High Roof and Extended Van Repair Serving Long Beach

By inspecting the roof bows, not just the panel. The bows carry structural load and tie the sidewalls together, so a crushed bow means the body has lost torsional stiffness even if the outer panel looks repairable. Repairing the visible panel over a deformed bow produces a body that flexes and cracks at the repair edge within a year. We straighten or replace the bow first, then address the skin.

Usually adding auxiliary battery capacity, an inverter and additional circuits for equipment the factory system was never sized for. The recurring problem on these is undersized cable on runs that are long because the vehicle is long, which produces voltage drop that presents as equipment working intermittently. We calculate the actual load and size cable for the run length rather than for the amperage alone.

Longer roof spans flex more than short wheelbase versions, and that flex works the factory seam sealer until it cracks. Once cracked, water enters the joint and corrosion advances from inside the seam outward where it stays hidden until it appears through the paint. On any upper body repair we strip and reapply the seam sealer properly rather than running a bead over the old material, which would just trap the moisture already in there.

Panel repair with refinish runs $750 to $3,000. Roof damage involving bow straightening or replacement runs $3,500 to $9,000. Structural damage from a significant overhead strike or a crosswind incident runs $9,000 to $30,000. The variable that moves the number most is whether the roof bows are involved, since that turns a panel job into a structural one.