Safety Equipment Replacement after Collision

After a collision, most child safety seats need replaced. For your child's protection.Depending on the safety seat manufacturer, the recommendations vary. Some say that use of the seat should be ceased immediately regardless of wether or not the chair was occupied during the accident no matter the scope of the accident.  Graco, Evenflo, Cosco/Safety 1st/Eddie Bauer, and Sunshine Kids all have FAQ's on their websites regarding this issue. For the most part, they recommend to cease the use of the damaged equipment immediately, and seek replacements.
Britax recommends that use of a child restraint be discontinued if it has been in a moderate to severe crash. They also advise of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) position that it is not necessary to replace a child restraint after a minor crash. A minor crash is one that meets ALL of following criteria:
-The vehicle was able to be dricen away from the crash site
-The vehicle door nearest the child restraint was undamaged
-There were no injuries to any of the vehicle occupants
-The air bags (if present) did not deploy AND
-There is no visible damage to the child restraint.
Please note that these criteria do NOT differentiate between an unoccupied and occupied seat. The carseat has been subjected to crash forces even if it was unoccupied at the time of the crash. There could be unseen damage from the stress of the crash that could potentially cause the seat to fail to properly protect your child in the event of another crash.
The at-fault driver's auto insurance should be contacted about covering replacent(s). If you live in a no-fault insurance state, then you would pursue replacement through your own car insurance company.
ALSO: Any seatbelt that was being worn at the time of an accident needs to be replaced!

It's been a great week here at Lafayette Auto Body!

Keeping with a tradition of helping our customers the very best we can, we have completed several different kinds of jobs this week!

Water-leak testing and repair is something that involves great patience and know-how. We had a 2010 Jeep Patriot come in that was leaking heavily. We use a pressurized system that "shows" us where the water is leaking into the vehicle, and how it's getting there. (Sometimes we have to trace the leak backwards from where it is leaking into the vehicle to where the water is actually coming from in order to fix the issue.) In this case, a couple of roof moldings needed replaced.

We also had a tent trailer come in that needed new cables. Not only did we install the new ones on the trailer, we also built and fabricated the new cables custom for this job.

Windshields sometimes need replaced. No matter what kind of vehicle you have, we can get a windshield and install it for you. This week we had 2 motor homes that needed windshields. Remember: No matter what kind of repairs your vehicle needs, YOU always get to choose the repair facility.

Another customer we helped this week needed an alternator, some roof sealants, and a repair on the ice maker in his RV. The alternator proved difficult to find, but our professional, trained technicians had no problem completing quality repairs in a timely manner.

Here's to another week... and here's to our customers! 'Cause without you, there would be no us!

Camping Season is HERE!

At this, the beginning of camping season, we find a lot of customers in need of two things that everyone should know about.

Firstly, about twice a year the sealants on an RV need to be checked. This is a service we provide free of charge to our customers. By checking the sealants around your roof, windows, slides, and vents, you're actually protecting your investment. Keeping the sealants in good condition prevents leaks, which can be quite costly to repair; especially when walls or floors have been rotted out.

Second is servicing the appliances. After your vehicle has sat over an extended period of time, rust and corrosion can build up in the burners, and insects build nests in the flues. The burners and flues need to be thoroughly cleaned out to be sure that they will work correctly. These repairs also prevent fires that can be caused by the nests and corrosion when running the appliances.

Have your sealants checked and appliances serviced by the place "Where Quality Counts!"
Lafayette Auto Body & RV Repair

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Frame Repairs: With PROOF!

Ever notice that when you call in to the claims department for your insurance company, they want you to go somewhere specific for an estimate? Those shops that they recommend are called direct repair facilities. They give the insurance company a discount for sending customers their way, and in return they must do their repairs the way the insurance company wants them to. In most instances, this includes using substandard parts and cutting corners on the repairs to save the insurance company money.
Most of these shops don't do set-up and measure on your vehicle. "What does that mean?" you may ask... Well, the frame of your vehicle is what everything else sits on. If your frame is not in alignment to the factory specs, the safety of your vehicle is compromised. All of the other repairs can be perfect, but if the frame isn't aligned correctly, and you get into another collision, it could be very dangerous.

