Category: Auto Body Blog

Automotive safety doesn’t end when you turn off your car. In the past decade, roughly 750 children in the United States died after being left in hot vehicles. Whenever it happens, it’s always a source of devastating surprise for the family and those around them. So, how can such a tragedy be avoided?

The first thing to do is realize just how likely your child is to suffer death from heatstroke. Kids overheat five times more quickly than adults do, and are prone to death when temperatures reach 107 degrees. Meanwhile, your car’s temperature can jump by 20 degrees or more in as little as ten minutes. Even if the external temperature is below 70 degrees, cracking a window may not be enough to keep a child safe when you run into the store to grab a few groceries.

Since many cases of accidental death involve poor planning or forgetfulness, you will want to take measures to make sure you never forget your child. Consider using a cell phone app, or leaving visual clues in your car.

Should you have any problems with your vehicle that go beyond its internal temperature, bring it to our auto body shop in Seattle for collision repair or regular maintenance.

Your vehicle’s brake system is the single most vital to the safety of you and the passengers in your car. It is important to have your brakes inspected at least once every year. This is why August has been designated as Brake Safety Awareness Month. Take this time to have your brake system professionally inspected to assure that they remain at peak performance as you prepare to start a new school year and take on the cold winter months.

A proper inspection of your brakes should include taking a look at your brake lining, your brake fluid levels, the condition of your hoses and brake lines, your rotor thickness, and your warning lights. Take your car for a test drive and try out your brakes; if your car pulls to the side, if you hear unusual noises whenever you apply your brakes, or if your brake pedal otherwise doesn’t behave normally, you will want to bring it in to our auto body shop in Seattle as soon as you can.

When a police car lights up its emergency lights behind you, it is important to pull over to the right side of the road as soon as it is safe to do so. Once you have done this, consider the following tips:

• If it is dark out, turn on your interior light.
• Keep your hands where they are readily visible to the officer. Resting them on your steering wheel is a good option. Avoid reaching under your seat or into your glove box unless you need to.
• Be prepared to show your license and registration. Keep your registration where you can always know where it is and retrieve it easily.
• Remain calm and be polite. Many officers deal with difficult people all day, and are frequently receptive to people who are willing to be civil and admit to making mistakes.
• Don’t attempt to bribe the officer.
• Should you feel that you have been unfairly treated, make your case to the traffic court.

In the event that your car troubles go beyond the legal, contact our auto body shop in Seattle for quick and reliable repairs.

We often hear about how safe it is to be in a car during a lightning storm. Indeed, if a bolt of lightning were to strike your car, it is true that you could very well walk away entirely unscathed. However, the full truth is not quite this easy.

The first thing to understand is that some vehicles are safer than others. A fully-enclosed vehicle with a metal frame is the safest, while a convertible or fiberglass vehicle are considerably less secure.

If you are in your vehicle during a lightning storm, there are several steps you should take to improve your chances of staying safe. Firstly, you should roll up your windows. Secondly, you should avoid making contact with any interior metal objects in your car. You may want to pull off the road, turn off the engine, and wait out the storm, since even your steering wheel may give you a bad shock.

Should the worst happen and your car ever become damaged by a freak lightning strike, bring it in to our auto body shop in Seattle.

Going green with your car means keeping it for as long as you can without buying a new vehicle. You can extend the life of a car dramatically with a rebuilt engine. More than just a simple engine repair, a rebuilt engine entails completely dismantling your existing engine, machining and cleaning all components, replacing key parts as needed, and putting it back together according to prescribed standards. Properly maintained, your remanufactured engine should last as long as a new engine.

Having your engine rebuilt can come with a high price tag, but the benefits are great. Since rebuilding involves less energy and resources than manufacturing a new engine, it is both ecologically sound and more affordable than buying a new car. Depending on your vehicle model and the particulars of your situation, you can expect to pay between $2,500 and $5,000 on average, which comes out to roughly ten to fifteen percent of the cost of buying a new vehicle.

Talk to our auto body shop in Seattle for more ways to extend the life of your car.

Often times, when you wash your car, the bugs that have gathered on your windshield are the most stubborn part of the job. Thick wads of insect guts don’t respond easily to a bit of soap and a squeegee. When you find yourself struggling with bug stains, try one of the following solutions:

A bit of undiluted car wash solution may serve well to pre-treat the stain before washing your car.
Mix three tablespoons of a common household cleaner with a quart of hot water. The hotter the water, the better, but don’t use anything that is too hot for you to comfortably handle.
Soak a rag in extra virgin olive oil, then rub it into the stain with a circular motion. This is an effective method, but you will need to wash the oil away with soap afterward.
Mix baking soda with water so that it forms a paste. Apply this paste with a paper towel or disposable rag, then allow it to dry over the stain before washing it away with hot water.
For particularly tough stains, a degreaser may be in order.

When your car’s problems go beyond simple stains, bring it to our auto body shop in Seattle.

When you take your car off of the comfort of pavement to drive along a gravel road, you’re going to notice a significant difference. You sacrifice traction, which is going to affect both your speed and handling. It is best to slow down significantly when you first start driving on gravel to get a sense of your reduced capabilities, and to avoid throwing up rocks to damage vehicles behind you. If you know that you’re going to be driving on gravel, you can also benefit from checking your tire pressure; pressure that is either too high or too low is going to compromise your ability to drive.

Should the worst happen, bring your vehicle down to our Seattle auto body shop for all of your collision repair needs.

When you puncture your tire, that’s not necessarily the end of it. Certain holes can be repaired without you needing to buy a whole new tire. As a general rule, you can only expect to repair a puncture in the tread area that is no more than a quarter of an inch in diameter.

There are DIY repair kits available, but you shouldn’t rely on these for too long. Though they can get you out of a jam, like a spare tire, they’re no substitute for a proper tire. A puncture can only be fully repaired by removing the tire from the wheel and applying a patch to the inner liner. Consult our Seattle auto body shop for more on vehicular repairs.

Car batteries represent one of the big success stories in the recycling world. Though they contain toxic materials, including lead and battery acid, these materials are highly recyclable. Today, lead acid car batteries are the most widely recycled consumer product, with over 98% of all such batteries making their way back into the manufacturers’ hands. This is well over the 55% of aluminum cans, the 45% of newspapers, and the 26% of glass bottles.

When your own car battery can no longer support a charge, be sure to dispose of it with a proper lead acid battery recycler. And, if your car should struggle with any other body or engine problems, bring it in to our auto body shop in Seattle for quick and reliable repairs.

Are you smelling a musty odor when you drive your vehicle? Is your climate control system not working like it used to? It’s possible that you need to change your cabin air filter. This filter cleans the air entering your cabin, removing bacteria, dust, allergens, and exhaust gases. A failure to maintain a clean cabin air filter could be subjecting you and your passengers to high levels of contaminants.

It is generally recommended that you change your filter every 12,000 to 15,000 miles, depending on your particular vehicle. Check your owner’s manual for more information. If you require any further help with car maintenance, contact our auto body shop in Seattle.