Patent ID: 8170697

Claim:
A method for repairing a damaged vehicle on a repair rack comprising: a. selecting a specification database for the vehicle type to be repaired, wherein the database establishes positional measurements for a plurality of reference points for the selected vehicle; b. establishing a datum; c. selecting and holding on the rack an initial reference point on the vehicle with respect to the datum; d. selecting a next reference point on the vehicle to be repaired; e. determining the deviation of the selected reference point from its specified position and establishing the deviation by three-dimensional measurements with respect to the datum; f. calculating a force vector for defining the direction of force to be applied to the reference point to cause the reference point to be moved to its specified position; g. applying force to the reference point in the direction of the force vector to cause the reference point to move in the direction of the force vector; h. establishing when the reference point is returned to its specified position and discontinuing the application of force; i. holding the reference point at that specified position; j. identifying the optimal next reference point to be repaired; and k. repeating steps d through k for each of the plurality of reference points on the damaged vehicle that require repair, whereby the repair of the vehicle is optimized and collateral vehicle damage to the vehicle caused by each application of force to a selected reference point is minimized.