Auto Repair and Collision Editing and Proofreading Services

The estimate says $1,800 and lists a bumper cover, a fender, and the labor to refinish both. Once the bumper comes off, the shop writes a supplement for a bent frame rail and a broken sensor bracket, and the total goes to $3,400. The customer reads the second document, sees a figure that has nearly doubled, and finds one line of explanation: additional damage found. Nothing in either paper tells her what the first estimate was able to cover, or which parts and hours account for the $1,600.

The documents we edit for Auto Repair and Collision

Initial repair estimates and the scope stated inside them come to us most often, along with supplement documentation and teardown findings. Insurer correspondence justifying additional damage arrives with them, together with parts and labor breakdowns. So does the explanation given to a customer whose repair cost has gone up. Our editors work on the document that has to account for a number the customer did not expect.

What the editing involves

The initial estimate should say what it covers and what it could not reach. One line does the job. The estimate can say that it covers damage visible with the bumper cover in place, and that damage to the frame rail, sensors, or wiring behind it cannot be priced until the vehicle is disassembled. An estimate written that way is still $1,800, and the customer who later opens a supplement has been told in advance that a second document was possible. We do not decide what a shop can or cannot see before teardown. The estimator decides that, and we work on whether the estimate says so.

A supplement should itemize what was added rather than restate the total. "Additional damage found" beside a new figure of $3,400 leaves the customer to work backward from one number. A supplement listing the frame rail at $780, the sensor bracket and its calibration at $410, and the additional labor at $410 shows where the $1,600 went. We check that the lines in the supplement add to the difference between the two totals, and that a figure quoted in the customer letter matches the figure on the document it refers to.

Insurer correspondence works the same way. An adjuster who disputes the $410 calibration line needs an answer about that line, and a letter that reasserts the $3,400 total answers nothing. Where the shop has photographs from the teardown, the letter should refer to them by number and say what each one shows, since a bent rail described in prose invites a second opinion. The wording used in the supplement, the letter to the insurer, and the explanation given to the customer should match, because three separate accounts of the same repair give everyone involved something to argue about.

Confidentiality and the limits of our role

Everything you send us is treated in confidence, including estimates, insurer correspondence, and customer information. We are editors, not collision estimators, mechanics, or insurance adjusters, and we offer no opinion on damage assessment, repair scope, or cost. What we can do is make the second number explain itself.