Earlier this year, a collision shop owner shared a story with me about something he experienced at his shop that really surprised me. Since it involved a common situation -- a vehicle sitting in the shop’s lot crash-wrapped because of a broken sunroof -- that led to additional damage to the vehicle, I thought I’d share his story as a caution to the rest of the industry.
A pool of water acted as a magnifying glass for sunlight, resulting in heat damage to an interior trim panel.
Kris Wyatt said the truck was in the lot of his shop, Wyatt’s Paint & Body in San Bernardino, CA. It rained shortly after the truck was crash-wrapped, and then a few days later, the sun came out.
“The rain had gathered in the crash wrap, creating a small pool of water,” Kris told me. “Then the sun shone through that water, which acted like a magnifying glass. That actually burned the seat and the door trim panel. I would never have thought this would happen.”
The sunlight magnified through a small pool of water on the crash wrap on top of a vehicle caused burn damage to one of the vehicle’s seats.
As Kris joked, the crash wrap did its job by keeping the water out, but, man, that combination of the pool of water and the sun did a number on the interior of the truck. It might be a one-time freak occurrence, but it’s a situation you might want to warn your employees to keep an eye out for.
I want to thank Kris for sharing this with me, and if other readers have experiences that might be helpful for other shops to know about, send them to my assistant, Tiffany Driggers, at tiffany@collisionadvice.com, and she will get them to me.
Mike Anderson