal travel, and commercial service produce genuinely different repair decisions.
Can you tell me what it will cost over the phone
We can tell you what a category of repair typically involves and what moves the range, and we will look at photographs and give you a useful read. We will not give you a firm number from a description. On a laminated vehicle, the visible damage and the actual damage are routinely different sizes, because an outer skin bonded to a core transmits impact along the bond line rather than crumpling in place. A number invented over the phone becomes the number you remember, and every honest correction afterward feels like a shop moving the goalposts. The assessment fee exists so a real answer is possible, and it is credited against an authorized repair.
Do you charge for an assessment and why
Yes. The RV systems assessment is $150, credited against an authorized repair. The in depth diagnostic is 1 hour at $285, credited against an authorized repair. In both cases the fee is credited against the invoice if you authorize the repair. It exists because a real assessment consumes a technician, a bay, and often panel removal to trace where the damage actually goes. That is genuine labor, not a booking formality. A shop that performs the same work without charging for it recovers the cost somewhere else in the invoice, which is the same money arranged so you cannot see it.
Cost and payment
Rates, parts, deposits, and tax
Every figure below is published on the prices page as well, so an invoice can be audited line by line.
What are your labor rates
They are published rather than quoted verbally. Body and paint is $210 per hour. Mechanical and electrical is $260 per hour. Diagnostics and programming are $285 per hour with a one hour minimum, credited against an authorized repair. Detail is $95 per hour. Materials are calculated per paint hour and per body hour and shown as their own lines rather than bundled. Parts markup, deposits, and tax treatment are published on the prices page as well. Publishing all of it means you can audit an invoice line by line, and it means we have to defend those numbers on every job rather than only when someone asks.
How is parts markup calculated
100 percent markup on parts at or under $100, and 35 percent markup on parts over $100. The tiering exists because handling cost does not scale with part price. Sourcing, ordering, receiving, verifying, and returning a small component costs roughly the same in staff time as doing it for an expensive one, so a flat percentage either overcharges on large parts or fails to cover the work on small ones. Special order parts require a full non refundable deposit at the time we place the order, because recreational vehicle components are frequently non returnable once they are cut, drilled, or built against a specific unit.
Do you require a deposit
On larger jobs, yes. 50 percent at authorization on work above $2,000, and an additional 25 percent when parts arrive on work above $10,000. Special order parts require full payment at the time of order for the reason above. The final balance is due at pickup and no vehicle leaves the property until it is paid in full, which is applied uniformly rather than case by case. On an insurance billed repair the deposit conversation usually looks different, because the carrier is paying the approved scope and your out of pocket is normally the deductible plus anything the policy does not reach.
How do you handle sales tax
7.75 percent on parts and materials, labor is not taxed. That treatment is set by California law rather than by us, and it is worth understanding when comparing two estimates. A shop that quotes you a single number with tax folded in looks cheaper than a shop that itemizes, right up until you compare the actual work. When you look at competing estimates, separate the labor hours from the parts from the materials from the tax before you compare anything. Two totals that look close frequently describe two very different scopes of work.
What payment methods do you accept and is there a card fee
We accept cash, check, and the major credit cards. 3.5 percent on card payments above $1,000 applies, disclosed on the estimate rather than discovered at pickup. On insurance billed work the carrier pays the approved scope directly and you pay your deductible and any non covered items. If a repair is large enough that payment structure is a real concern, raise it during the estimate conversation rather than at the end. There are usually sensible ways to stage a job so that the work happens in a sequence that fits, and none of them are available once everything has already been performed.
Insurance
Claims, carriers, and what a shop can and cannot promise
We document and we advocate. No shop controls a coverage decision, and any that says otherwise is describing something it cannot deliver.
Do you work directly with insurance companies
Yes, and it is a large share of our volume. We bill direct to every major carrier and communicate with the adjuster on your behalf. Practically, that means you are not the one relaying technical detail between a shop and a claims office, which is a role no owner should have to play. On a covered claim your out of pocket is normally your deductible plus anything the policy does not reach. We deal with carriers including Progressive, GEICO, State Farm, AAA SoCal, Mercury, Allstate, and many others.
Can the insurance company make me use their shop
No. In California you choose the repair facility. A carrier may recommend shops in its network, and there is nothing improper about that, but the choice is yours and a recommendation is not a requirement. What a carrier can do is limit what it will pay to what it considers a reasonable cost for the repair, which is a different question from where the work happens. If you want to bring the vehicle to us, tell the adjuster that, and we will handle the estimate reconciliation from there.
What if the carrier estimate is lower than yours
That is normal and it is usually resolvable, because the two documents typically describe different amounts of work rather than different prices for the same work. A carrier estimate written from photographs, or written by an adjuster whose week is mostly passenger cars, will frequently omit substrate reconstruction, moisture remediation, or structural measurement on a bonded vehicle. We reconcile line by line and supply the documentation supporting each disputed operation. The disagreement then becomes specific, this operation, these hours, this part, and specific disagreements get resolved. Vague ones turn into weeks of phone calls with your vehicle sitting still.
Will you tell me a claim will definitely be approved
No, and any shop that does is describing something it does not control. Coverage decisions belong to the carrier and depend on your policy, the cause of the loss, and what the documentation supports. What we control is the quality of the file, and a well documented file gets approved faster and challenged less often. We will also tell you honestly when part of what we find looks like deferred maintenance rather than a covered loss, because a file that overstates invites scrutiny of every other line and slows the entire approval down for you.
