Before and After: What to Look For

Look at the blend, not the repair. A repair area itself is usually fine. What gives a job away is the transition into adjacent panels, and specifically whether there is a visible line where new finish meets old.

On a sun faded coach that line is the tell. Colour matched to a factory code rather than to the vehicle as it sits will read correct in the shop and wrong in daylight six months later. Matched to current condition and blended outward, there is nothing to see.

• Blend transition into adjacent panels, viewed at a low angle in daylight
• Panel gap consistency along the full length of a seam
• Whether seals and sealants were replaced or reused
• Fastener condition, painted over heads suggest a shortcut
• Slide operation through a full cycle, not just extended
• Whether a dimensional record exists for structural work

Whether the frame is within factory tolerance. Whether the debonded area behind a repaired panel was actually mapped or the repair simply stopped at the visible damage. Whether the water entry path that caused the problem was fixed or just covered.

Those three account for most repairs that fail eighteen months later, and none of them are visible in a finished photograph. Which is why the dimensional record and the teardown documentation matter more than the gallery does.