SCRS education at SEMA: Documenting repairs, bringing mechanical in-house, and more

Repair planning tips, how to document OEM repair procedures and get paid for following them, and in-house mechanical work — those are just three of several topics covered during the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS) Repairer Driven Education (RDE) sessions at this year’s SEMA Show.

Justin Lewis, president of Accurate Auto Body in Washington, will lead “Reclaiming Technical Authority: Earning Consumer Authorization,” focused on the collision repair shop’s role in repair planning.

“The whole point of the presentation is essentially to establish the shop is building a repair plan that the customer is the person authorizing that, and the insurer’s role is indemnification,” Lewis said. “And too many times shops are relying on the insurer’s cost estimate to dictate repairs and giving up their technical authority. In turn, it’s causing them liability issues.”

He added that the session will explain how shops can:

• • Gain customer authorization to make repair decisions in their best interest;
  • Provide solid documentation;
  • Support documentation with OEM repair procedures; and
  • Separate those three items so that one doesn’t control the other.

Lewis said he’ll cover what proper documentation looks like, when and how thoroughly to complete it, and how to get the customer’s buy-in.

Backing up repair plans with documented OEM repair procedures and explaining that process builds a foundation of trust with customers, Lewis said.

“Just because an insurer disagrees doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not something that’s required or necessary to fix the car right, and then how to support your customer in that situation,” he said.

Lewis also plans to touch on the right to appraisal and minimum standards for insurer claims handling that took effect earlier this week in Washington. After six years of advocating by the Washington Independent Collision Repair Association (WICRA) for mandatory right to appraisal, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed it into law last year.

While Lewis’s session name mentions the technical side of customer authorization, he said he plans to keep it simple.

“My intention is to make people think, ‘Oh, I’m matching insurance sheets. I shouldn’t be doing that,'” he said. “One of my big things in there is this industry made a change. It went from what’s required to fix the car to what the insurance is willing to pay, and that’s not the right way to address repair requirements. That’s going to be the whole premise: getting the mindset changed from will they pay for it to what’s required and what’s my liability if I don’t do it. What does the OEM say I have to do versus what does the insurance want to indemnify? And then how do I get my customer to authorize what needs to be done, and how do I support that?”

Isaac Aronson’s “Repair Planning That Pays: Protecting Revenue Through Research” session will cover the inconsistencies of collision repair planning from the perspective of front-end research behaviors. Aronson, OEConnection’s product manager, will discuss how those behaviors translate into measurable financial outcomes.

“Modern vehicles require extensive OEM research, conditional procedure evaluation, and calibration consideration before repairs even begin,” the session description states. “Yet inconsistent workflows create supplements, delays, and lost revenue opportunities for performed work.”

Based on patterns across thousands of repair plans, Aronson will identify where breakdowns most commonly occur and how early research decisions influence final profitability, such as including calibration evaluation into a structured workflow.

A panel discussion centered on mechanical repairs will include Steve Dawson, Hunter Engineering regional manager; Todd Hesford, owner of Mission Viejo Auto Collision; Dan Stander, president of Fix Auto Highlands Ranch; Chris Dacus, owner of Dacus Auto Body and Collision Repair; and Gerry McNee, owner of Ultimate Collision Repair.

Titled “Bringing Mechanical Repairs In-house,” the session will candidly cover what transitioning to in-house availability entails, according to the session description.

“More collision repair businesses are evaluating whether bringing mechanical work in-house can create new revenue opportunities, improve cycle time, and strengthen control over the repair process,” the description states. “But what does that transition really look like in practice?”

SCRS notes that the panelists are from high-performing shops, and they’ll share why they decided to expand into mechanical repairs, how they implemented the change, and what impact it has had on their operations and profitability.

The sessions above are only part of SCRS’s 2026 SEMA Show education opportunities. SCRS will hold its annual OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit, IDEAS Collide Showcase, and more. Learn more about RDE here.

An SCRS RDE Full Series Pass provides access to Tuesday and Wednesday RDE sessions, IDEAS Collide, the OEM Collision Repair Technology Summit, and the SCRS Afterparty. To register for the full series pass, click here. Individual sessions are $125 each.

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Featured image provided by SCRS