August 21, 2013 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Volvo S40 Collision Repair: Significant Front End Damage

Rarely a day goes by without someone, somewhere in the Aspen-Snowmass region experiencing the wildlife in Colorado a little bit too close. Especially during these winter days, wildlife encounters are all to frequent. Whether it is because of driving too fast, or because of driving through a particularly low-visibility situation, animals do get on the road, and we end up bumping into them. Sometimes it’s a minor scratch. But sometimes, animal collision can cause significant damage depending on the speed of travel.

Animal collision auto body repairs can get quite expensive and complicated when you have to do all the paperwork to sort things out with your insurance company. This is why we at High Tone Auto Body offer the complete service: paperwork and elbow grease.

In the images below, you can see how a Volvo S40 front end got severely damaged from a deer collision.

Collision repair Aspen CO — This Volvo S40 was damaged in a wildlife encounter. The deer walked away and the car had to be towed in.

Deer collision repair: Headlight, fender and hood damage

It doesn’t take much for a collision, especially when roads are slippery and wet. Even a 30mph speed is enough to cause significant damage when a collision with a large animal happens. In this case, the deer collision caused significant damage of the front end of this Volvo S40. As the image below shows, the hood is deformed, the left fender is twisted and torn at places, and the headlight assembly is completely destroyed.

Aspen auto body repair Snowmass. Deer collision repair — Left fender and headlight damage from deer collision

The front bumper and grill also got some damage.

The positive end of things was that none of the mechanical and electronic components of this car had any damage. The radiator was completely intact and the structural beams around the engine protected the wiring. Volvos are strong and sturdy vehicles.

Aspen auto body repair shop fast reliable deer collision repair — Localized but severe damage: broken headlight, bumper and deformed side panel and hood

To do this repair properly, we removed the front bumper, hood and left fender. Then we replaced all the parts that needed replacing: front headlight, fog lights built into the bumper, new grill, new bumper, new left fender.

After the repair: Car looks like new, client is very happy

While our tech’s were working on the vehicle itself, Tanja took care of all the paperwork with the insurance company. All in all, within a couple of days the owner of this vehicle had all the details sorted out, and the Volvo S40 looked like new.

Aspen auto body shop fixed collision car looks like new — After the repair: No signs of any sort, like-new looks of this Volvo S40

Thanks to our very friendly and competent staff, the repair experience was excellent.

August 14, 2013 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Pickup Truck Collision Aftermath: Repairing and repainting a tailgate after a car crash

You may be the best and safest driver in the world and all it takes is a split-second distraction for the driver behind you to slam into your car from the back and cause extensive damage to your vehicle.

This is exactly what happened to a middle-aged man. He stopped his pickup, waiting for a green light when another pickup truck rear ended him. The damage was extensive for both trucks.

Insurance Claim Processing and New Parts Delivery

The cautious driver came to High Tone Auto Body for a complete repair of the tailgate and new rear bumper. The tail lights also needed replacement. While Tanja handled the insurance paper work the technicians in the auto body shop removed the damaged bumper, tail lights and tail gate. We use replacement Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts for a seamless fit.

Matching the New Paint To The Original Deep Cherry Red Truck Color

The new tailgate came in with an E-coat, black in color directly from the manufacturer. The new tailgate was cleaned with wax and grease remover, then sanded, cleaned again with wax and grease remover, then one coat of sealer was applied, followed by three coats of base coat red. Once the basecoat was flashed off, the protective clear coat was applied twice to ensure the proper millage (thickness) of clear for ultimate UV radiation protection.

The painter weighs out the different components of toners, reducers and additives to come up with the exact color match to the customers vehicle. Each component is weighed to the gram. The painter can replicate any shade and color on any car on the market.

mixing the colors for spraying the crashed truck — Adding Component Colors to get the original truck color

Once the paint toners were all measured by the gram on the digital scale, the paint technician mixed with appropriate reducer to make up the matching deep cherry red paint and was ready for spraying the panels.

computer controlled car paint making — Components and base color mixed up to get the desired deep cherry red.

