TLDR
Five representative jobs showing what the estimate said versus what teardown found. The gap is the whole point.
OCRV Center case studies show the difference between damage visible at estimate and damage found at teardown, across collision, water intrusion, delamination, fleet, and conversion repair work.
Representative Jobs
- Class A collision, carrier estimate $8,400: Photographs showed front cap damage and a cracked headlight. Structural measurement found the frame displaced at two reference points and the entry door opening out of square. Documented supplement brought the approved repair to what the coach actually needed, and the owner kept a vehicle that would otherwise have tracked wrong for the rest of its life.
- Fifth wheel slide leak, owner expected a seal job: Water staining on the slide floor. Metering found subfloor saturation extending four feet beyond the visible stain and into the main floor structure. Seal replacement was the smallest line on the final job. Caught two seasons earlier it would have been a $600 repair.
- Sprinter conversion, total loss declared: Carrier valued a base cargo van and declared total loss. Documented build specification and photographs of the conversion changed the valuation materially, and the owner kept and repaired a vehicle they had spent three years building.
- Delivery fleet, twelve units: Accumulated scrapes across a coastal route fleet, each individually trivial, several already corroding. Batch programme addressed all twelve over six weeks with formula on file, staged so the operator never lost more than two units at a time.
- Vintage coach, declined by three shops: Front cap unavailable from any source. Fabricated a replacement from measurement of the damaged original. This is a large part of why vintage owners find us, and why we keep a fabrication bay rather than outsourcing.
The Pattern
Four of the five above share one thing: the initial assessment materially understated the job. That is not an argument that estimates are dishonest. It is that a photograph cannot show a displaced frame reference point, a saturated subfloor, or the value of a build behind a wall panel.
The documentation we produce at intake exists precisely to close that gap, and it is the single most valuable thing a specialist shop contributes to a claim.