Before
After
Front bumper, headlight and fog light replaced — but the fiberglass hood was repaired and reconstructed rather than swapped for a complete assembly.
For an owner-operator, a damaged truck isn’t a vehicle sitting in a body shop. It’s lost time on the road and lost earning potential. So the repair plan started with the calendar, not the hood.
This Cascadia came to us after a front-end collision that damaged the hood, front bumper, headlight and fog light. The owner brought it in for an estimate on June 30, then went to work on his insurance claim. Authorization to proceed and order parts came through on August 7.
Here is the part that mattered most to him: we ordered everything first and left the truck on the road. By August 11 all the required parts had arrived at the shop. He dropped the truck off the following day, August 12, and our technicians started with every component already on the shelf — no waiting on a backordered hood assembly with a truck parked in our lot not earning.
Repairing instead of replacing the hood. The collision hit the driver’s-side front corner and the area surrounding the headlight. Replacing the complete fiberglass hood assembly is the easy call — and the expensive, slow one. Our technicians assessed the damage and determined the existing hood could be properly repaired instead.
The fiberglass around the headlight pocket needed significant reconstruction. The team rebuilt and reshaped the area, restoring the headlight opening and the original contours of the hood before any refinishing work started. That is the stage where hood repairs are won or lost: the opening has to hold the light square and the body lines have to run true off the corner, because there’s no panel gap to hide a compromise behind.
From there it was body preparation and refinishing, then the replacement headlight, fog light and front bumper, final assembly, fitment and inspection.
Six days in the shop. The truck was dropped off on August 12. Repairs were complete on August 18 and the owner picked it up on August 19 — six days from drop-off to finished, including fiberglass reconstruction, body repair, refinishing, parts replacement and reassembly.
The damaged driver’s-side hood and headlight area were restored, the new lighting and bumper installed, and the repaired fiberglass refinished to blend with the rest of the truck. When the owner picked it up, he took a stack of our business cards with him for friends and colleagues. For us that’s about the best compliment a customer can give.
Heavy-duty collision work asks for different experience, equipment and planning than passenger-car repair. We work with owner-operators, commercial fleets and large vehicles that need to be repaired correctly and get back to earning.