With properly mixed paint and the tail gate inside the downdraft booth, the certified paint technician was ready for base coat application to the tail gate.

painting a crashed car with deep cherry red — Sealer was applied and painter is now putting on application of deep cherry red base

Collision repair truck tailgate repaint — 3 coats of deep cherry red base coats, now ready for clear coat

If the base coat paint layers do not get covered with a protective clear coat, the paint will quickly fade away. Without the clear coat there is no protection from the suns harmful UV rays. The added benefit of the clear coat is that it gives the paint a mirror like finish that also protects the vehicle from the elements.

Collision repair tailgate clear coat spraying — Spraying the protective clear coat layers

Collision repair Aspen, CO. tailgate painted and ready for installment — 2 coats of clear applied, now ready for baking

With the tail gate properly painted and clear coated after being baked, it was ready for installment on the truck. The finished repair took only a couple of days. The insurance covered all the repair expenses and the client left very pleased with the service and quality of work. Since then he referred several other clients for auto body and paint repair services.

August 5, 2013 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Repair & Repaint of Saturn Vue

We all love a scratch-free car. Especially if we buy it new, we would love it to stay shiny and clean forever. Unfortunately, that shine we all love will not last. In fact, even if you never scratch it, the shine will simply go away thanks to UV radiation which slowly damages the clear coat.

Paint repair on a Saturn VUE

It is almost impossible to protect your car from scratches and dents. The bottom line is that you own your vehicle for your convenience, and as months turn into years you lose that initial respect for your car. Before you know it, every single panel of your car has at least one scratch or dent.

This is what happened with this white Saturn VUE. The owner was a family person, she had kids, dog, did regular trips to camps and slowly but surely her Saturn slowly lost its charm. She took her vehicle in for a face-lift. This meant that we needed to work on every single panel, and some of them were quite badly damaged from those unavoidable supermarket parking lot door-to-door encounters.

To do a thorough job, we removed all the panels that needed some body work. After smoothing out the metal and plastic panels, it was time for make-up.

Repairing the paint on a Saturn Vue — Disassembly of all right side panels to be repaired and replaced.

The right back door and right quarter panel actually had more damage from a person backing up a few inches too far into this Saturn. So, to do a proper yet affordable repair, our technicians had to remove the back door panel, do the body work and then repaint it, as shown on the image below:

Repainting a tailgate of a Saturn Vue — Applying sealer to the hood and other panels that were damaged.

Our certified paint technician adds a coat of sealer to all panels for corrosion protection.

Painting the trunk and back door panels — Applying white base coat to the right side panels

Painted panels awaiting the clear coat layer. — Urethane sealed panels awaiting base coat application.

Once the base coat was dry, the paint technician added two coats of clear coat that serves as a protective layer that keeps the white base paint from scratches and harmful UV rays.

Saturn Vue panels, painted clear-coated and ready for installment. — Saturn Vue panels, painted clear-coated, baked and ready for installment.

Thanks to the qualified technicians and the clear coat, the car panels got their like-new sparkly shine.

July 27, 2013 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Prepare Your Vehicle for Winter

To ensure a safe and hazard-free winter season, below are four helpful tips geared to prepare the exterior of your vehicle for the road conditions and cold Aspen winter weather:

Headlamp polish/restoration if your headlamps are fading and it is difficult to see.
Wash and wax the exterior of the vehicle to protect the paint of your vehicle.
Aquapel application to your windshield to help improve winter driving visibility.
Clear bra application to help protect your vehicles paint job.

These four steps are geared to keep your vehicle protected from the elements and keep you safe on the road:

1) Headlamp Polishing

Get your headlights polished for safe winter driving — Polished headlamps will significantly increase the light intensity and provide you with a safe driving experience.

Among the most influential safety factors during winter is having visibility. Increasing visibility will help you see the road situation and react faster and safer in terms of breaking or avoiding collision. Headlights fade and lose luminosity because the protective plastic lens gets damaged and the transparency decreases. In fact, it is not glass but plastic that is not immune to the Ultra Violet (UV) radiation from the sun, temperature extremes, de-icers, sand and gravel put on the road.

