Gamboa's Body and Frame Shop
specializes in frame diagnosis, frame replacement
and frame repair on unibody and full frame vehicles. Today’s vehicles
are designed to be lighter and safer. Crash worthiness and occupant
protection are engineering priorities in the development of today’s
vehicles. New materials are being used like Ultra-lightweight steels,
High Strength Steel and Advanced High Strength Steel. These new generation
vehicles offer a high level of protection and predictability when involved
in a collision.
When you bring your vehicle to Gamboa’s you can be assured that the
repair technology will be appropriate for the technology of your vehicles
frame or unibody. The reason for the new technology comes from safety
and fuel economy mandates required by the federal government and the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA. New vehicles are
now made lighter and of stronger materials. Unibody vehicles provide
superior crash worthiness and full frames are being produced with front
and rear crush zones to absorb collision forces, as well as “kick up”
and “off set” areas which direct collision forces around the passenger
compartment. The new steels are produced with specific mechanical and
thermo- chemical properties. High strength and high strength low alloy
steel are being used more on full frame vehicles. These “Strength Steels”
are very formidable and make an excellent vehicle platform, their high
tensile strength allows for the frames to be made of thinner material.
A first glance, a HSS frame appears similar to a traditional mild steel
frame, that also have the crush zones and offsets. The difference between
the mild steel and the HSS frames is that the mild steel can be heated
red hot with a torch to be bent and straightened which allows repairers
much flexibility during the repair process, HSS goes through changes
in it’s mechanical properties when subjected to the stress of a collision,
re-stress of the repair and the application of heat.
The
automotive SAE analysis community relies on “as-produced”
mechanical properties to obtain accurate crash model results
in designs using high strength steels. The frame is now
one of the vehicles most important safety features, and
works in conjunction with the vehicles other safety features,
like seat belts and air bags. Studies show that conventional
repair procedures affect all grades of HSS and they exibit
at least 10% loss in tensile strength. This strength loss
is large enough to significantly effect crash performance
in both energy absorption and collapse mode. The other issue
with HSS is that mechanical property changes will affect
the timing of air bag deployment, which must be fully inflated
at the exact millisecond to be effective.
The fact is that repair opportunities of HSS are very limited, just
because a repairer corrects a frame dimensionally and visually it looks
correct does not mean that the frame has been properly repaired. Grain
structure damage in critical areas will not allow transfer of collision
energy away from occupants; a strengthened area may fracture or fail
to absorb impact in a subsequent collision or worse. If the frame on
your vehicle is not repaired properly, you and your family could unknowingly
be driving a vehicle that could present a danger to them and others on
the road.
It is common for an HSS frame, with what would have normally been an
easily repairable amount of damage for mild steel, to now require replacement.
The problem with that scenario is that a lot of times the insurance company
does not want to hear that the frame needs to be replaced. They either
lack the technical expertise to understand the new technology or it’s
a cost issue with them. On the other hand there shops that may try to
repair frames that need to be replaced either due to lack of training,
pressure from insurers or the lack of resources. European vehicles are
being produced with aluminum structural panels. For Example, the new
BMW 7 series complete front inner structure weighs less than 100 pounds,
that’s why the vehicle handles so well, it has ideal front to rear weight
distribution. BMW allows no repairs to the aluminum inner structure;
some insurers are just totaling these vehicles because they are not sure
how to handle them. Another technology that presents challenges for repairers
and requires special repair considerations is Hydro- forming. With Hydro-forming
structural components can be manufactured from a single piece of steel
in the form of a tube that is put in a die, high pressure fluid pushes
the steel into shape and components are produced in one piece and fewer
welds are required
When
you need frame repair, take your vehicle to the experts
at Gamboa’s Body & Frame. Our trained technicians understand
how critical it is to bring your vehicle back to the state
that the vehicle manufacture engineered it to perform. We
maintain state of the art frame repair and measuring equipment,
9 ea Blackhawk 4000L frame racks with multiple towers for
complex pulls, and 9 ea SHARK computerized measuring systems
that use sonar technology to 3-dimensionally measure the
entire geometry of your vehicle to the nearest millimeter.
Most shops don’t have the space required to change over
a full frame, we have a complete frame shop with body lifts
and supports that facilitates several frame swaps at a time.
We also have an extensive research library containing new
vehicle information, repair procedures and bulletins, as
well as engineering contacts at various manufactures for
vehicle structural inquires and safety related matters.
