This auto body repair calculator prices collision damage the way the adjuster’s software does: hours of metal work per panel, hours in the paint booth, paint and materials billed per paint hour, frame time at its own rate, and parts. Count the dented panels by how bad each one is, add anything that needs replacing, and you get a low, typical and high repair cost with every line shown. A creased door at an independent shop runs about $610. A sideswipe across three panels runs about $2,495. A welded quarter panel alone runs about $2,490.
Enter each damaged panel once: light for a small dent with cracked paint, moderate for a hand-sized dent or a crease across a body line, heavy for metal pushed in but still workable. A fender, hood or trunk lid too far gone goes in the replace row, and a door beyond saving has a row of its own. Quarter panels, the bumper cover and frame damage get their own fields because each is billed differently. Add the car’s value and the tool warns you when the bill nears total loss territory. Think of it as a free auto body repair estimate you can rerun with every line transparent. You don’t upload a photo of your car or sign up.
Auto Body Repair Cost Calculator
Count the damaged panels by how bad each one is, add any new panels or doors, a quarter panel, the bumper cover or frame work, then pick the paint scope. The estimate is split the way a collision shop writes it: metal work hours, paint hours, paint and materials, frame hours and parts.
Your Estimate
Estimates only, not a quote. Uses August 2026 national posted rates for metal, paint and frame labor scaled to your state, a 2024 survey of paint and materials charges, and published estimating times. Hidden damage found at teardown adds a supplement. Sales tax is not included.
Insurers and body shops price damage in the same software
A collision repair estimate is a line-by-line list of operations, each with a part price or a labor time pulled from a crash database. Three systems write nearly all of them in the US: CCC ONE, Mitchell and Audatex (now sold as Qapter). In the 2019 Who Pays for What survey, 83.7 percent of responding shops had CCC installed, 27.9 percent ran Mitchell and 23.7 percent Audatex. Insurers choose the platform and shops follow, so the body shop and your insurance company usually look at identical labor times. Even a free quote from a local body shop is a damage estimate written in one of these systems.
The database covers replacing and refinishing a part. Dent repair is a judgment time the estimator types in, which is where two shops quoting the same door drift apart, so this estimate tool flags its own repair times as estimates.
Body labor, refinish, blend, materials and R&I: how a body estimate is built
Unlike a mechanical car repair invoice, a collision sheet splits labor by type, and every operation carries a code: Rpr (repair the panel), Repl (replace it), R&I (remove and install), Rfn (refinish) and Blnd (blend). A January 2024 CCC ONE sample on a Ford Expedition lists 31.3 body, 16.3 paint and 10.9 mechanical labor units, paint supplies at $40 per paint unit, and $8,543.58 in parts. These are the lines that add up to the total:
- Body labor. Straightening metal, fitting parts, welding. National posted rate $85.48 in August 2026, per the NABR index of posted labor rates. State-by-state figures are in the auto repair labor rates guide.
- Refinish labor. Booth time to prime, color and clear, $84.56 in the same index. A door or fender takes 2.2 to 2.3 hours, plus a clear coat add of 40 percent on the first panel and 20 percent on each one after it.
- Blend. Tinting color into the undamaged neighbors so a metallic or pearl finish matches, billed at 50 percent of that panel’s refinish time.
- Paint and materials. Billed per unit of refinish time, not per can. Most shops charge $38 to $55, with $48 the 2024 average, so a unit of booth time really costs about $133 all in.
- R&I. Taking off whatever sits on or in the panel. On the CCC sample, a refinished door carries eight R&I lines (weatherstrip, belt molding, applique, mirror, glass, run channel, outside handle, trim panel) worth 3.1 hours.
- Frame labor. Pulling the structure back to factory dimensions on a bench, $116.68, about 37 percent above sheet metal work.
- Parts. OEM parts, aftermarket parts (CAPA certified when the insurer allows it) or recycled ones, each priced on its own line.
