No.

6 February 2013
Automotive insight for Members

A sustainable repair is a safe repair

R2R
R2R a sustainable repair
is a safe repair

INCREASING REPAIR COSTS

BENEFITS NOBODY
With a combination of high repair costs and vehicles
depreciating in value a UK insurer is more likely to be
forced to deem a vehicle “beyond economical repair”

A financial loss to the insurer, and an inconvenience

to the vehicle owner. That same “beyond economical
repair” is no good to the repairer (bodyshop) as he can
earn nothing from it.
But even if the vehicle does not become a
“write off” increased repair costs have to be
reflected in increased insurance premiums.
The Association of British Insurers is
committed to reducing motor insurance
costs by reducing legal costs, and reducing
the disproportionate risks posed by young
drivers. Thatcham has, for 40 years, helped
control repair costs by ensuring that cars
are repairable, and that the time taken to
repair each vehicle is fair to all parties and
is transparent. Yet when the replacement
parts costs for a relatively low speed, minor
collision for a typical small family hatchback
exceed £1300, what more can Thatcham do?
And Thatcham is increasingly hearing the
frustration of insurers AND repairers at
unacceptable key to key times due to waiting
for parts and panels to arrive, and how this
is letting them down in the eyes of their
customers.
Thatcham is supporting a more sustainable
repair by reducing that typical parts cost,
helping to reduce the delays and costs of
waiting for replacement parts, and helping
reduce the 3 million tonnes of plastic that
goes to landfill in the UK each year.
It is all too easy to replace parts rather than
to repair them; perhaps driven by estimating
systems, and, perhaps understandably, by
a degree of caution taken when considering
repairs in the pedestrian protection areas
on modern cars. In the fast-paced and
demanding world of accident repairs it is
difficult to find the time to assess a safe
repair method, and even harder to find
sufficient supporting documentation to prove
this.
Thatcham has created Ready2Repair
(R2R), in partnership with our stakeholders,
to provide guidance and recommendations
for safe and effective repair.
R2R a sustainable repair
is a safe repair
Benefits for all
A typical front corner collision on a small
hatchback that results in replacement of the
bonnet, front bumper cover, front wing, and
a headlamp can easily generate a £1300
cost just for the parts. If all four of those
parts could be safely and correctly repaired
that would immediately make a significant
cost saving for the insurer.
But what is the benefit for the repairer?
Surely he loses out; his profit from parts
sales? It is often reported that the discounts
available to the repairer on parts purchases
are such that typically a repairer will make
as much as twice the margin on labour and
paint & materials than he does on parts
sales, and he has that added repair time to
his margin rather than a fixed replacement
panel time.
If we take this same typical repair as an
example, the repairer can immediately start
the repairs, which is a clear benefit to his
key to key time. Were he to replace those
same parts, how long does he have to wait
for them once he has placed an order? And
there is less pressure on the cash flow for
the repairer too as that large cost is taken
out of the overall repair cost. Even if smaller
incidental parts need ordering,
it is quite possible in many cases that repairs
can be started whilst waiting for these to
arrive. Not to mention the reduction is waste
and recycling costs of disposing of the metal
and plastic parts he would have replaced.
With depreciation of cars resulting in fewer
heavy structural repairs being economical
to repair, many repairers have reported a
decrease in “panel” hours proportionately to
the M.E.T and paint disciplines. So, they now
have an opportunity to fully utilise the panel
beater again, and to redress that imbalance?
The benefit to the owner/driver, the ultimate
customer, is in a reduced key to key time.
It is seldom understood by customers why
new parts take so long to arrive. Of course,
the biggest inconvenience to the customer is
their car being “written off”, and if adoption
of R2R means keeping the repair cost on
the right side of being economical to repair,
everyone’s a winner.
so the benefits of
‘REPAIR NOT REPLACE’
are very clear;
1. LESS OVERALL REPAIR COST
2. REDUCED KEY TO KEY TIME
3. IMPROVED CASH FLOW FOR THE REPAIRER
4. REDUCED WASTE AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
5. REDUCTION OF TOTAL LOSSES
R2R a sustainable repair
is a safe repair

So what is R2R?
Thatcham has developed R2R as a
cohesive and linked suite of guidance and
recommendation documents together with
the necessary training needed to effectively
implement safe and correct repair.
The Thatcham Repair Research team (a
separate team from the Repair Information
department), who work daily with vehicle
manufacturers around the world, began
the process by bringing in 12 popular cars
typically repaired daily in UK bodyshops.
They applied their expertise to creating safe
and concise repair recommendations, in a
picture and illustration format, that could be
used to correctly guide repair decisions.
In conjunction with the Repair Information
department, who produce the methods for
escribe and Thatchamnet, a consistent
format was produced, new symbols
developed for clear understanding of the
data, and the research process defined so
that R2R recommendations can be fully
integrated within escribe.
This includes publishing these repair
recommendations in a format very similar
to the universally recognised Thatcham
methods so that they are quick to read and
understand, and referring the user to other
relevant methods advise within escribe rather
than duplicate information unnecessarily.
The recommendations include advice on
how to safely assess when to repair not
replace, the materials used, and limits of
repair in certain areas. They identify other
risks and give guidance on M.E.T strip and,
of course, best practice for safe working. This
last aspect was very important. Thatcham
recommend efficient repairs that are also
safe repairs. This is very-SMART repair.
 R2R a sustainable repair
is a safe repair

