Mobile Business Owners
Food Truck Repair That Protects Service Days
Short answer
One day down is one lunch and one dinner gone. We fix the vehicle side, sequence around your contracted service days, and refer the cooking equipment out.
A food truck earns in two windows a day, and both are gone for every day it sits. We repair the vehicle: body, service window structure, generator, electrical, floors and graphics. Cooking equipment goes to an appliance specialist, and we sequence our work around theirs.
Updated 2026-07-29 by OCRV Center Editorial Team
A food truck operator who has been at it more than a year already knows the thing most shops do not: the repair cost is trivial next to the closed days. A truck doing $1,800 on a good Friday and $900 on a Tuesday loses somewhere between $4,000 and $8,000 a week when it sits. That reframes every decision. Spending $400 on expedited freight to save four days is not a splurge, it is the highest return decision available.
The second thing operators know is that losing a spot is worse than losing a day. The brewery lot, the business park, the Saturday market: those slots have waiting lists, and an operator who no shows twice gets replaced. So when we schedule your truck we ask which days are contracted and which are opportunistic, and we build around the contracted ones.
We are in shop only at 23281 La Palma Ave in Yorba Linda, roughly 45 minutes from San Clemente. No mobile service, which comes up constantly with food trucks because everybody wants somebody to come to the commissary. A generator that faults under an eight burner load needs a load bank, and that equipment stays in the building.
Count the Closed Days, Not Just the Invoice
Here is a real pattern we see. A truck comes in with a bent service window frame and a damaged right rear corner from a low overhang. The standard path is nine working days because the window frame extrusion is a special order item on ground freight. The expedited path is five days and about $500 more between air freight and overtime. Four days at even $1,200 a day is $4,800 of revenue. The $500 is not a close call.
The reverse is also true. If the damage is cosmetic and does not affect your health permit or your ability to serve, the correct answer is often to keep operating and schedule the repair for a slow week in January. We will say that plainly rather than encouraging you to fix a scuff during your best month. Timing advice is the most valuable thing we give operators in this category.
- Contracted days protected
- Tell us which service days are committed and which are opportunistic. We schedule intake so committed days survive, even when that means splitting the job into two visits.
- Expedite priced explicitly
- Air freight on window extrusions and generator parts plus overtime labor, quoted as a specific dollar delta so you can measure it against your daily take.
- Cosmetic work deferred
- Scuffs, oxidation and fading get scheduled for your slow season. Nothing about them gets worse in six months and repairing them in July costs you real money.
- Permit blockers first
- If a health department or fire marshal item is what grounded you, that gets fixed and photographed first, with the paperwork you need to schedule a reinspection.
What We Fix and What We Send Elsewhere
We handle the vehicle. Body and structural repair on step vans, box bodies and trailers. Service window and door frame straightening or replacement so glass and screens seal again. Generator service and diagnostics under real load. Electrical distribution, panels, inverters and shore power inlets. Washable wall panels and flooring with sealed seams. Roof penetrations around hood vents and AC units. Full wraps, partial graphics and rebrand lettering.
We do not handle cooking equipment. Fryers, griddles, ranges, hood systems, refrigeration compressors and any propane appliance certification go to a commercial kitchen equipment specialist. That is not a dodge, it is a licensing and competence boundary. When your unit needs both, we will coordinate around their schedule and tell you exactly which lines on the estimate are ours.
- Service window structure
- Frames straightened or replaced so glass, screens and latches seal. A window that will not close is a health code failure, and the extrusion is usually a special order item.
- Generator under load
- Tested with a load bank rather than at idle, because idle testing hides the exact fault that drops your equipment at 1 pm on a Friday with a line of people waiting.
- Electrical distribution
- Panels, breakers, inverters and shore inlets traced and rebalanced. Most trucks have had equipment added past what the original wiring was sized to carry.