DID YOU KNOW?

Even the lightest impact can cause damage to your vehicle's frame!

We, here at Lafayette Auto Body & RV Repair, have professional, trained technicians and state-of-the-art frame equipment.

Frame repairs; with proof. Our machine checks the alignment of the frame, and lets us know if it needs to be straightened out. After the technician has pulled it into alignment, the computer prints out a sheet that shows us that the frame is within factory specs. The frame of the vehicle is now aligned the way it should be and safe to drive again.

This 2006 Chevrolet G35 is on the frame rack getting the frame checked out. We want our customers safe while on the road!

Even your RV can fit onto our frame rack! We can fix those too!

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Remember: any shop can fix your car. Not all of them do the same kind of repairs, though. If you want your vehicle repaired the right way, at the place "Where Quality Counts!" You know where to go!

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YOU choose who fixes your car. Choose body repair done right. Choose Lafayette Auto Body.

Custom Linings Spray in Bedliners!

Custom Linings Spray in Bedliners, applied by Lafayette Auto Body & RV Repair look GREAT in the bed of YOUR truck! They improve the aesthetic quality and protect the surface of the bed and rails.

DID YOU KNOW??? Custom Linings Spray in Bedliners are not just for the bed of your truck!
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Spray in bedliners are also great for gun stocks, utility trailers, and many other applications, to keep them from rotting and/or rusting. We did this boat trailer for a customer who wanted to keep it from rusting:

Another thing Custom Linings is great for is Jeeps. The superior sound deadening quality is awesome. Here is one we did the under side and the inside just for that purpose:

We have also had the opportunity to spray at a local park a galvenized cover on the ground, to keep the children from burning the bottom of their feet on it in the summer time.

As you can see, Custom Linings spray in bedliners have many uses, and are great for many applications. Interested in protecting your investment? Call us for a bedliner. Stop by for a quote. If you're interested in more information on these liners, please visit the bedliner page on our website! Lafayette Auto Body & Custom Linings

Trailer Flooring

We have seen quite a few trailers lately that have needed new floors. Sometimes the customer just wants a new floor because the current one is worn out, or wants to update the flooring. Sometimes it's simply because a leak was ignored, and the water damage in the floor is rotton.

If the flooring just needs updated, we can pull just the floor covering off and replace it with what the customer decides they want in it's place. Sometimes the cabinets and slide outs have to be removed and re-installed, and sometimes they don't in this case. It depends on how the flooring is constructed, and what the customer wants.

In the case that the floor is rotton or worn out, the whole structure of the floor has to be replaced. Unlike the factories where the trailers are built, we use real wood. Not particle board or osb. To do the job correctly, all of the furniture, lower cabinets and slide outs have to be removed prior to the repairs. The wood is replaced, new floor covering goes on (carpet, tile, etc.), and then the furniture, cabinets, and slide outs can be re-installed. 

A lot of time goes into a floor replacement. At Lafayette Auto Body & RV Repair, "Where Quality Counts" you can feel great about the repairs. Not only does the quality in the end exceed what it was before, but you also get a professional job done by trained, experienced technicians. You get a guarantee of your satisfaction in the finished product, a warranty for all of the workmanship, and a brand new floor.

Hot Water

This week we had a customer come in who bought a new hot water heater for his Alpenlite trailer, but didn't want to install it on his own. He thought he could handle the actual installation, but wanted to have professionals take care of it for other reasons. A customer's reasoning for coming to us for work on their second home means a lot. Safety and functionality were this customer's reasoning. It was important to him to have his water heater professionally installed so that he could be assured that he would have no problems and no leaks in any of the systems. He wanted to be sure that he would have no issues when dry camping with his family.

Sometimes it's important to know why your customers choose you. This customer chose us because he felt that he could trust our professional technicians with a job he could have otherwise done on his own to do a quality job and ensure the safety and functionality at the same time.

SO... if you need a hot water heater installed in your RV, or anything else for that matter, remember Lafayette Auto Body & RV Repair, "Where Quality Counts!"