{"id":43879,"date":"2026-02-12T20:04:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/repairers-are-not-just-parts-fitters-dont-fall-into-the-trap\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T20:04:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T18:04:03","slug":"repairers-are-not-just-parts-fitters-dont-fall-into-the-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/accidents\/repairers-are-not-just-parts-fitters-dont-fall-into-the-trap\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRepairers are not just parts fitters\u201d \u2013 Don\u2019t fall into the trap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you&rsquo;ve ever been in a minor accident, it&rsquo;s easy to assume the damage is purely cosmetic. A panel is repaired, the car is resprayed, and it&rsquo;s back on the road. With today&rsquo;s modern vehicles, however, that assumption no longer holds true.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Modern vehicles are incredibly sophisticated machines,&rdquo; says Juan Hanekom, National Director of the South African Motor Body Repairers&rsquo; Association (SAMBRA), a proud association of the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI). &ldquo;We&rsquo;re no longer just dealing with basic metal panels and bolts. From advanced safety systems to highly engineered materials, cars have changed dramatically &ndash; and so has the repair process.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Vehicles today are manufactured using a combination of ultra-high-strength steel, aluminium and other lightweight materials, specifically designed to absorb impact energy during a collision and protect occupants. Components such as pillars, bonnets and crumple zones are&#8230;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/news.aspx?s=1&#038;i=76446&#038;page=repairers-are-not-just-parts-fitters-don-t-fall-into-the-trap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more on Arrive Alive <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you&rsquo;ve ever been in a minor accident, it&rsquo;s easy to assume the damage is purely cosmetic. A panel is repaired, the car is resprayed, and it&rsquo;s back on the road. With today&rsquo;s modern vehicles, however, that assumption no longer holds true. &ldquo;Modern vehicles are incredibly sophisticated machines,&rdquo; says Juan Hanekom, National Director of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/Precision%20standards%20of%20professionalism(1).jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2149],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-accidents"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.arrivealive.co.za\/\/ckfinder\/userfiles\/images\/Precision%20standards%20of%20professionalism(1).jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southafricatoday.net\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}