2) Wax your vehicle to protect your paint

Driving up and down the Roaring Fork Valley on Highway 82, our vehicles are exposed to environmental factors as well as debris on the road. Washing the undercarriage of your vehicle is important to remove build up of ice, mud, rocks, salt and other debris. These items sometimes get caught in the nooks and crannies of bumpers, brackets, wheel wells and splash guards. When this build up of ice, mud, rocks and salt (Magnesium chloride) sit and stay moist they have a tendency to start the corrosion process on anything containing metal and aluminum. This is why it is so important to clean both the undercarriage as well as the exterior of your vehicle frequently throughout the winter season. Having High Tone Auto Body apply a quality wax to your paint helps minimize the amount of time the corrosive mixture can stay on your paint and do damage.
Wax all painted panels and get any body or paint repairs done before winter hits!
The Aspen area is famous for heavy snowfalls and long winters. This means that for several months our vehicles are exposed to moisture that can result in paint peeling and rust. This is especially true if you keep your vehicle out side and it regularly gets plenty of snow on its roof. The roof of your vehicle is always exposed to the elements, and often times the paint peels and the metal is exposed. Given enough time, this exposed metal rusts and causes even more paint peeling.

In order to prepare your vehicle for the winter, it is best to take the time and repair any paint cracking and peeling before the winter starts. When done on time, these repairs are only cosmetic and are therefore significantly cheaper than if rust appears and the repair turns into an auto body repair.

Clear coat and paint peeling gradually grows from invisible specs to large chunks of paint falling off. Preventing this process is the smartest and cheapest way to go.

The image above shows how the layers of clear coat and paint starting as invisible specs, and over time they grow in size and entire patches of paint will delaminate. In order to avoid such defects, it is smart to visit High Tone Auto Body and fix any paint problems before winter comes.

To find out how car paint damages appear, visit this page.

3) Have a Hydrophobic coating applied to your windshield

Aquapel is a coating that can be applied to your windshield to help repel rain, sleet and snow. The water will bead up and race across the windshield out of your viewing area.

It is also beneficial to get new wiper blades installed for the winter season. Clear your windshield free of ice and snow before using your wipers. This will help improve the longevity of your wiper blades.

4) Clear Bra Installation Prevents Rock Chips Damage

With snowfall our roads are regularly treated with sand and salt. During winter the roads really become littered with debris that causes significant paint damage and regularly plays an important role in windshield damage as well. After the snow melts, driving behind a truck becomes as annoying as flying through an asteroid field. Eventually your vehicle will become damaged from sand and rock chips. Bumpers made of steel can rust where rocks and other debris has impacted the painted or chrome bumper, while plastic bumper covers do not rust but they do chip and become pitted and will need to be repaired and repainted. Once the bumper is either replaced or repaired a clear bra installation will help prevent rusting and chipping of the paint.

This is why it is very smart to invest in clear bra installation that will protect your vehicle hood, bumpers, fender tips, etc from rock chips.

The cheapest and smartest way to protect your hood from paint damage and rust spots is to install a clear bra before winter begins. — The cheapest and smartest way to protect your hood from paint damage and rust spots is to install a clear bra before winter.

Proactively investing some time and money to install a clear bra will go a long way in protecting your vehicle. The image above shows how a detailed and proper clear bra installation is done. With such a protective layer, your car hood will be safe from rock chip damage.

Get your car ready for winter today! Please don’t hesitate to call us to schedule your complimentary estimate at (970) 927-4351.

June 3, 2013 by High Tone Autobody Leave a Comment

Auto Body Repair, Detailing & Head Light Polish Testimonial

From: Denise T.
Service Used: Auto Body Repair, Detailing, Head light polish

Testimonial:
David and Audi took great care of our minivan after an unfortunate circumstance. They made sure they understood what needed to be repaired, ordered the necessary parts, and made the repairs very quickly. In addition to the excellent repairs, the extra service they provided was outstanding – polishing the headlights and detailing the van inside and out before I picked it up. Our van looks better now than it has in years!

You probably can relate to this experience Denise had with her car. For most of us, our car is more than just a tool to get us from Point A to Point B. It reveals a bit about us, who we are, how we value things, how we see the world. This is why some of us take good care of our vehicles. This is why we at High Tone Auto Body go the extra mile and make sure every single vehicle that goes out of our shop is categorically better than when it came in.

In this case, Denise brought her car in for plenty of body work. But as the car isn’t just an object, David took the time to talk to Denise and understand what happened with the car, and what needs to be fixed from the driver’s standpoint. This conversation helped us better understand the situation so that we can help Denise out with her car. This helping ment that we will go the extra mile and do a full inside-and-out detailing and headlight polish so that Denise would have her car sparkly clean.

She was very happy with the result.