# Semi Truck On a tractor the body work is cab structure, aero fairings, sleeper panels and deck plate. Cabs sit on isolated mounts, so a collision moves the cab relative to the frame and the measurement matters more than the visible damage does. ## Aero panels are the most damaged and least structural parts A modern tractor is wrapped in aero: a roof fairing, side extenders, chassis skirts, fuel tank fairings and a bumper with integrated air management. Almost none of it is structural and almost all of it gets damaged, because it sits at exactly the heights that kerbs, bollards, snow banks and yard obstacles occupy. A cracked side extender is a cosmetic and fuel efficiency item rather than a safety one, and it is also the item an operator most wants fixed quickly because it looks bad on a customer site. Where aero becomes interesting is at the mounting points. Fairings are bolted into brackets on the cab and the frame, and a fairing that has been flapping loose at highway speed for a month will have cracked its bracket and the panel around the fastener. Repair means addressing the bracket, not the visible crack. Commercial collision repair and paint refinish runs $1,500 to $50,000, and fairing work sits at the low end of that with the paint match being the difficult part. ## A cab sits on mounts, so a collision moves it rather than crushing it Tractor cabs are isolated from the frame on air bags or rubber mounts to keep road input out of the driver seat. That means a frontal or side impact often moves the cab on its mounts instead of deforming it as much as it would on a rigid vehicle. The visible damage looks moderate, the doors do not fit, and the cause is a shifted cab and possibly a bent mount bracket rather than a bent pillar. So the measurement is the diagnosis. Cab dimensions get checked against published points, mount heights get compared side to side, and door gaps get recorded at four positions per door. Frame and structural welding runs $750 to $20,000 and cab body repair covering door, hood, fender and bumper work runs $750 to $12,000. Straightening panels on a cab that has moved on its mounts produces a truck that looks correct and fits badly, which is the failure mode this step exists to prevent. ## The deck plate and the fifth wheel plate carry everything Behind the cab is a deck plate and a fifth wheel assembly mounted to the frame rails, and between them they transfer the entire load of a loaded trailer into the tractor. Mounting fatigue there is a slow finding: elongated bolt holes, a plate that has begun to work against the rail, and cracking at the toe of a mounting bracket weld. None of it shows in a walk around and all of it is consequential. Fifth wheel plate install runs $1,500 to $5,500, eight to twenty two hours. Tow hitch, pintle and gooseneck installation runs $500 to $3,500. On any tractor coming in for rear frame or deck work we inspect the plate mounting as a matter of course and photograph what we find, because it is the one item back there where a small crack has a large consequence and the one an operator has no easy way to inspect themselves. ## Painting a tractor is a large job done in stages Refinishing a tractor is not a scaled up car job. There is a lot of surface, several materials in one panel run, and colour breaks designed by a fleet rather than by a manufacturer. Full refinish and repaint runs $5,000 to $30,000, forty to two hundred hours. Paint supplies calculate at $55 per paint hour, so on a job of that size the material line is substantial and it follows the hours written rather than being estimated as a lump. Matching is the harder half on a section repair. A fleet colour applied at a body builder years ago is not necessarily the colour on any code, and a truck that has run in Southern California sun has moved further. We match on the panel under corrected light and blend into adjacent panels, which on a slab sided sleeper means the blend has to be planned to a body line rather than found. Colour match and panel blending runs $500 to $5,000. ## What a tractor cannot come here for This is worth restating on the heaviest class we work on. Body, paint, structure and equipment installation are in scope: cab work, fairings, sleeper panels, deck plate, hitches, racks, lighting, marking and refinish. Powertrain work is not. Regulatory vehicle inspections are not. Emissions work is not. An operator planning downtime should book those separately and, ideally, adjacent in time so the truck is off the road once rather than twice. What we will do is coordinate. If a truck is here for two weeks of body and paint work, that is a window somebody else can use, and we will hold a vehicle to suit a schedule where the yard allows it. Light bar, strobe and emergency lighting installation runs $400 to $3,500 and reflective marking runs $250 to $1,200, both of which are easy to fit into a larger visit rather than being their own trip across the county. --- Source: https://ocrv.guru/vehicles/commercial-trucks/semi-truck/ 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/.