Hail Damage - GGGRRRRRR

[Yaris4ever]

When my car got damaged due to the hail years ago, I just made sure to take it to an approved NRMA repairer & they did a great job with it!!!

[1NZYaris1]

There's a couple of paintless dent removal people
that can do it , just not sure where in Melbourne .
oh and when you put in the claim ask whoever is doing the
work to purchase the after market tails you want .
I also see the local Toyota Yard that was preparing for it's grand opening
got hit bad , the hail went right through the front and rear screens

[bobselectric]

Originally Posted by *MAD DOG*

Has anyone else ever had hail damage before? Or does someone on YW work in a body shop and can give me suggestions on how to get this fixed properly. Obviously insurance is footing the bill.

A body man told me once that fixing hail damage was easy- just wait till the car cools after driving it and blow into the tailpipe really hard.


Oh and make sure you roll the windows up first!

:bigg rin:

[*MAD DOG*]

Originally Posted by bobselectric

A body man told me once that fixing hail damage was easy- just wait till the car cools after driving it and blow into the tailpipe really hard.


Oh and make sure you roll the windows up first!

:bigg rin:

Thanks for the lol Bob. I needed it. :)

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by *MAD DOG*

Has anyone else ever had hail damage before? Or does someone on YW work in a body shop and can give me suggestions on how to get this fixed properly. Obviously insurance is footing the bill.

Sorry about your situation.

I work at an Acura dealer and last year we got a hail storm that lasted about 1 minute but was enough to make every car on the lot look like the surface of a golf ball. Yup, all of those new luxury cars. The dealer simply hired paint-less dent removers who came on site (even outside on the lot) and removed all of those 10's of thousands of dents (painful process). Since they were new cars, they had to be perfect, and they were. The cost is very high, but should be covered under insurance if you have comprehensive (minus deductible).

Good luck.

[rob323]

Mad Dog, if you have the choice of the repairer, then definately talk to some of the paintless dent repairers. One of my special babies got badly damaged in a hail storm up here and all of the panel shops I spoke to wanted to cut the roof off and weld a new one in. To me that is a certain recipe for rust down the track so I avoided them. I ended up finding a really good paintless dent removal guy and the work he did was simply magic. I know where the dents were and I can't find any signs of them now. And he was cheaper than the panel shops (which didn't really worry me as the car was insured with Shannons).

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by rob323

Mad Dog, if you have the choice of the repairer, then definately talk to some of the paintless dent repairers. One of my special babies got badly damaged in a hail storm up here and all of the panel shops I spoke to wanted to cut the roof off and weld a new one in. To me that is a certain recipe for rust down the track so I avoided them. I ended up finding a really good paintless dent removal guy and the work he did was simply magic. I know where the dents were and I can't find any signs of them now. And he was cheaper than the panel shops (which didn't really worry me as the car was insured with Shannons).

Cut the roof off? Are they crazy?!

All that needs to be done for the roof is removing the headliner and popping out the dents like any other.

The hardest dents to remove are those on the side pillars but can still be done. Part of the problem is the side airbag assemblies are embedded here but professionals can do it properly. Plus, it's the most solid part of any panel.

[rob323]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

Cut the roof off? Are they crazy?!

Nope but they are selfish. Why pay a dent removal guy to do it when they can give their apprentices something to practice on.

[*MAD DOG*]

Thanks for the valuable advice peeps. Insurance will cover all of it except $500 deductable. No way will I let a moron cut out my roof.

[SailDesign]

Hmmm.... Not to be the Spelling Nazi or anything, but isn't it "Painless" dent removal?

[rob323]

Well, the "paintless" dent removal guy I used was a hell of a lot more "painless" than any panel shop I ever had the misfortune to use.

[Kal-El]

Originally Posted by SailDesign

Hmmm.... Not to be the Spelling Nazi or anything, but isn't it "Painless" dent removal?

Nope, it's paint-less as in dent removal requiring no paint work.

[*MAD DOG*]

Just took the car to a panel shop and they told me it's going to take 5-7 working days (Mon-Fri) to fix my car. Damn! Looks like i'll take a holiday from work as there is no way i'll catch a train to catch a tram to get to work as that would take almost 2 hours one way. I did not take the hire car option on my policy as I've never claimed in all my 12 years of driving.

DAMN DAMN DAMN

The good news is it's just the quote stage and I still have my car for now. Oh and I still don't know if they are going to write the car off or not.

[1NZYaris1]

Panel shops here give you a free
Courtesy car, while they fix yours , try some locally they might do the same

[*MAD DOG*]

Originally Posted by 1NZYaris1

Panel shops here give you a free
Courtesy car, while they fix yours , try some locally they might do the same

Unfortunately they aren’t just fixing my car, they are fixing 20,000+ hail damaged cars, not to mention the normal fender benders they'll be dealing with, if they have a courtesy car left that I can fit in I’d be surprised. No harm in asking though and I will when the insurance approves the repairs.

[fluke_boy]

I feel your pain. It happened to my old Mitsu Sigma in the mid 90's while I was still living & working in Chicago. Got 1 or dents on the roof and multiple dents to the hood and trunk lid. Only had the hood and trunk replaced. Had a high deductible you see ($1000).

[nemelek]

At work one day, luckly I wasn't there, a Baseball size hail storm hit. Some people whose cars were fully paid off and still fully insured were fine tuning the damage with a hammer to get the maxium insurance dollar. After getting 4 to 5,000 dollars they just drove the car unfixed. Others whop didn't have the full insurance had to drive a banged up car. Others who had and took pride in their cars got them fixed or traded them in on new ones.

[*MAD DOG*]

I'm getting the insurance run around at the moment. They reccommended a panel shop for me to go to and get a quote, then after wasting an hour of my time going there and getting the quote they then said that they wont accept there quote as all quotes have to be done at there head office which is 40km (approx 20mi) away from my house.

After agruing with them I managed to get them to let me take my car to another panel shop near my house. They are going to need my car all day on monday to asses it. Lucky I have monday off, but no way of getting home and back to the panel place other than bus (Yick!).