THATCHAM DID WHAT NO OTHER RESEARCH CENTRE

OR DATA PROVIDER COULD OR WOULD DO

Early in 2012 Thatcham commenced

a programme of repair validation for
Ready2Repair recommendations.
The programme was developed to clearly
establish whether repair of components to
this standard returned that part to the pre-
accident level of pedestrian protection.
Typically, Thatcham set themselves the
highest standards.
The car selected to initiate the validation
programme was the 8th generation Honda
Civic, a UK built car that has sold in excess
of 50,000 units in the UK alone, and is
from a manufacturer with a reputation for
a high level of passive pedestrian safety
engineering.
A car that had had neither previous damage
nor repairs was acquired to ensure no
previous repairs could affect the test results.
The panels had damage induced in them
“in-house” and were repaired at Thatcham
using the recommendations created for the
sustainable R2R programme. The panels
for test would be correctly remounted on
the car at the test lab, or else tested on a
specially designed test jig. An independent
consultancy company was contracted to
select the testing points, oversee the testing,
and to provide the analysis data for the panel
performance comparison after the tests.

A series of tests was devised, to a modified

Euro NCAP protocol, to test the pedestrian
protection performance of a series of
repaired components against their new
and undamaged equivalent. The Euro
NCAP protocol requires a series of tests
for a pedestrian protection score, but for
this programme only areas related to the
repaired parts were tested.
 adult
child head
head
upper
leg

leg

good adequate marginal

As with a Euro NCAP test protocol different impactors were used;

these being engineered and globally accepted to accurately
represent human body regions for this kind of testing (see European
New Car Assessment Programme Pedestrian Testing protocol
Version5.3.1 November 2011 (1)).

The impactors were:

1. Adult Headform
2. Child Headform
3. Upper Legform
4. Lower Legform
Individual component (sub system) tests A single location was selected for each body
such as this are carried out as it is impossible region to be tested as the testing was required
to predict where a complete adult dummy’s to validate the repaired performance of each
head would strike in any given test scenario repair part, not the vehicle itself, which has
due to different car and human shapes and already been tested and assessed by Euro
sizes. So these tests have been devised NCAP.
to assess each part of the vehicle passive
pedestrian safety region, by comparing the
measured accelerations with biomechanical
reference values to give ratings of fair, weak,
or poor.
R2R a sustainable repair
is a safe repair

The Tests For each test of the headlamps and the front bumper
covers, four tests were carried out:
1. Light damage repaired
2. Light and heavy damage repaired
3. Undamaged new panel (baseline sample for comparison data)
4. Undamaged new panel (baseline sample for comparison data)

Two undamaged new panels were selected
for each test as in each test scenario there
will be minor variances. Whilst precise
calibration and rigorous standards for
preparing, conducting, and measuring result
from impact tests are applied, there must be
acceptable tolerances of variances between
tests.
Whilst sophisticated equipment
is used, results can be varied by:
For the headlamp test an Upper Legform
was aimed to impact the leading edge of
the bonnet as proscribed by the Euro NCAP
protocol.
For the bumper test a Lower Legform impact
point was chosen as far outboard as possible
to minimize interaction with the bumper
reinforcement beam, yet not so as to be at
a shallow enough angle that the Legform
would rotate (which would make the test
consistency hard to maintain).

• Temperature and humidity of the test

laboratory environment
• Minute variance in impactor velocity
• Impactor aiming accuracy
• Measuring accelerometer accuracy
• Materials, methods, and dimensions
For the bonnet tests five tests were conducted:
1. Light damage repaired with approximately 1mm of filler
2. Medium damage repaired back to almost fully metal finish
3. Heavy damage repaired with approximately 5mm of filler
4. Undamaged new panel (baseline sample for comparison data)
5. Undamaged new panel (baseline sample for comparison data)

As well as the Honda Civic, to give a broader range of comparison data, bonnet tests were
conducted for several other higher volume selling vehicles: Audi A3, VW Golf VI, Ford Focus,
and Vauxhall Astra.

For the Civic the bonnets were tested in-situ refitted to the car. For the other models the bonnets
were tested on a jig.