- Washable surfaces
- Wall panel and floor replacement with sealed seams and coved edges. Daily washdown finds every joint that was installed to a residential standard.
- Wraps and rebrands
- Old vinyl removed, clearcoat underneath assessed and corrected, then new graphics applied. The paint under a ten year old wrap is usually worse than anybody expects.
Where Repair Turns Into Modification
There is a line between repairing your truck and modifying it, and crossing that line can require a plan review with your health jurisdiction before the unit is legal to operate. Replacing a damaged service window with an identical unit is a repair. Enlarging it, relocating it or adding a second one is a modification. Same with hood, sink and water system changes.
We are not your permit expediter and we will not pretend to be. What we will do is tell you when a proposed repair crosses that line, so you can talk to your jurisdiction before we cut anything. We would rather lose the job than build something that fails a reinspection and grounds you in the middle of your season.
What Food Truck Work Costs Here
Rates are $210 per hour for body and paint, $260 for mechanical and electrical, $285 for diagnostics with a one hour minimum credited to an authorized repair, and $95 for detail. Materials bill at $55 per paint hour and $5 per body hour with $45 flat hazmat. Parts carry 100 percent markup at or under $100 and 35 percent above. Tax of 7.75 percent applies to parts and materials only.
Service window hardware and generator parts on older units are typically special order, which requires a 100 percent non refundable deposit because no vendor takes them back. Otherwise the standard schedule applies: 50 percent at authorization over $2,000, another 25 percent when parts arrive on jobs over $10,000, balance at pickup, and a 3.5 percent surcharge on card payments above $1,000.
What This Costs at Our Posted Rates
Body and paint labor is posted at $210 per hour. Mechanical and electrical is $260 per hour. Diagnostics run $285 per hour with a one hour minimum that is credited back against an authorized repair. Ranges below reflect jobs we have actually completed.
| Line item | Range | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Step van and box body collision repair | $1,500 to $40,000+ | 7 to 190 |
| Generator service and repair | $400 to $8,500+ | 2 to 32 |
| Electrical diagnostics and repair | $285 to $5,000+ | 1 to 19 |
| Wrap, graphics and rebrand lettering | $1,500 to $9,500 | 8 to 45 |
Ranges reflect real jobs we have run. Final figures come from a written estimate after we see the vehicle.
See the full rate card and estimate policy.
What Is Included
- Schedule review at intake so contracted service days are protected
- Working day count rather than a vague calendar range
- Expedited path priced as a specific dollar delta you can accept or decline
- Option to split the job so you keep operating between phases
- Generator testing under load with a load bank, not at idle
- Electrical panel, inverter and shore inlet load assessment
- Clear statement of which line items need a kitchen equipment specialist
- Notice when a proposed repair crosses into permit requiring modification
Questions We Get Asked
Can you come to our commissary and look at the truck?
No. Everything happens in shop at 23281 La Palma Ave in Yorba Linda, about 45 minutes from San Clemente. Load testing a generator, straightening a window frame and any paint or vinyl work all require equipment that does not travel. Bringing the unit to us is also faster, since we can start the same day.
Do you fix the fryer and the refrigeration?
No. We do the vehicle: body, structure, service window, generator, electrical distribution, washable surfaces and graphics. Cooking equipment, hood systems, refrigeration compressors and propane appliance certification go to a commercial kitchen specialist. If your truck needs both, we will schedule around them and mark clearly which estimate lines are ours.
How many days will I be closed?
Body and window frame work is commonly three to eight working days, driven mostly by whether the extrusion is in stock. Generator work depends on parts. A full wrap is one to two weeks. Tell us which service days are contracted and we will split the job into phases so you keep operating between them.
Will I need a permit for the repair?
Replacing a damaged component with an identical one is a repair and generally does not. Enlarging or relocating a service window, changing the hood, or altering the sink and water system is a modification and may need a plan review with your health jurisdiction. We will tell you when a job crosses that line before we cut anything.