Auto Repair and Collision Editing and Proofreading Services

An initial repair estimate quotes $1,800 for collision damage. Once the bumper is off, the shop finds a bent frame rail and a damaged sensor bracket that could not be seen or assessed from the outside, and the supplement brings the total to $3,400. The customer sees a number that nearly doubled and hears "we found more damage" as a phrase that could mean anything from a legitimate discovery to padding the bill, because nothing in either document actually shows what could and could not be determined before the teardown, or what specifically changed.

We edit what auto repair and collision shops produce to estimate and document repair work — initial repair estimates and their stated scope, supplement documentation and teardown findings, insurer correspondence justifying additional damage, parts and labour breakdowns, and the explanation given to a customer whose repair cost has increased. Our editors work on the document that has to make a rising number make sense instead of just presenting it.

The stated scope and its limits is what makes an estimate trustworthy when a supplement follows it, and its failure is an initial number presented as though it were complete when it was actually bounded by what could be seen without disassembly. $1,800 estimated, full repair presented with no caveat implies a completeness the estimate never actually had. We work through these so the initial estimate states explicitly what could and could not be assessed without disassembly, since a bumper cover hides the frame rail behind it and an estimate that does not say so lets a customer reasonably assume the visible damage is the whole story; so a supplement states specifically what was found during teardown that could not have been seen before, given that "additional damage found" says nothing about whether this was a foreseeable possibility that should have been flagged initially or a genuine surprise; so the supplement itemises what was added, not merely the new total, because a customer comparing $1,800 to $3,400 needs to see the specific parts and labour that account for the difference, not just the sum; so photographic evidence from the teardown accompanies a supplement wherever practical, given that a photograph of a bent frame rail settles a question that a written description alone tends to leave open; so insurer correspondence justifying a supplement addresses the specific line items in dispute rather than reasserting the total, since an adjuster questioning one item needs an answer about that item; and so the original estimate, where it reasonably could have flagged the possibility of hidden damage, says so explicitly, given that "additional damage may be found once the vehicle is disassembled" costs one sentence and prevents the shock a silent estimate produces later. Estimates and supplements written this way turn a rising number into an explained one.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including repair estimates, insurer correspondence and customer information. We are editors rather than collision estimators, mechanics or insurance adjusters, and we offer no view on damage assessment, repair scope or cost determinations. What we can do is make sure the customer can see why the number changed.