Here in Reading PA we had a freak hailstorm yesterday. My nice clean '95 X300 now has many small dimples all over the bonnet, roof & bootlid. I have to be thankfull though. it turned my car from a nice "10 footer" into a nice "30 footer" but cars 1/2 mile away were totaled.

 

Ouch!! you've gotta hate hail...

WFIW, and just in case you haven't experienced hail damage before, there are specialist repairers out there who use paintless dent removal (PDR) techniques to fix, they are highly skilled people and the results they produce are remarkable. Not all the PDR guys are necessarily good at hail, you're best off with those who specialize. I've worked closely with that industry in the past and the moral is, don't let your insurer send you to a regular panel shop that would use a combination of beating and/or filling.

 

Apologies for my dyslexic acronym! FWIW

 

Hi
I am sorry to hear that happened but now that it has you will a want to document it well. Of course report it to your insurance company straight away so they can time stamp your claim.


Now to the next stage getting it repaired. Don't be too quick to jump at the first offer you get. As for "Dentless Repair", it is not always the best solution.... given the state of your car's current paint job.


You will also need to take it to a suitable body shop and have them give you an estimate for the job. Just be careful to qualify the type of paint work they offer since your car has a 3 coat paint system not a single coat system. Insist that that is considered in their estimate.


I hope that helps


BigBoss in Dallas. TX

 

I saw one being sold for parts a while back that was totaled by the insurance company. I hope yours is not as bad. Having removed some parking lot dings from both of mine, I know how difficult it is to work the heavy sheet metal on the Jags. My neighbors' Yaris and Dodge pickup were damaged by hail a year ago and they were easy to repair.

Some of the dentless repair guys are not familiar with Jags and will think it's easy, so definitely find one with the right experience.

 

There you go, plenty of varying advice to think about. We can all only offer opinions based on our own experience, and sometimes that will be conflicting.

If you do approach a regular panel shop for a quote, ask about their repair technique. It is about much more than the paint, even if your car would benefit from a new paint job. New paint won't hide inferior repairs. I'll firmly stick to my earlier opinion i.e. "Paintless" Dent Repair gives a far better result for hail damage than beating or pulling & filling - and I've seen some horrible repairs done that way where the wrong technique stretches the metal.

As I said previously, not all PDR guys are good with hail, choose a specialist. Those I've been involved with are experienced with Euro cars, all gauges of steel and alum. I've also had 3 or 4 very minor dents removed from my own Jag by PDR hail damage pro's, no problem and a perfect finish.

 

Tony
Good morning, I'm sorry if I implied that PDR cannot be a solution and I agree with you it may well be in this situation. I have seen wonderful work done by them. But you also make a good point about making sure to pick a well experienced PDR guy. The challenge becomes picking one given the spike in demand for their services in a local area following a "Hail Storm".


I recently had some damage recently and asked for a number of PDR quotes and they were all over the map. But the most "recommended PDR" guys told me that PDR would not be the right solution for me.




Have a good day today.


BigBoss in Dallas TX

 

Even when there is damage 'all over' the horizontal surfaces car? Seems to me we could be talking about *dozens* of dents, or maybe more? Could *that* much damage be repaired so that the end result is invisible?

I'm asking, not arguing. I'm a big believer in PDR and have used PDR services for years on my own cars but surely there must be a limit to the magic?

Cheers
DD

 

I do intend to use PDR. As a matter of fact I've been looking at buying tools for it for some time & this episode has moved the plans to the forefront. I'm 58 now & with the exception of recalls & two automatic transmissions, never before taken a car for repair (including bodywork & paint). The damage is not hundreds of noticeable marks, more like a some very noticeable ones & a number of others diminishing in size to the point where you have to be looking for them to see them.
It will probably be a while because I have other projects ahead of this one but I'll post before & after photos when I give it a go. ( I'll be practicing on my '93 Camry).

 

Really sorry to hear about this happening to your car. I've lived through some simply catastrophic hailstorms that have destroyed entire towns worth of cars, roofs and trees, so I know it can really be disastrous

If the damage is pretty limited you may be able to get away with PDR. I have about 5-6 small dings in the 97 I just bought and I think 2-3 are from hail. So I'm going to try PDR. I have a friend that swears by a PDR guy here in Raleigh that took care of both his Mercedes, which is reassuring to me. I had a 2001 Volvo XC70 that a PDR guy simply did wonders with, and in some very inaccessible door areas without removing any panels. It was remarkable.

Good luck! Maybe a silver lining is that insurance may give you an opportunity to turn your prior 10-foot, now 30-foot car now into a close up near perfect car!

 

It is possible to deal with large numbers of hails dents very successfully. The only difference between 1 dent and 100 is the time it takes, that being the reason insurers will often write-off (total) severely damaged examples. As with any damage assessment, insurers look at the market value of the car vs. the cost of repair to determine viability. The last repair example I saw was a 2 year old car covered with literally dozens of hail dents. The insurer approved the quoted PDR repair, and the repair was flawless. Happy owner!

There may be some confusion about the different categories of PDR operators. The mobile "we come to you" guys (often called Smart Repairs) are mostly excellent for small jobs, I wouldn't use them for hail. The PDR hail specialists are usually in dedicated shops. It's not uncommon for larger panel shops to also have a dedicated bay for PDR hail work run by the specialists who may have up to 3 or 4 guys working on one car simultaneously. And finally, there are number of PDR hail teams who travel the world (usually seconded by large panel repair chains) to handle high demand in areas where hail storms have caused massive amounts of damage.

 

Just a personal observation, but using PDR as stated for a few dings here n there may well be a good idea, I've used them myself a few times with excellent results.


From the sort of damage you're talking about though I'd guess it'd be the more expensive route, and probably not the best option available.

 

For all who may still be interested, for future reference I've listed a few sites on companies providing PDR solutions for hail damage. PDR hail specialization started in the UK around 30 yrs ago, and as the techniques (and tooling) have been refined over the years the process has grown hugely on a worldwide basis.

IMHO it's still the best method for repairing hail damage, providing the paint isn't broken. The key element is that the technique does not stretch the metal in the same way that conventional panel beating does (and let's not even talk about filling!)

UK - Dent Removal & Car Dent Repair In Nottingham, Derby & Heanor
USA - www.dentspecialistsinternational.com
CAN - Professional Paintless Hail & Dent Repair Centre | Canada-wide service
AUS - Dentfree - Dentfree Paintless Dent Removal

Having seen the pro's at work it is definitely a skill occupation, to me it's not a DIY thing, but anyone can learn I guess!


Caveat:
I'm listing these companies only as random examples for reference. Although I have worked closely with this industry in the recent past in Aus, I am in no way associated with these specific companies, nor have I ever been, nor am I recommending them.

 

These links might work better in targeting their sections on hail damage:

HAIL DAMAGE SPECIALIST - Dentfree
http://www.dentspecialistsinternational.com/home/
Professional Paintless Hail & Dent Repair Centre | Canada-wide service
PDR Hail Repair - Car Hail Dent Repair & Hail Damage Removal Services | Dentspeed Paintless Dent Removal