Body Shop Can’t Fix Door Scratch Because It’s Electric

[Mach-Lee]

Curious how many of you have run into this. I have a small scratch on my door from a rock I wanted fixed. My insurance has already quoted it. I called a body shop, gave them my vehicle type, and they scheduled my appointment and everything. Today I get a call back: “Oh, the computer says we can't work on it because it's electric". And I say, "It's just a door scratch, you don't have to take apart anything dangerous". “Sorry, but we're not certified and we don't have the safety equipment in case something would happen". I gave up at that point.

This is a national chain (Gerber), and apparently they have to certify each location for any EV work, no matter how small ('tis but a scratch). He said it affects Tesla, Ford, and Toyota vehicles (but not other brands?). Wonder if their ban applies to hybrid vehicles or not, because there are a lot of those these days. Which begs the question—if they work on hybrids, why not EVs?

I can see the concern if they have to drop the pack or something, but this excessive EV danger paranoia gets annoying at times. It's just another Ford SUV. The only thing they need to be careful about is not heating the crap out of the car during paint curing (less than 140ºF or something), but that's really easy, just turn down the temp a little bit.

I found another body shop affiliated with a Ford dealer, the first question I asked on the phone was "Do you work on ELECTRIC cars?", she had to check but then remembered they've worked on other Mach-E's. So I will start over again there.

Make sure you ask the EV question first with any body shop. I'm also disappointed a huge body shop would refuse to work on even minor body repairs.

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[highland58]

We did have a shop refuse to do body work on a Nissan Leaf, we never did that work before trading in the car. I recently had work done at a Gerber shop on my MME, no problems and they did a great job.

 

[Snakebitten]

You'd think there was a No Smoking/Flammable sign etched into the imagination of some folks when they hear EV.

 

[Travlcub]

Curious how many of you have run into this. I have a small scratch on my door from a rock I wanted fixed. My insurance has already quoted it. I called a body shop, gave them my vehicle type, and they scheduled my appointment and everything. Today I get a call back: “Oh, the computer says we can't work on it because it's electric". And I say, "It's just a door scratch, you don't have to take apart anything dangerous". “Sorry, but we're not certified and we don't have the safety equipment in case something would happen". I gave up at that point.

This is a national chain (Gerber), and apparently they have to certify each location for any EV work, no matter how small ('tis but a scratch). He said it affects Tesla, Ford, and Toyota vehicles (but not other brands?). Wonder if their ban applies to hybrid vehicles or not, because there are a lot of those these days. Which begs the question—if they work on hybrids, why not EVs?

I can see the concern if they have to drop the pack or something, but this excessive EV danger paranoia gets annoying at times. It's just another Ford SUV. The only thing they need to be careful about is not heating the crap out of the car during paint curing (less than 140ºF or something), but that's really easy, just turn down the temp a little bit.

I found another body shop affiliated with a Ford dealer, the first question I asked on the phone was "Do you work on ELECTRIC cars?", she had to check but then remembered they've worked on other Mach-E's. So I will start over again there.

Make sure you ask the EV question first with any body shop. I'm also disappointed a huge body shop would refuse to work on even minor body repairs.

I sort of want to laugh but it’s not really funny. Urgh! Can an auto retailer do it?

 

[AtomicInternet]

Welcome to our litigious society. If someone can get sued for something they will get sued for something. I'm confident this is a condition for their liability insurance and not anything actually technical.

 

[eponey]

My understanding is sometimes they also "quarantine" the electric cars...for some reason.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Back when my car was mostly new it got vandalized. I first called some body shops, some of whom could work on it, some of whom rejected me due to not being EV-certified (most of the independent shops said they could work on it, most of the rejections were from big chains). I ended up contracting with a mobile paint shop to do the repair for less than what my deductible would cost. When the techs arrived at my office, they were wearing Brand T jerseys. They did a great job and also repaired a few rock chips that were in my hood at no additional charge. I could not tell where any of the repairs were after they were done and the repair was really too good since there was no orange peel so the texture of the side with the damage didn’t match the texture of the other side perfectly.

 

[Monke]

One shop mentioned that they would not work on EVs. However they fixed my Ram before so the lady asked for an override from her boss since the fix did not require lifting the car. The fix was for a complete refinish lift gate and a rear fender and a back up camera replacement. These parts were destroyed by a man in a van doctor paint touch up. My MME eventually got fixed by another state chain body shop approved by Ford. The workmanship was horrible. The paint was okay but assembly skills were a piece of something not good.

