The Importance of Dedicated Fixture Benches

At one time, and still today, some body shops would spend endless amounts of time attempting to pull the damage of a wrecked vehicle back to its original measurement specifications. Many times never achieving the exactness required by the manufacturers. With Uni-body technology came even more stringent requirements for vehicle repair.

This is a GM vehicle on the assembly line.

Celette met the challenge of producing equipment that would aid the autobody technician in completing repairs to the exact specifications required.

Notice the blue towers (fixtures) that are attached to the undercarriage of the uni-body.

The exact location of these fixtures is imparative during the assembly process in order to insure the passenger safety cage remains intact during a collision.

Similar fixture systems are used by vehicle manufacturers world wide. However, not all collision damage requires the use of a dedicated fixture bench. The extent of damage determines the recommended or required process.

The dedicated fixture bench duplicates the manufacturing process. Since some vehicle manufacturing tolerances are zero, a dedicated fixture system is the only system that can guarantee 100% compliance.

Collision shops or insurance companies which ignore manufacturer's written recommendations or requirements should be suspect.

How Does A Fixture System Work?

This is a Celette Dedicated Fixture Bench manufactured in France. Celette LTD. invented the dedicated fixture bench in 1952. Today Celette is the undisputed world wide leader in uni-body repair systems.

The collision shop owns the dedicated fixture bench (see photo at right).When a vehicle arrives at the collision shop and the damage requires the use of the fixture bench, the collision shop calls a local fixture rental warehouse which inventories hundreds of different fixtures that are unique to each vehicle.

The fixtures are delivered to the collision shop, and then are attached to the fixture bench and vehicle according to the factory supplied set-up sheets.

After the repair, the fixtures are returned to the fixture rental center where they are inspected and awaiting use by another collision shop.

Below is a typical set-up sheet used by the collision shop to properly set-up the fixtures. Depending on the damage to the vehicle, fixtures can be utilized with the mechanical components in or out.

The numbers in the diagram indicate reference and specification points to be used by the collision repair technician in the set-up process of the fixture bench to put the uni-body back into compliance with the vehicle manufacturer's recommended or required repair specifications.

Without these specification set-up sheets, a technician has no way to repair the vehicle back to the manufacturer's recommended or required repair standards.

Fixture Bench setup sheet
(Click image to enlarge)