New Bumber test Upper Legform test Lower Legform test

R2R a sustainable repair
is a safe repair

The Repairs
Headlamp – Headlamp mounting
brackets are typically of plastic construction,
and are designed to fracture when significant
force is applied to them, in order to absorb
and mitigate the energy of a pedestrian
impact. Repairs of these mounting brackets
are not uncommon and many manufacturers
provide repair kits for such (see escribe
technical newsletter TL869 and TL886 for
examples).
For the light repair one of these mountain
brackets was repaired using a generic plastic
repair procedure.
Bonnets – As stated above, light,
medium and heavy repair types have been
tested. The area of repair on each bonnet
was kept consistent.
For the light damage the area is worked
back to a near metal finish, with a maximum
of 1mm of filler application to finish
For the first medium damage the panel had
minor damage induced and was then worked
back to a near metal finish, again with 1mm
of filler application; but the key aspect being
a lot of heat applied.

For the heavy repair all 6 mounting brackets
were repaired using this procedure.
Front bumper cover – the
offside (RH) corner was chosen and two
levels of repair carried out:
For the alternative a 5mm skim of filler
has been applied to an undamaged bonnet
for consistency as the amount of filler
application has been a driving question
behind this testing.

For the light repair light scuffs and abrasions

were induced and repaired.

For the heavy repair a 150mm cut was

induced and then repaired with a reinforced
backing pad applied to the internal surface
of the bumper.
 Bonnet Repair

Headlamp Pre-Repair

Bumper Repair - Heavy

Bumper Repair - Light

R2R a sustainable repair
is a safe repair

The Results
Headlamps – The four tests yielded Bonnets – Test concludes that all
some interesting results. There was some the repaired bonnets performed within
increase to the forces seen for the heavy the Euro NCAP performance criteria and
repair where all 6 mounting brackets had do not compromise pedestrian protection
been repaired, with up to a 6.7% increase performance. However, the bonnet repair
some of the forces measured, and up to 9.8% with 5mm of filler had a significantly
overall. However there was a 4% difference difference in performance, therefore we
in some of the measured forces and 2.6% would recommend care when considering
overall increase in the total forces recorded this type of repair.
between the 2 new and undamaged original
headlamps. This could be seen as a testing
variance, but all four headlamps displayed In fact, every bumper,
failure of the upper mounts in a consistent
bonnet and headlamp
manner, and all returned results well within
the criteria for a Euro NCAP maximum tested would have scored
pedestrian safety performance score.
in the green zone for Euro
Front Bumpers – Again the test NCAP performance.
results were fairly consistent. In terms of
physical damage qualities the heavy repair It should be noted that if a vehicle
bumper displayed a surface crack, but all 4 manufacturer specifically prohibits a repair
tests showed similar damage to the bumper on a particular part or area of that part, then
reinforcement beam which suggests that Thatcham recommends that this guidance
the covers were all performing to a similar is adhered to.
standard. Data is taken for Knee Shear,
Knee Bending Angle, and Tibia Acceleration,
and what was of note in this test was that the
heavy repaired bumper performed almost
exactly the same in these measurements
as the two new undamaged bumpers.
R2R a sustainable repair
is a safe repair

HOW TO GET
READY2REPAIR
As we have seen, the Repair Information team is already
integrating Ready2Repair research and recommendation
into the methods production for escribe.

Whilst they fully research the vehicle for the

replacement methods it is beneficial that they can
and should research repairability. Technical newsletter
TL888 already explains many of the symbols added for
R2R pictorial recommendations, to aid the repairer in
making the correct and safe decision.

The team is underway with producing R2R
into escribe for 6 vehicles by the end of
the year; including key vehicles such as
Ford B-Max, BMW 1 series, Peugeot 208,
and Mercedes B-Class. This demanding
schedule is to ensure that the programme is
fully integrated and at full speed for the start
of 2013.
This is just the first phase, with further
developments to come.
To implement this programme effectively it is
essential to have attended the R2R training
at the Thatcham Automotive Academy which
has been successfully offering a suite of
specific training courses to support this
initiative. Here they teach innovative new
approaches to repair techniques including
aluminium repair, dent pulling, and plastic
welding and stapling.
0-2mm
This programme has been a partnership,
working with insurer and repairer, and so far
the feedback has been excellent. There have
been repair not replace initiatives before,
and a hint of cynicism is only natural. But
none have had the full resource of Thatcham
Research supporting them, none have had
the experience and methods integration
into escribe and none has had a crash test
validation programme to give the insurer and
repairer that confidence.
It’s no wonder that where this R2R
programme has already been adopted by
repairers they have consistently reported
that their productivity and efficiency have
increased, and that key to key times have
decreased.
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HAVE YOU CONSIDERED THATCHAM’S

NEW SUSTAINABLE REPAIR SCHEME?

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recommendations, covering the most
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repair, rather than replace, is appropriate,
achieveable and safe.

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Damage Assessment.

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Call today on 01635 293174 equipment that will enable technicians to repair
non-structural areas of the vehicle, rather than waste
www.thatcham.org/r2r time waiting for new parts and then fitting them.
Automotive insight for Members

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