Frame Straightening & Car Door Panel Repair
Been in an accident?
Get Back on the Road Quickly
We know that serious accidents are scary and stressful. Because they can cause significant damage to your car’s frame and door paneling, it’s important to assess and address the situation before driving more. The longer you drive with a bent frame, the more damage you can do to your car. Unfortunately, this isn’t easy when you’ve got errands to run and kids to drop off at school. Luckily, here at Mackin’s, our trained estimators can walk you through the process of your car repair so you can get back on the road quickly and safely. Schedule a car frame repair with us as soon as you can!
How Do I Know if I Need an Auto Frame Repair?
Usually a bent frame is easily diagnosable by auto body professionals, but frame damage caused by minor accidents can be hard to spot by just looking.
How to Spot a Bent Frame
If you’ve been in a minor accident and aren’t sure whether the damage is structural, there are a few clues you can look for.
- If your car’s bumpers, wheel liners, and other components seem like they don’t quite fit anymore, you might have a bent frame. A good indicator of this is if your doors don’t close correctly. If the doors leave a gap or overlap when shut, that is a sign that your car needs structural repairs.
- Bent frames can throw off your vehicle alignment, so if your car is veering in one direction it may be time for a realignment. If your car continues to pull in another direction, that may be a sign that you need your frame straightened.
- A bent frame puts uneven pressure on your shocks and suspension, which means some of your shocks will wear out faster than the others. If your suspension seems a bit off, a bent frame may be to blame.
Straightening a Frame
It takes quite a bit of force to bend a frame during an accident, so it will take the same amount to straighten it back into shape. We use specific equipment that makes this process smooth and reliable so that you can get back on the road and not worry about any more alignment issues. We use Car-O-Liner frame measuring and straightening equipment to pull the frame back into its original shape. As with all of our repairs, every car or truck frame repair is done per OEM manufacturers’ guidelines and tolerances.
Why is OEM important?
We will only repair a car using new OEM guidelines and recommendations. OEM stands for “Original Equipment Manufacturer” and we follow these guidelines so that all repairs done will return your vehicle to its pre-loss condition. This ensures that when you get your vehicle back, it’s as close to its original condition as possible, which will minimize the amount of work needed down the road. When you come to Mackin’s, you know that we will fix your car right the first time so you can keep rolling.
What Does Car Door Repair Entail?
During an accident, door panels can become misaligned, dented, or worse. While door panel damage can be a pain, you can have your doors reliably fixed by trained auto body technicians. At Mackin’s, we can assess the damage and determine whether you’d be better off repairing or replacing. Often all a door panel needs is a bit of straightening and realigning.
Mackin’s is not a restoration or modification auto body shop—our speciality is full collision repair, but that’s as far as we go.
How We Repair Door Panels
When possible, we prefer to repair damaged car components; not only is it cheaper, it’s also better for the environment. In order to repair a door panel, the whole door must be removed for better access to joints and welds.
Door Panel Removal
- All welds, fasteners, and door parts are cleaned
- Spot welds are identified and prepared for removal
- Welds are removed using wax and a spot weld drill
- Panel is disassembled and removed carefully
Door Panel Repair
The actual door panel repair process involves straightening, welding, and fortifying existing metal. We have specialized welders, rivet guns, and other tools to properly and safely repair and reinstall your door panels. Equipment isn’t everything, though. Behind every spot welder and rivet gun is a structurally trained technician.
If for some reason the door panel is not salvageable, it will be replaced with an OEM quality part.
Door Panel Installation
- All fasteners on new parts are cleaned
- Weld primer is applied to joining surfaces
- Spot welds are completed following OEM weld procedures and guidelines
- All plastic, electrical, and non-metal panel features are reinstalled
What Makes Mackin’s Best for Your Repair?
Since 1945, we’ve provided reliable, cutting edge repair for vehicle frames and door panels. We’ve been a trusted name in the Portland auto body field or over 75 years because of the work our fabulous, talented, and highly skilled technicians do every day. Every Mackin’s location has the tooling, training, and equipment to ensure that your car frame is safely returned to its original shape. All parts, tools, and procedures used at our locations are OEM certified so you know that our repairs are guaranteed to last. We’re an I-CAR gold class designated business, which means quality and safety are our priorities.
Additional collision repair services
Been in an accident?
Tell us what happened, upload your photos, and we’ll be in touch as soon as possible.
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We’re here to provide top-tier auto body repair through old fashioned service with advanced technology. It’s more than just our slogan, it’s a 75-year old promise.
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