# Our Process, Day By Day A repair here runs on a published day axis: arrival and photographs, teardown and the supplement, structure and parts, paint, then systems and calibration. Each node states what the shop does, what the carrier does, what you do, and what is owed at that point. ## The sequence is dictated by the vehicle, not by the shop The axis on this page is not a preference. A coach is assembled in layers and it has to be repaired in the same order, because every layer is dimensioned off the one underneath. Structure first, because a cap flange, a sidewall stud run and a floor outrigger set where every panel above them will sit. Skin next, hung and gapped dry before adhesive goes anywhere near it. Refinish after that. Systems and calibration last. Run it out of order and the visible work gets done twice. Paint a cap before the rail behind it is pulled straight and somebody ends up cutting into new clear to reach a bracket. Calibrate a forward sensor before the final panel geometry is set and the calibration is measuring a vehicle that no longer exists. The worst redo stories in this trade are almost never incompetence, they are three vendors on three calendars with nobody owning the order. ## Three places the calendar slips, and who controls each one Days are lost in three specific places and it is worth knowing which is which, because two of them are outside the shop entirely. The first is supplement review. A supplement is a second negotiation on a claim the carrier thought was closed, and the review clock belongs to the carrier. Good documentation shortens it. Nothing else does. The second is part lead time on anything moulded, low volume or out of production. A cap ships on its own truck and a discontinued one may not exist at any lead time, at which point fabrication becomes the faster path rather than the fallback. The third is settlement mechanics. Some carriers pay direct and it is invisible to you. Others issue a cheque, sometimes made out jointly to you and a lienholder, and that adds a week nobody warns owners about at day zero. - Supplement review sits with the carrier and is shortened by photographs, not by phone calls - Moulded and discontinued parts set the outer bound of the calendar - Joint cheques to owner and lienholder are a common and unannounced delay - A second vehicle needed elsewhere in the repair is your decision to make early ## The four decisions that are actually yours At day zero you control the quality of the information. What you heard and felt at the moment of impact is often the only clue to damage nobody can photograph yet, and a hollow bang followed by a new rattle over bumps is a fastener or a bracket that let go somewhere no camera will find. Owners who describe the noise get a better first estimate than owners who describe the scratch. At teardown you control the scope of the extras. Once a sidewall is off, a cabinet run, a window reseal or a stretch of subfloor costs a fraction of what the same work costs as its own visit next spring. That is arithmetic on setup labour rather than an upsell, and the window closes when the skin goes back on. At paint you control whether you want to see the panel before clear. At delivery you control the only inspection that matters, which is yours. ## Why every node carries a range instead of a date A bumper skin and a rolled coach are the same line item on a menu and nothing alike in the bay. Publishing a single date for either would require padding, and a padded date helps nobody: it makes a fast repair look slow, it makes a slow repair look like a broken commitment, and in a claim negotiation it hands the carrier a number the shop has already admitted is soft. So the axis carries honest ranges. Day 1 to 3 for teardown and the supplement. Day 4 to 10 for structure and parts, which is where an obsolete component can blow straight through the top of the range. Day 11 to 20 for refinish. Day 21 plus for systems, calibration and settlement, with the plus doing real work in that label. An owner who understands the ranges at day zero is not the owner who feels ambushed at day fourteen. ## The money clock runs on a different schedule than the day clock Two clocks run through a repair and they are not synchronised, which is the source of most billing surprise. The day clock is the axis. The money clock is authorisation. Nothing is cut and nothing is ordered before a sheet is authorised, whether the authorisation comes from a carrier or from you, and the first money moves at that moment rather than at delivery. From there it is mechanical. A 50 percent deposit at authorisation on work over $2,000. A further 25 percent when parts land on work over $10,000. Special order parts at a full deposit at the time of order, not refundable, because the part becomes yours the moment the supplier ships it. Materials calculate off the hours written rather than as a lump somebody guessed at: paint supplies at $55 per paint hour, body supplies at $5 per body hour, hazmat at $45 flat where chemicals, refrigerant or LP are involved. Sales tax of 7.75 percent applies to parts and materials and labour is not taxed. The balance is due at pickup and a 3.5 percent surcharge applies to card payments over $1,000. ## What it costs this shop to publish the axis at all Publishing a day by day process is not a marketing decision that comes for nothing. It means owners quote it back across the counter, which is the point, and it also means a slow week cannot be quietly absorbed. When a supplement sits with a carrier for eight days, the axis has already told the owner it should take three, and the conversation that follows is uncomfortable and correct. The alternative is worse for everybody. A shop that publishes nothing gets to describe every delay as normal, and the owner has no way to tell an ordinary part wait from a job that was never scheduled. A published sequence converts a vague grievance into a specific question, and a specific question can be answered with a photograph, a part order number or the name of the adjuster who has not called back. ## Questions ### Who moves my RV to the shop if it will not drive? We coordinate transport to the Yorba Linda facility and it is billed as part of the repair. There is no mobile repair, and that is a deliberate limit rather than a gap: a frame bench, a full length booth and lift capacity for a Class A do not travel. Tell us where the unit sits, whether it rolls, whether it steers, and whether the slides are in. Those four answers decide what equipment arrives. ### What is teardown, and why does the real number come after it? Teardown is removing the panels that hide the damage. On a coach that means a cap, a section of sidewall skin, or a slide face, depending where it was struck. Until those are off, an estimate describes what a camera could see, which on a composite sidewall is a fraction of what happened. The measurements and photographs taken at teardown become the supplement, and the supplement is where the number stops moving. --- Source: https://ocrv.guru/the-center/our-process/ 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/.