# Repair or Replace, and Who Decides Repair or replace is decided by four inputs: whether the substrate under the damage is still sound, whether the component is still produced, what the labour comparison looks like at posted rates, and what the policy pays for. Teardown answers the first two, and until it does, everyone is guessing. ## How the decision gets made, and by whom Repair or replace sounds like a judgement call and is mostly an arithmetic one. Four inputs decide it. Is the substrate under the damage still structurally sound. Does the replacement component still exist and at what lead time. What is the labour comparison between repairing and replacing at posted rates. And what does the policy pay for, which is the input the shop has no influence over at all. The shop supplies the first three. The carrier decides the fourth. That division causes most of the confusion, because an owner hears two answers to what sounds like one question, and neither party is contradicting the other. A shop saying a cap can be repaired and a carrier approving replacement instead are both making sense from where they stand. Where it becomes genuinely difficult is the middle ground, where repairing costs seventy percent of replacing. On a car, replacement wins that comparison almost automatically because parts are cheap and abundant. On a coach it frequently does not, because the part is discontinued, the lead time is measured in months, or the replacement introduces a colour match problem the repair never had. ## Roof recoat or membrane replacement Recoating a roof and replacing a membrane are not two grades of the same job, they are two different repairs. A recoat renews the surface and the seams over sound decking. A membrane replacement removes the roof covering, which means every roof mounted component comes off and the decking underneath gets inspected properly for the first time in the vehicle's life. The deciding question is the decking, not the membrane. A membrane with chalking, minor punctures and tired sealant over dry, solid decking is a recoat candidate. A membrane with the same appearance over decking that flexes underfoot near a vent or a seam is not, and recoating it seals moisture in rather than out. That distinction is not visible from the ground and it is not visible in a photograph. Roof recoat and reseal runs $750 to $4,500 or more. Membrane replacement runs $3,500 to $18,000 or more depending on the material and the number of penetrations. The gap between those bands is why the decking question gets asked properly, and why a walk on the roof with a moisture meter comes before any estimate is written. Carriers routinely approve recoat where replacement was needed, and the reason is not cost avoidance so much as description. A photograph of a chalked membrane looks like a maintenance item whatever is underneath it. Moisture readings and a photograph of soft decking change the description, and the description is what the approval follows. ## Panel repair or cap replacement A cracked or holed fiberglass cap can usually be repaired well. Laminate is built up from the back, the damaged area is ground out to sound material, new glass is laid in with the correct schedule, and the surface is faired and refinished. Done properly the repair is stronger than the original panel in that area, and it costs a fraction of a cap. Replacement wins on three conditions. The damage crosses a structural bond line rather than sitting in a panel field. The cap has separated from its framing over a wide area, which no amount of surface work fixes. Or the geometry moved, meaning the opening for a windscreen or a roof no longer sits where it should, which is a structural problem wearing a cosmetic disguise. Fiberglass cap repair runs $750 to $12,000 or more. Front or rear cap replacement runs $4,500 to $25,000 or more, and adds a lead time that a repair does not. On a coach out of production, the replacement figure is frequently theoretical, because the cap is not available at any price and the real comparison is between repair and fabrication. The unglamorous truth is that a well executed repair on a fifteen year old coach is often the better outcome even when replacement is approved, because a new cap next to fifteen year old gelcoat creates a colour problem across the whole front of the vehicle. We match on the panel rather than from a code, which mitigates it, and mitigating a problem is not the same as not having one. ## When fabrication beats a part On any coach more than roughly eight years old, some components have stopped existing. Compartment doors, slide fascias, trim extrusions, cap sections and interior panels get discontinued on short notice, and the parts database keeps returning a price for them long after the tooling is gone. An estimate can therefore specify a part, at a price, with a lead time, for something nobody can supply. Fabrication is the alternative, and it is a real one rather than a fallback. Panels get moulded, doors get built, extrusions get formed, and structural members get cut and welded in shop. On a discontinued component the honest sequence is often that fabrication delivers in less time than sourcing, because sourcing has no delivery date at all. What makes it approvable is documentation. A record of who was called at the manufacturer or the supplier, on what date, and what they said, is what moves a carrier from replacement to fabrication without an argument. Carriers generally accept fabrication once the part is documented as unavailable, and generally resist it while a database still shows a price. Interior build out and conversion work runs $2,500 to $50,000 or more, and frame and structural welding runs $750 to $20,000 or more. Those bands cover a wide range of work because fabrication is a category rather than a job. What is consistent is that the alternative on an unsupported coach is not a cheaper part, it is no part. ## The threshold nobody states out loud Somewhere behind every repair or replace conversation is a total loss threshold, and it is worth knowing it exists before it appears. When the repair cost plus anticipated supplements approaches a percentage of the vehicle's value, the carrier stops evaluating the repair and starts evaluating the vehicle. The percentage varies by carrier and by state, and no shop can tell you what yours is. The practical effect is that a repair or replace decision can quietly become a total loss decision, and it usually happens at the supplement rather than at the first estimate. A slide job that turns into a subfloor job on a twelve year old travel trailer is the classic path: nothing about the repair was unreasonable, but the arithmetic crossed a line nobody mentioned. Which is a reason to want the vehicle described accurately early. A coach with a documented floorplan, options list and interior condition is valued differently from a year, make and model in a database. If the arithmetic is going to be run against your unit, the description feeding it should be of your unit. ## Where replacement is the wrong answer even when it is approved Approved does not mean correct. Three cases come up repeatedly where a shop should say so rather than take the easier work. A replacement panel or cap on a heavily sun aged coach creates a colour match problem across an area far larger than the damage. Matching on the panel and blending into adjacent panels handles it, but the blend then becomes a line an adjuster may question, and the total scope grows to solve a problem the repair route never had. A replacement component of different construction changes the vehicle. An aftermarket window frame with a different flange depth will not seal against a wall of that thickness. A replacement slide fascia moulded to a later specification may not match the opening. Neither shows up in a catalogue and both show up in the bay. And on a vintage or collectible unit, originality carries value that a new component destroys. An aluminium skin panel replaced on an Airstream is a different decision from a fiberglass panel replaced on a five year old travel trailer, and the arithmetic that works for the second is wrong for the first. Aluminium skin and sidewall replacement runs $2,500 to $25,000 or more precisely because the work is bespoke. ## Questions ### Who decides whether a damaged panel is repaired or replaced? The shop writes the method, the carrier prices it, and the disagreement between those two is where most estimates stall. Repair is correct when the substrate and its bond are sound, which on fiberglass means a tap test and on aluminium means checking for work hardening at the crease. Replacement is correct when structure behind the skin moved. Colour match and panel blending bands $500 to $5,000, which is often cheaper than the replacement it avoids. ### Can I insist on new original parts rather than used or aftermarket ones? It depends on your policy language, not on preference. Many policies permit the carrier to specify aftermarket or recycled parts where they are available and comparable. On RV bodywork that permission runs into a practical wall: caps, sidewall skins and slide fascias for out of production coaches often do not exist in any form, new or used. Once we document that a part is unavailable, carriers generally authorise fabrication instead. --- Source: https://ocrv.guru/insurance-help/repair-vs-replace/ OCRV Center, 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. Serving Laguna Niguel, California. All work performed in shop. No mobile or roadside service. Licences: California Bureau of Automotive Repair ARD00288521; EPA CAL000367879. Published ranges are ranges, not quotes. Every figure traces to https://ocrv.guru/prices/.