# Sprinter and Camper Van Owners > Commercial van body work on the outside, a finished conversion on the inside, and both have to be respected. Source: https://ocrv.info/who-we-help/sprinter-and-camper-van-owners Sprinter and camper van owners run a high roof commercial chassis converted for travel or living. Repairs have to respect both sides of that vehicle: a modern van body with sensor equipped bumpers and factory finishes, and a conversion interior with wiring, plumbing, insulation and cabinetry built into the panels. Van conversions occupy an awkward middle ground. Body shops treat them as commercial vans and ignore what is behind the panels. RV shops treat them as recreational vehicles and are unfamiliar with the chassis. A repair that removes an interior wall to reach a damaged panel needs someone comfortable with both, because the wall in question probably carries wiring, plumbing and half a cabinet run. Reaching the outside means respecting the inside first. The bodies themselves take a specific pattern of damage. Height is the recurring problem. Parking structures, drive through canopies, tree limbs and loading dock canopies all sit at heights a passenger car driver never thinks about, and a high roof van finds them. Sliding door tracks, rear corner panels and roof edges collect the rest. A long wheelbase van also carries substantial overhang behind the rear axle, which is why rear corners absorb a disproportionate share of parking contact. We perform all of this work in shop at Yorba Linda, roughly twenty miles from Eastvale by SR-71 and SR-91. Body, paint, panel, electrical and custom work happen under one roof, which matters on a conversion because the interior almost always has to come apart before the exterior can be finished properly. Owners come to us from Eastvale and the surrounding Riverside County area, and the vehicle stays in one place instead of moving between a body shop and a conversion specialist. ## What this group needs - A shop comfortable with both van chassis and conversion interiors - High roof and fiberglass top repair capability - Interior disassembly and correct reassembly - Color matching on large flat commercial panels - Electrical diagnosis rather than parts guessing - Documentation of aftermarket systems for claims ## High Roof Bodies and the Damage They Collect Roof strikes dominate. A fiberglass high top or a factory high roof that has contacted a low structure rarely cracks in only one place, because the impact loads the entire panel and the visible crack is where it gave up first. Adjacent bonding lines, roof rack mounting points and the seal around any rooftop accessory all need inspection before a repair is written, since a cosmetic patch over a compromised bond line fails at the next highway trip. Sliding doors and rear doors are the second cluster. Track damage, hinge wear and alignment problems on a door that gets used dozens of times a day accumulate quietly and then present as a door that no longer seals. Panel replacement, dent work and bumper repair round out the list, with rear corners taking a disproportionate share because a long wheelbase van has a long overhang behind the rear axle. ## The Conversion Complicates Every Exterior Repair Behind the sheet metal on a converted van sits insulation, furring, wiring runs, water lines, a heater, sometimes a lithium bank, and cabinetry that was built in place. Reaching a damaged panel means disassembling some of that, and reassembling it means putting it back to the standard the owner or the builder set. We document the interior before disassembly, photograph the routing, and label what comes out, because a wiring run that was traced once should not need tracing twice. Owner installed and builder installed systems also need to be accounted for on any insurance file. Solar arrays, battery banks, inverters, suspension work and custom cabinetry are invisible to a valuation vendor and invisible to an adjuster working from exterior photographs. Receipts and installation records get the equipment into the file. Without them the conversation starts from an assumption that the van left the factory the way it sits. Paperwork settles that argument. Electrical work is billed at the posted mechanical and electrical rate of two hundred sixty dollars per hour, and diagnostic time at two hundred eighty five with a one hour minimum credited against an authorized repair. We say that up front because conversion electrical faults are frequently diagnostic problems rather than parts problems, and the honest version of that estimate is an hour of tracing rather than a guess at a component. - Interior documented and labeled before any disassembly - Wiring, plumbing and gas routing photographed in place - Aftermarket systems itemized for the insurance file - Reassembly to the original conversion standard - Diagnostic time credited against an authorized repair ## Paint, Panels and Matching a Van Finish Commercial van finishes are unforgiving to match. Large flat panels show every variation, factory whites drift with age in ways that resist a straight formula match, and metallic silvers on newer chassis need blending into adjacent panels to read correctly. We spray out and compare against the aged panel under controlled light before committing, and we write blend operations into the estimate with the evidence attached rather than hoping for approval. Full repaints and custom finishes are a separate category and a popular one on conversions. Two tone schemes, satin finishes and full color changes all sit within our paint bands, with the material formula published openly at fifty five dollars per paint hour for paint supplies. Large surfaces consume material at a rate the standard formulas were never built around, so consumption is documented rather than assumed on anything large. ## Frequently asked questions ### I hit a parking structure with my high roof. Can that be repaired? Usually yes. Fiberglass high tops rebuild well and factory high roofs can be repaired or sectioned depending on where the damage sits. What matters is checking the bonding lines and mounting points around the visible damage, because impact loads the whole panel and a patch over a compromised bond fails on the next highway trip. Inspection settles which approach applies. ### Will you have to take my conversion interior apart? Sometimes, when the damaged panel can only be reached from inside. We photograph and label everything before disassembly, record wiring and plumbing routing in place, and reassemble to the standard the conversion was built to. If the interior can stay intact we leave it intact. Either way you will know which it is before the work is authorized rather than after. ### Can you match the factory white on my Sprinter? We spray out and compare against the actual aged panel under controlled light rather than relying on a formula alone. Commercial whites drift with exposure and large flat panels expose any variation immediately, so blending into adjacent surfaces is frequently the only way to get an invisible result. Where blend operations are needed we document the reason and include them in the estimate. ### Do you install solar and battery systems on vans? Yes, and we document what we install. Solar panel installation and twelve volt electrical work are both in scope, billed at the posted mechanical and electrical rate. The documented package we produce at delivery matters later, because aftermarket equipment that has no paperwork behind it tends to be invisible to a valuation vendor if the van is ever in a serious loss. --- 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.