A Sliding Door Impact That Went Through The Galley Behind It

Camper van claims have a specific failure mode and this one walked straight into it. The digital claim flow at most carriers reads the vehicle identification number, finds a cargo van, and values what the manufacturer built. Everything the conversion shop added afterward is invisible to that process, not out of malice but because there is nothing in the data telling it a galley exists. The owner had roughly thirty thousand dollars of professional build inside a vehicle the system considered empty.

So the first thing we did, before removing a single fastener, was photograph the build as it sat. Cabinet construction, the plumbing runs, appliance model plates, the twelve volt distribution panel with its breaker labels, the battery chemistry markings, the way the galley was bonded and screwed into the wall framing. That photo set is not for us. It is the document that lets an underwriter evaluate an aftermarket build, and it has to be created before the build comes apart, because afterward it cannot be created at all.

The impact itself was straightforward metal work by comparison. The sliding door was caved at the leading edge and the track was bent enough that it would not travel. The rocker below it had folded, which is what tells you the energy went into the structure rather than just the panel. We measured the B pillar base against factory specification before straightening anything, and measured again during the pull rather than only at the end, because a rocker that measures correct at rest and wrong under load is a door that never quite closes right.

Behind the interior wall panel there was wiring, and this is the part that people who have not opened a conversion do not anticipate. Van builds run twelve volt distribution in the wall cavities because that is where the space is. The impact had pinched a run and abraded the insulation on two conductors against a folded piece of the rocker. Neither had shorted yet. Both would have, probably in a year, probably somewhere inconvenient. Finding that was worth the whole teardown on its own.

The galley came out as an assembly and went back as an assembly, which sounds simple and is mostly a documentation problem. Every fastener location was photographed, the plumbing was capped and labeled, and the cabinet was stored tagged rather than stacked with other work. It went back into a wall that had new insulation, repaired wiring and a new interior panel, and the walnut face came through without a mark on it. The owner noticed that before he noticed the paint, which is typical.

The blind spot sensor was the last item and it existed on the estimate only because we put it there. It mounted behind the rear quarter panel section that had been replaced, which means its aim had changed. A sensor reading the adjacent lane from a slightly different angle is not a sensor with a slightly different opinion, it is a sensor that is wrong. Recalibration was performed and the report went into the delivery file with the rest of the paperwork. Thirty six days from arrival, and the two halves of the claim were evaluated on their own terms because they were documented on their own terms.