R&I often explains why two quotes for the same door differ by a few hundred dollars: one estimator pulls the glass and handle to paint the whole skin, another tapes around them. This calculator leaves R&I out, so a fully stripped door can run above its typical figure. It also skips overlap, the small deduction (0.4 hours on one sample panel) taken when adjacent panels share an edge in the booth.
Per-panel pricing from the auto body repair calculator
Typical repair prices for one panel on a midsize car at an independent shop, US average rate, metallic paint, no blending. They come straight from the calculator.
| Damage | What gets billed | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light dent, one panel | 1.0 to 1.5 metal hours plus refinish | $545 | $480 to $600 |
| Moderate dent or crease | 1.5 to 2.5 metal hours plus refinish | $610 | $525 to $690 |
| Heavy damage, still fixable | 2.5 to 4.0 metal hours plus refinish | $720 | $615 to $820 |
| Bolt-on panel replaced | Aftermarket part, 1.8 to 3.5 hours to fit, refinish and edges | $1,020 | $755 to $1,280 |
| Door replaced, new shell | Bare shell, 3 to 5 hours to move glass, regulator, lock and trim and hang it, refinish inside and out | $1,475 | $935 to $2,000 |
| Quarter panel replaced | OEM part, 13 to 15 hours, refinish | $2,490 | $2,220 to $2,750 |
| Bumper cover cracked, fixed | Plastic weld, refinish the cover | $785 | $640 to $925 |
| New bumper cover | Aftermarket cover, fit, refinish | $1,125 | $705 to $1,545 |
| Frame or unibody pull | Setup and measure, one pull, two scans | $865 | $820 to $905 |
So how much is car body repair for minor damage? One small dent with broken paint lands near $545. If the paint is intact, paintless dent repair usually costs less. Paint damage that never dented the metal is a scratch repair job, and parking sensors or radar belong in the bumper repair cost calculator, which prices calibration. A used door in your color is priced in the car door repair cost calculator, and a full respray in the car paint repair cost calculator. Pearl colors add about 15 percent to a one-panel job ($705 against $610), and luxury cars and EVs cost more mainly through parts, which the vehicle type setting raises by 40 to 60 percent.
Why three damaged panels cost less than three single-panel quotes
Panel prices don’t simply stack. Priced one at a time, a creased door ($610), a pushed-in door ($720) and a replaced fender ($1,020) add up to $2,350. Entered together, the same three come to $2,195 before any blending. The clear coat add drops from 40 to 20 percent after the first panel, and shop supplies hit their $35 cap once instead of being charged on three tickets. Three moderate panels: $1,680 together, $1,830 apart.
Running a sideswipe through the auto body repair calculator
A midsize sedan scrapes a garage pillar. The front door has a crease (moderate), the rear door is pushed in (heavy), and the front fender is torn at the wheel arch, so it gets replaced. Silver metallic, so the painter blends the quarter panel and hood. Independent shop, US average rate, no frame damage.
- Metal work: 2.0 + 3.25 + 2.65 hours = 7.9 hours at $85, or $671.50.
- Fender: $285 for an aftermarket part (the middle of a $140 to $430 band).
- Paint time: three panels at 2.25 (6.75), clear coat add 1.8, edging on the new panel 0.5, two blends 2.25. That’s 11.3 units at $85, or $960.50.
- Paint and materials: 11.3 x $48, or $542.40.
- Shop supplies: $35 (5 percent of labor, capped).
Total: $2,494.40, shown as $2,495, with a range of $2,030 to $2,930. Paint and materials make up about 60 percent of the repair bill, more than the dent work itself. Change one input and the number moves: a dealer shop pushes it to $2,975, California rates to $2,755, a tri-coat white to $2,915, and a frame pull to $3,320.
