# Fire Engine Repair for Eastvale, California > Apparatus body, compartment door and mounting repair with reflective marking for fire apparatus serving the Eastvale region. Source: https://ocrv.info/vehicles/buses-and-municipal-fleet/fire-engine A fire engine carries an apparatus body of aluminum or stainless construction with equipment compartments, roll up doors, a hose bed and a pump panel area. Repair work covers body panel and compartment structure, roll up door rebuilding, ladder and equipment mounting, diamond plate replacement, scene lighting mounting, reflective marking and refinishing. ## Pricing Typical range $1,500 to $50,000+, 10 to 250 hours. Apparatus bodies are built to outlast several chassis, and they are repaired rather than replaced for that reason. The body is a structure of aluminum or stainless compartments with a hose bed above and a pump area amidships, all mounted to the chassis through a system that must tolerate frame flex. Every square foot of it is designed to be accessed, loaded and cleaned constantly. Damage is a mix of the obvious and the slow. Backing incidents crush a rear corner or a compartment. Overhead contact damages the hose bed cover or a light tower. Meanwhile, corrosion works quietly at dissimilar metal contact points, at fastener locations through the body skin, and inside compartments where water enters past a failed door seal and sits under equipment. The slow damage is usually more expensive by the time it is found. Departments and districts serving the Eastvale area bring apparatus roughly twenty miles to the Yorba Linda facility. Body panel work, compartment structure, roll up door rebuilding, diamond plate replacement, mounting fabrication, marking and refinishing all happen in shop. Scope is body, paint, structural repair and equipment installation. Pump, aerial and drivetrain mechanical service is not performed here. Reserve apparatus availability usually sets the schedule for a department. ## Common damage - Galvanic corrosion at fastener and bracket locations - Bent roll up door slats and tracks - Lost counterbalance tension on compartment doors - Crushed rear corners from backing incidents - Cracked ladder rack mounting feet - Lifted and damaged diamond plate - Water sitting in compartments past failed seals ## Compartments, panels and dissimilar metal corrosion Apparatus bodies mix materials: aluminum sheet and extrusion, stainless fasteners and trim, steel mounting brackets, and painted or bare surfaces in the same assembly. Wherever two dissimilar metals meet in the presence of moisture, galvanic corrosion starts, and on an apparatus that gets washed after every call there is always moisture. The result is corrosion around fastener heads, at bracket footprints and along panel joints. On an older body the pattern is repeatable enough that the inspection knows where to look first. Repair cuts out affected material rather than treating the surface, because galvanic corrosion continues under any coating. New material goes in matched to the surrounding metal, fasteners are selected and isolated so the couple is broken, and joints are sealed. Compartment interiors get attention at the same time: shelving, tool mounting and drainage all get inspected, since a compartment that has been holding water has usually been doing so for years. - Corroded material cut out, not coated over - Replacement material matched to the surrounding metal - Fastener couples isolated to break the galvanic path - Compartment drainage restored during repair - Shelving and tool mounting reinspected before reassembly ## Roll up doors, hinged doors and seals Roll up compartment doors are the defining feature of a modern apparatus body and they are also the most serviced. Slats bend when equipment shifts against them, side tracks distort from impact, the counterbalance loses tension, and the bottom seal wears until water enters. A door that is hard to lift or that will not stay up is a real operational problem on a scene, not a cosmetic complaint. Door condition therefore gets treated as a serviceability item. Repair replaces damaged slats, straightens or replaces track sections, rebuilds the counterbalance to correct tension and renews seals. Where the compartment opening itself has moved because the body was struck, the opening gets squared before the door is refitted, since a door cannot compensate for an out of square frame. Hinged doors get pivot rebuilding, frame straightening and latch geometry resetting on the same principle. Each door is cycled repeatedly with the compartment loaded before the apparatus leaves the building. ## Mounting, diamond plate and finish Ladder racks, equipment brackets, hose bed dividers, light towers and reel mounting all put concentrated loads into the body. Cracked mounting feet and elongated holes are routine after years of service and after any incident. Repair rebuilds mounting into structure with properly sized backing and, where a pattern of failure exists, redesigns the attachment so load spreads further into the body rather than concentrating at the original footprint. Load paths get carried into structural members rather than stopping at the skin. Diamond plate on running boards, tailboards and body edges takes constant foot traffic and equipment contact. Damaged sections get replaced with matching pattern material and fastened so the edges do not lift. Refinishing on an apparatus is exacting because department colors are distinctive and the vehicle is highly visible. Color matching happens against the actual apparatus, and reflective chevron and striping layouts get measured and reproduced in the original positions. - Mounting rebuilt into structure with sized backing - Repeated failures redesigned to spread load - Diamond plate replaced in matching pattern - Color matched to the actual apparatus, not a code - Chevron and striping layouts measured before removal ## Frequently asked questions ### Why is corrosion appearing around fasteners on an aluminum body? Because dissimilar metals are in contact with moisture present. Steel or stainless fasteners through aluminum sheet create a galvanic couple, and constant washing keeps the electrolyte available. Coating over it does not help because the reaction continues underneath. The correction removes the affected material, replaces it with matched metal, and isolates the fastener so the couple is broken. ### Can compartment doors be rebuilt rather than replaced? In most cases yes. Individual slats, track sections, rollers, seals and counterbalance components are all serviceable. What has to be checked first is whether the opening is square, because a body that has been struck will hold the frame out of shape and no amount of door work will fix that. The opening gets corrected first, then the door. ### Do you work on the pump or aerial equipment? No. Pump, aerial device and drivetrain mechanical service is handled by the appropriate specialists. What is handled here is the body: compartment structure, panels, doors, mounting, diamond plate, lighting mounting and wiring, marking and refinishing. The estimate makes that boundary explicit so a department can coordinate the mechanical scope separately. ### How is department color matched on an older apparatus? Against the vehicle rather than a formula. Apparatus paint shifts over years of sun and washing, so a spectrophotometer reading is taken from multiple undamaged areas, spray out cards are evaluated under shop lighting and in daylight, and the mix is tinted until the card disappears against the body. Where the shift is large, refinishing a full section gives a better result than a blend. --- OCRV Center. 23281 La Palma Ave, Yorba Linda, CA 92887. (949) 799-3387. info@ocrvcenter.com. Serving Eastvale, California in Riverside County, about 20 miles from the shop. All work is performed in shop at the Yorba Linda facility. No mobile, roadside or on-site service is offered. Scope is body, paint, structural, fiberglass, interior and vehicle systems work. Engine rebuilds, transmission rebuilds, drivetrain work, DOT inspections and emission testing are not performed.