What is the most common mistake owners make on a claim
Cleaning up before documenting. Washing a hail damaged roof, tarping a torn membrane before photographing the tear, pulling wet carpet out, or having a mobile technician perform a partial repair before an adjuster has seen the loss. Every one of those removes evidence that the claim depends on. The second most common mistake is describing the damage to the carrier in terms of what is visible, which on a bonded vehicle understates the loss from the first phone call and anchors the file low. Document first, report second, and let the assessment define the scope.
Timeline and logistics
How long it takes and what drives it
Parts, not labor, decide most schedules on this type of vehicle.
How long will my repair take
It depends far more on parts than on labor. A cosmetic panel repair with everything in stock can move quickly. A structural job on a coach that needs a discontinued cap section can wait months on a supplier while the labor content sits at three weeks. We give you a realistic slot once the scope is approved and the parts situation is known, and we tell you which component is the critical path so you can judge for yourself whether an alternative approach makes sense. A shop that promises a date before parts are confirmed is buying your authorization with a schedule it intends to renegotiate.
Can I use the vehicle while it waits for parts
Sometimes, and it is worth asking. If the damage is cosmetic and the unit is safe and weather tight, we would often rather you keep using it and bring it back when the long lead component arrives than have it occupy staging for two months. That is not always possible. Structural damage, compromised sealing, a disabled system, or an open claim with an inspection pending can all make it a bad idea. The decision is made case by case at the estimate stage, and we will tell you plainly which category yours falls into.
Do you store vehicles, and does storage cost anything
Vehicles in active repair or waiting on approved parts sit here as part of the job. Storage charges apply when a vehicle sits on the property after it has been completed and is ready for pickup, or when a decision stalls for an extended period with no repair proceeding. Anything applicable appears on the estimate rather than arriving as a surprise. This is not a revenue line for us and we would much rather the space held a vehicle being worked on. If you have a genuine reason for a delay, tell us and we will work with the timeline.
Can you coordinate several fleet vehicles without taking my whole fleet
Yes, and that is the normal arrangement for fleet and municipal work. We schedule units in planned groups: a set in, worked, out, then the next set, with the rotation agreed before the first vehicle arrives so a manager can plan coverage around it. Holding capacity is what makes that possible, and it is one of the practical reasons for a 35,000 square foot facility with real yard space. Fleet operators also get consolidated documentation across a group of units, which matters when a single event damaged several vehicles and one claim covers all of them.
Where are you and do you serve Westminster
We are at 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887, and yes. Westminster and the wider Orange County area are our core service area, and owners and fleet operators bring vehicles to us from across Southern California. There is one location and no satellite yard, so every stage of every repair happens at that address. That is deliberate. Splitting equipment across two sites means moving vehicles between them, and every move is a day the vehicle is not being worked on.
Vehicles and capability
What we repair, and what we decline
Construction and size are the common thread, not brand or class.
What types of vehicles do you actually work on
Motorhomes of every class, fifth wheels, travel trailers, toy haulers, pop up campers, truck campers, camper vans and conversions, cargo vans, box trucks, semi tractors, flatbeds, refrigerated bodies, buses and shuttles, municipal units, ambulances and fire apparatus, mobile business vehicles such as food trucks and mobile medical units, and fleet pickups. The common thread is construction and size: vehicles built in bonded layers, on chassis a passenger car lift will not hold, in dimensions a standard paint booth will not accept. If it is built that way and it fits through the door, we can work on it.
Do you repair water damage and delamination or only collision
Both, and water work is a large part of the floor. Sidewall delamination, soft floors, separated roof seams, failed slide seals, and the interior rot that follows are all routine here. This work is unpopular with general shops because the wet area is almost always larger than the stain that started the conversation, and scoping it honestly means telling an owner a number they did not want to hear. We map moisture with a meter and record readings by location before committing scope, every time. Repairing the visible half of a wet wall is how a shop earns a return visit and a very unhappy customer.
Can you match paint on a coach that has faded
That is most of the work in refinishing a used vehicle. Years of Southern California sunlight move a finish away from whatever the paint code says, so matching the code produces a repair that reads as a repair from across a parking lot. Our painters spray out, check against the actual adjacent panel under corrected lighting and in daylight, adjust, and only then decide where blend boundaries fall. On multi stage graphics, that boundary decision is the whole job. A mismatched panel is the single most common complaint owners bring us from repairs performed elsewhere.
Do you offer mobile or roadside service
No. All work is performed in shop, because the equipment that makes it correct does not travel: a full frame rack, a downdraft booth sized for a coach, heavy chassis lift capacity, and the compressed air and extraction infrastructure that regulated refinishing requires. We also do not run roadside recovery or on site fleet route service. A technician in your driveway can form an opinion, but on a bonded vehicle an opinion formed without opening anything is worth very little, and it is a poor basis for a claim scope.
Is there anything you will not take on
Yes. We will not perform a cosmetic patch over a compromised substrate and describe it as a repair. We will not write a scope that overstates damage to help a claim. We will not perform work that requires a credential we do not hold, and where a specialty item genuinely has to go out, we tell you and we tell you what it does to the schedule. We also turn away work when the vehicle is better served by a total loss evaluation than by a repair, which happens more often than owners expect on older units with extensive water damage.
Talk to a repair specialist today
Tell us what happened and we will tell you what the repair actually involves, what it costs, and how long it takes. We work directly with every major carrier and serve Westminster owners and fleets from our 35,000 square foot facility.
Posted labor rates are published on our prices page. Diagnostic and systems assessment fees are credited against an authorized repair.