Vans and Camper Vans

Unibody, and why it changes everything

Sprinter, Transit, ProMaster, Metris and effectively every modern cargo and camper van are unibody. There is no separate frame underneath. The floor pan, rockers, pillars and roof rails are one welded structure engineered to route crash energy along designed paths.

Three consequences follow.

There is no cosmetic damage to a structural member. A crushed rocker is structural even when it looks like a dent, because the rocker is a load path.

Repair is procedure-driven. Manufacturers publish where a section may be cut, what weld is required, and which components must be replaced rather than straightened because they are high-strength steel that loses its properties when heated.

Tolerances are tighter than on a ladder frame. A quarter inch out on a truck frame is a problem. The same on a unibody is a door that will not seal and a structure that will not fold correctly next time.

Unibody and chassis repair covers the detail.

Conversions are three jobs

A professionally converted camper van is a structural job, an interior job and a systems job that happen to share a vehicle.

Repairing structure requires access to the inside of the shell. That means the build comes out: cabinetry, insulation, wall panels, wiring looms, plumbing, water tanks, solar controllers and battery banks all removed, stored and reinstalled.

That labor is real, substantial, and routinely absent from an adjuster's first estimate. We document the build with photographs at teardown and submit it as a supplement, because a carrier that has not seen it will not pay for it.

What we handle

Collision and unibody structural repair, panel replacement, full repaints and fleet graphics, sliding door track and mechanism repair, rear barn door repair, window installation, roof reinforcement and rack mounting, solar and lithium systems, 12 volt electrical, insulation and sound deadening, headliner and wall panels, cabinetry, auxiliary heating, ADAS recalibration after any repair affecting a sensor, and complete conversion build-outs.

Fleet vans

Cargo, delivery and service vans are a large share of the work here, and the priorities differ from a camper conversion.

Downtime is the dominant cost. A van off the road is a route uncovered, which usually exceeds the repair cost. So we schedule fleet work in batches sized so an operator is never short more than an agreed number, and we give realistic completion dates rather than optimistic ones so cover can be arranged.

For fleets with recurring damage, usually rear corners and sliding doors from loading environments, we will suggest preventive work that reduces the recurrence rather than repairing the same corner four times.

What van repair costs

Body labor is $210 per hour, structural and electrical $260, calibration $285. The pricing page has the complete sheet including the materials formula.

Signs of structural damage on a van

Because the body is the structure on a unibody, structural damage frequently presents as a fit or sealing complaint rather than as obvious deformation. Worth taking seriously after any impact:

A sliding door that binds, drops or needs a shove. Uneven gaps between panels, particularly at door and hatch edges. A door that no longer closes on the first attempt. A windshield that cracked without being struck, which means the aperture moved. Water finding a seam that used to be dry. And a vehicle that tracks differently or wears tyres unevenly.

Any of those is worth a measurement, because on a unibody there is no separate frame to absorb what the body did not.

Conversions and insurance

If you have a professionally built conversion, photograph it now while it is intact and keep the build invoice somewhere you can find it.

The most common uncovered loss on a converted van is the build itself, settled at base vehicle specification because nobody documented what was in it. Solar arrays, lithium banks, cabinetry, insulation, water systems and heaters routinely represent a large fraction of the vehicle's value and are frequently valued at nothing.

We photograph and document everything at teardown and submit it as a supplement, and that works considerably better when the owner can also produce receipts. See insurance claim repair.