No. 102
Structural & frame
When the hit reached past the panels. Straight is a measurement against the manufacturer’s specification, in millimetres — not a judgement made by eye and not a thing you can see from outside.
A modern car is not a frame with a body on it. It is a shell in which specific areas are designed to fold in a specific order, and specific areas are designed not to fold at all. Repairing one correctly is a matter of returning measured points to published figures.
That is why this part of the trade is documented rather than described. A structural repair that was done properly has paperwork; one that was not, does not.
Whether any given shop holds a particular bench, measuring system or welding certification is a question of equipment and training records, which are available on request. This site does not publish a list, because none was supplied to it and a list is worth nothing against a certificate you can read.
Questions that separate a structural repair from a cosmetic one
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- Was the car measured before the pull, and is there a printout?
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- Was it measured again after, and is there a second printout?
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- Was sectioning used, and does the manufacturer permit it at that location?
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- Was corrosion protection restored where the shell was opened?
What a structural repair is measured against
| Item | Reference | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Datum points | Manufacturer specification, in millimetres | The fixed references everything else is measured from |
| Left against right | Symmetry within published tolerance | A shell can be wrong without being obviously wrong |
| Sectioning | Only where the manufacturer permits it | Where a part may be cut and joined is specified, not improvised |
| Weld method | As specified for the steel in that area | High-strength steels tolerate very little heat |
| Corrosion protection | Restored at every seam that was opened | The repair that rusts in four years was sealed badly in week one |
| Pre- and post-measurement | A printout before and a printout after | The only evidence that any of the above happened |
A longer repair is not a reason to steer you
Structural work takes time, and “it will be quicker at our shop” is the usual pressure. The second subsection answers it directly.
No insurer may fail to initiate and conclude with due dispatch an investigation of a claim for repairs to a motor vehicle on the basis of whether the repairs will be made by a particular contractor or repair facility.
Statutory passages on this page are quoted from the Wisconsin Statutes and were last checked in October 2026 against docs.legis.wisconsin.gov. Statutes are amended. This is general information about a public law, not legal advice, and it is not a statement about your particular claim. Read the section yourself, or ask a lawyer.
Questions about this work
Will the car ever be the same?
Structurally, a repair performed to the manufacturer’s specification returns the measured points to the published figures, and that is a checkable claim. Commercially, it is a different question: a car with a recorded structural repair generally carries lower resale value regardless of repair quality. That is diminished value, and it is worth understanding early.
What if it is bent beyond repair?
Then the right answer is a total loss, and saying so is part of the job. A shell that cannot be returned to specification should not be returned to the road, and an estimate that quietly avoids that conclusion is the expensive kind of optimism.
The other sections
| No. | Section | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| 101 | Collision repair | The ordinary case: something hit the car, or the car hit something, and panels, lights and the structure behind them have to come back to specification. |
| 103 | Paint & refinish | Colour match, blend, clear and cure. Paint has a minimum time that cannot be compressed, which is the single most common reason a delivery date moves. |
| 104 | Sensors & calibration | The cameras and radar that run automatic braking and lane keeping sit behind the panels that get hit. A panel replaced without recalibration leaves a system aimed somewhere it is not. |
| 105 | Dents, trim & interior | The smaller end of 811121: paintless dent repair where the paint survived, bumper and trim work, and interior repair after a break-in or a deployment. |
Describe the damage on the telephone
You will get a straight answer about what this is likely to involve, what is likely to move the date, and whether it is even worth opening a claim.
Mon–Fri 7:30 AM–5:30 PM CT