Frame

When the structure is off, nothing bolted to it sits right

A car that tracks to one side, eats a front tire or has a door that will not seat is often a body that moved in the hit. The aligner at Ray's finds it and pulls it back to factory specifications.

Call (401) 461-9200 Request an estimate

A little bend in the structure shows up everywhere

Modern cars are built around a unibody, one welded shell that holds the suspension, the doors and the crash structure in exact positions. Take a hard hit and that shell can shift even when the outside panels look nearly fine. You find out later: a steering wheel sitting crooked, tires wearing on the inside edge, a hood gap wider on one side.

Worse, a shell that has moved will not protect you the way it was engineered to in the next collision. Crush zones are designed to fold in a set pattern, and a car with a bent structure can fold somewhere else. This is why structure gets checked on any serious hit, before a single new panel is hung.

Measure, pull, then measure again on the laser aligner

The shop runs a laser uni-body aligner that reads the car's body dimensions and compares them with the factory numbers for that make and model. The first readings tell Ray exactly which points have moved and by how much, so the pulling is aimed at the damage instead of guessed at by eye.

The car is anchored and the structure is drawn back in controlled stages, and the lasers take readings again after each pull. Nobody calls it done until the measurements land back inside factory specification. Pulling without re-measuring is how shops return cars that look straight and drive crooked.

I-CAR trained technicians handle the pulling and the panel work that follows, so the frame, the fit and the finish are all done by the same people on Allens Ave.

How you can tell the frame work was done right

You can check the result without any equipment. Door gaps run even front to back, the hood and trunk close without a fight, and the car drives straight with your hands loose on the wheel. Ask Ray about the final readings, and have the wheels aligned afterwards so the road confirms what the lasers already showed.

Frame and unibody repairs fall under the same promise as the rest of our body work, a lifetime warranty for as long as you own the vehicle. If your car was pushed off true and you are not sure how far, call (401) 461-9200 and Ray or Jenn will set up a time to look at it.

Two Ray's Travelers technicians crouched at the underside of an SUV in the bay

Lifetime warranty on all body repairs, for as long as you own the vehicle.

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