The shop that refused to fix your MME might have done you a favor. You want a tech who has an experience fixing MME.

 

[Tampamike]

I had a small local shop handle a door dent and some other minor nicks. There were no qualms about it being electric. That wasn’t even addressed.

 

[Jimrpa]

Curious how many of you have run into this. I have a small scratch on my door from a rock I wanted fixed. My insurance has already quoted it. I called a body shop, gave them my vehicle type, and they scheduled my appointment and everything. Today I get a call back: “Oh, the computer says we can't work on it because it's electric". And I say, "It's just a door scratch, you don't have to take apart anything dangerous". “Sorry, but we're not certified and we don't have the safety equipment in case something would happen". I gave up at that point.

This is a national chain (Gerber), and apparently they have to certify each location for any EV work, no matter how small ('tis but a scratch). He said it affects Tesla, Ford, and Toyota vehicles (but not other brands?). Wonder if their ban applies to hybrid vehicles or not, because there are a lot of those these days. Which begs the question—if they work on hybrids, why not EVs?

I can see the concern if they have to drop the pack or something, but this excessive EV danger paranoia gets annoying at times. It's just another Ford SUV. The only thing they need to be careful about is not heating the crap out of the car during paint curing (less than 140ºF or something), but that's really easy, just turn down the temp a little bit.

I found another body shop affiliated with a Ford dealer, the first question I asked on the phone was "Do you work on ELECTRIC cars?", she had to check but then remembered they've worked on other Mach-E's. So I will start over again there.

Make sure you ask the EV question first with any body shop. I'm also disappointed a huge body shop would refuse to work on even minor body repairs.

Sadly, I learned this lesson shortly after I got my Mustang Mach-E and it was attacked by the (evil) parking bollards at the Barnes. The body shop I used in the past for ICE vehicles handles Teslas as well. In talking to the owner, they had just gotten their certification at the time to work on Ford BEVs (they were already certified to work on regular Fords). So, I was lucky in that I could use my preferred body shop, and I learned about the EV certification thing.

 

[VindictivePantz]

Good to know, as my MME got smacked last night and luckily, it looks like a buff/filler/repaint situation (pics soon for advice,) but I was actually going to start with my local mechanic and find out who they recommend as working with a "local" shop is hopefully easier.

 

[Maquis]

My nephew is shop manager at a local body shop that’s been in business for over 70 years. They have no issues with EVs. Guys are properly trained.

 

[MellowJohnny]

My understanding is sometimes they also "quarantine" the electric cars...for some reason.

Because they could blow at any time!! One minute you're just minding your own business, driving around, and.....BOOM! Hindenburg....

Oh, the humanity....

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

My solution is to not get fixed that tiny but oh-so-visible door ding and scratch on my rear right side door. (Well, actually it’s because I’m cheap.)

 

[zvez]

Curious how many of you have run into this. I have a small scratch on my door from a rock I wanted fixed. My insurance has already quoted it. I called a body shop, gave them my vehicle type, and they scheduled my appointment and everything. Today I get a call back: “Oh, the computer says we can't work on it because it's electric". And I say, "It's just a door scratch, you don't have to take apart anything dangerous". “Sorry, but we're not certified and we don't have the safety equipment in case something would happen". I gave up at that point.

This is a national chain (Gerber), and apparently they have to certify each location for any EV work, no matter how small ('tis but a scratch). He said it affects Tesla, Ford, and Toyota vehicles (but not other brands?). Wonder if their ban applies to hybrid vehicles or not, because there are a lot of those these days. Which begs the question—if they work on hybrids, why not EVs?

I can see the concern if they have to drop the pack or something, but this excessive EV danger paranoia gets annoying at times. It's just another Ford SUV. The only thing they need to be careful about is not heating the crap out of the car during paint curing (less than 140ºF or something), but that's really easy, just turn down the temp a little bit.

I found another body shop affiliated with a Ford dealer, the first question I asked on the phone was "Do you work on ELECTRIC cars?", she had to check but then remembered they've worked on other Mach-E's. So I will start over again there.

Make sure you ask the EV question first with any body shop. I'm also disappointed a huge body shop would refuse to work on even minor body repairs.

it's all part of the anti ev rhetoric circulating now, so much mis and disinformation

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