Narrator: Car crashes are incredibly common.
In 2017, nearly 6.5 million car accidents
took place in the US alone.
Collision centers use various techniques
to realign a car's frame,
restore damaged areas, and correct paint.
Juan: Here at Hendrick Collision Center,
we're capable of fixing anything from a small dent
to a large repair that requires structural repair.
Some of the typical tools that we use
are our flatliner,
our frame machine,
and Bondo.
If your car is on the frame machine,
more than likely it's got some kind of structural damage.
When you are getting ready
to set up a car on the frame machine,
obviously drive it up on the machine,
make sure that the vehicle is square.
The second part is you're going to
go to the computer to figure out
where your mounting clamps need to go
on the vehicle.
We have access to Alldata,
which is a computer system
that gathers all the information from manufacturers
to be able to repair vehicles correctly.
You go ahead and get the car built onto the clamps.
Then you go to the measuring system,
and the measuring system will tell you
where the damage is.
We have to digitally measure
the structure of the vehicle
to ensure that all the components
are where they need to be, within millimeters.
And then you have to reverse the damage.
When you're operating,
you have to be mindful of your surroundings.
Obviously, make sure that you're in a safe spot
and make sure that everybody around you is safe.
You have to be very mindful in observing the damage
and how it's being pulled out.
The measuring system is connected to the computer,
and you can see numbers
that will move as you are pulling,
and you want to get those numbers
as close as possible to zero.
The frame machine can be very intimidating.
A lot of times the clamps will come off
and kind of fly around,
so you have to conquer that fear.
Not all dents require such a large machine.
For smaller and more delicate dents,
we use the flatliner.
The first step is to make sure
that you've recognized your damage.
For that, we have a special light that we set up
so that you can actually see
all the damage on the panel.
Make sure that you sand the area
that's getting ready to be pulled.
Make sure that you get a good ground,
a solid ground, before you start
to put the pulling keys on the metal.
Not every dent is a straight line.
Sometimes dents have a curve.
After you've welded your keys onto the spot,
then you begin your pulling process.
You pick the correct bridge that you're going to use.
When operating a bridge,
it has a handle that has threads.
And as you turn the thread,
the handle gets shorter,
and that's attached to the bridge and the rod.
The rod will pull the dent out.
If you have a dent that's deeper,
you're going to have to pull a little bit more.
If you have a dent that's not quite as deep,
you're going to have to turn the knob
a little bit less.
Then you need to tap the crowns of the dent.
Anytime you have a dent, it creates crowns.
The dent doesn't always necessarily pull out.
Sometimes you need to reassess after your pull,
and you have to maybe pull in a different spot
until you've gotten the dent
as close as possible to its original position.
After we use the flatliner,
we still need to smooth out the dent,
and that's where the Bondo process begins.
Bondo can be a fast-drying filler
that is sandable
that we use to get the car's body
as close as we can to its original shape.
Once you've mixed your Bondo on your mixing board,
we have plastic spreaders,
and that is what you use to apply onto the dent.
You have to make sure that you are applying it
in the correct spots,
that you are not applying it too much
in spots that it's not needed.
You have to make sure that you are
very fluid with it
and that you are keeping
the correct contours of the vehicle.
Once you've applied Bondo and you've sanded it
and you're happy with the way that the dent feels
and it's visually correct,
at that point,
you would take the car over to the paint shop
for it to be primed.
One of the first steps of painting
is to make sure that you clean off
any contaminants that are on the panel.
The full replaced part, or repaired part, is painted.
Adjacent panels are also blended
in order to ensure a perfect color match.
So, the painting process is different for each vehicle,
because each repair size is different.
But in a perfect world, beginning to end,
it would be reasonable to say
it would take around two hours.
I would say it's very gratifying to fix cars.
If somebody is in your collision center,
it's because they had a accident,
and accidents aren't fun for anybody.
So it is gratifying when the customer picks up their car
and they leave and they're happy,
and you know that you had a part
in making this person's problem disappear.