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If you have been in an accident this summer, and your vehicle has been damaged, here are three things that you should do to prepare to take your vehicle in for collision repair.

#1 Take Out Personal Belongings

The first thing you are going to want to do is remove personal belongings from your vehicle. You should do this for a variety of reasons. To start with, collision repair is a long process that usually takes a few weeks. If you leave your favorite shoes in the vehicle or your mp3 player, that means waiting to get it back until your vehicle is fixed or making a special trip down to the auto collision shop to collect these items. 

Next, the auto body shop is not responsible for taking care of your personal belongings. That means if an item is moved around and lost during the repair process, the loss is not on them. Additionally, they are not responsible for protecting your vehicle from getting broken into. 

In the best case scenario, nothing will happen to your personal belongings that you leave in your vehicle while it is getting repaired. However, to ensure that they are safe and to ensure that you have access to them, you should remove them from your vehicle.

#2 Take Lots Of Pictures and Go to the Right Shop

The insurance company should take pictures of the damage to your vehicle. However, you are going to want to have your own collection of pictures as well. Take detailed pictures of all of the damaged areas of your vehicle. This will make it easier to compare the repairs to how your vehicle looked before without having to rely completely on your memory.

Next, you should take pictures of the non-damaged areas on your vehicle as well. That way, you can ensure that the non-damaged areas of your vehicles are not compromised during the repair process. This will give you a visual record of how your vehicle looked before it went in for repairs.

It is also important to keep in mind that if you have a specialty vehicle, or a vehicle that is very expensive, then it is important to take it to a repair shop that specializes in your vehicle. For example, a jaguar, should be taken to a jaguar collision repair shop.

#3 Arrange For Transportation

Finally, make sure that you make plans for alternative transportation. You may be able to rent a loaner vehicle from that auto collision repair shop. Or you may have to rent it through a car rental agency. Just make sure that you have a way to get around while your vehicle is being fixed. 

You may also want to check with your insurance and see if a car rental is covered under your insurance policy.