Blend time is billed per job, not per panel
The rule that sets blend pay is the estimating guides’ 50 percent of full refinish, and the part drivers misread is where it attaches: to the two undamaged neighbors at the ends of the repaired run, not to each damaged panel. So blending added about $300 to the three-panel sideswipe above, and about $310 to a single creased door ($920 against $610). On a one-panel metallic job that is a third of the bill. A 2022 SCRS study found blending actually took 31.59 percent longer than a full refinish, so shops push back when an insurer cuts the line.
Quarter panels and frame pulls: the welded and structural lines
A quarter panel is the rear outer skin that wraps the back wheel and runs into the roof pillar. It isn’t bolted on: the old one is cut out at the spot welds, and the new one is test fitted, welded, sealed and given corrosion protection. A Repairer Driven News case on a 2015 Honda Civic used a 13-hour replacement and a $642.50 OEM part, which puts the job near $2,490 for a midsize car, or $2,790 with blends. If the quarter is dented but not torn, a heavy repair at around $720 wins by a wide margin, so ask whether it can be fixed first.
Frame damage means the structure the panels hang on (rails, pillars, floor) has moved out of factory dimensions. Unibody cars have no separate frame, but shops still call it frame work. Doors that no longer close flush or uneven hood gaps are the usual clues, and hidden structural damage often surfaces only at the teardown inspection. A single pull is billed as setup and measure on the bench (2.0 to 3.0 units at the metal rate), the pull at the frame rate (3.0 in the CCC sample), and a scan before and after at the mechanical rate, about $830 in all. Bent rails or pillars that need several pulls run $1,390 and up before any welded structural part, and those parts can’t be priced until the car is torn down.
Fix it, file a claim or call it a total
CCC’s Crash Course 2026 put the average total repair cost at $4,818 for 2025 and found 23.1 percent of claims ended as total losses, a record. Enter the vehicle’s value and the calculator flags two lines. Over 50 percent, run the repair or replace calculator before signing. At 65 percent, the lowest fixed state threshold, an insurer may total the car, and the state-by-state rules on totaled or repaired decide what happens next. A $3,320 sideswipe with a frame pull on a $6,000 car is 55 percent: worth a pause, not yet a total.
The same typical figure settles whether to file a claim or pay out of pocket. Subtract your collision deductible from it: if what the insurer would pay is small, an insurance claim may cost more in future premiums than it returns, and below the deductible every dollar is out-of-pocket anyway. The break-even math is laid out in paying for body work without insurance. If another driver caused the car damage, the repairs are covered by their liability insurance and your deductible doesn’t apply.
Count the damaged panels, run the auto body repair calculator above, then hold its lines against the shop’s sheet: body hours, refinish hours, blend, paint and materials, R&I, frame hours, parts. Ask where any line far off came from, and use the checklist for getting a car repair estimate when comparing two shops. If the total crosses half the car’s value, run the replace math before getting your car into a booth.
Frequently asked questions about auto body repair estimates
How much does minor auto body repair cost?
Minor body repair costs run about $480 to $690 per panel for a small or hand-sized dent that needs paint, at an independent shop at the US average rate. Blending a metallic color into the neighboring panels adds roughly $300.
How can I get an estimate for body work?
Run the numbers here first, then get a free estimate from two auto body shops that print a CCC, Mitchell or Audatex sheet. An online auto body repair estimate from a photo gives a starting range, but hidden damage behind the bumper or door skin only shows up at teardown.
How is body shop labor calculated?
Hours from the crash database (or the estimator’s judgment for repairs) times the posted rate for that labor type: about $85 for body and refinish and about $117 for frame in August 2026, scaled to your state.
Why is the insurance estimate lower than the body shop’s?
The first insurance estimate, like any online collision repair estimator, is written from the damage visible before teardown. Once panels come off, the shop finds brackets, absorbers or structure that also need work and sends a supplement, and lines such as blend and R&I are often negotiated at that stage.
Estimates only, not a quote. Prices use August 2026 national posted collision rates scaled to your state, 2024 paint and materials survey data and published estimating times. Last reviewed: October 2026.