My wife and I were driving home on the hwy, and I saw a terrible storm ahead. Well the wind kicked up, then the rain, then HAIL!! As I looked out the window, on the ground lay golf ball size pieces of hail. It lasted for more than 5 minutes as we sat there on the hwy with nowhere to go!!

The car is filthy from the rain and I can still count over 30 dents. I am going to wash the car today (even though its going to rain) so I can really see how bad it is.

My question is, Does anyone have experience with this? How does an insurance company handle a claim like this? Is the entire car going to have to be repainted? How do they remove the massive dents on the hood and roof?

All of your help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Sorry to hear about the damage. I had a 93 Altima that I got stuck in a hailstorm with. Big dents all over just like yours from the sound of it. My insurance (State Farm) said it would require replacing all horizontal body panels as well as cutting off the roof and replacing it. My spoiler was also cracked and had to be replaced. The car ended up getting totaled since I already had about 150k miles on it. The estimate was at about $7000.

I've heard some people say the paintless dent removal works well but i've never had any experience with that. You may want to inquire.

 

They started out like: ping, ping, ping....then pong,pong,pong,... then thump,thump,thump.....

It was sooo loud in the car I couldn't even hear my 1 yr old crying in the back seat!!!

 

They will usually total a car for hail damage. You know what that means......2k3 6spd

 

do you really think so? I have to clean it so I can really see how bad it is, especially the driver side that took the brunt of it.

 

Yeah, if it's bad enough, they total it. Hail damage is damn near impossible to fix.

 

I dont get how it is near impossible.. could you possibly enlighten me with the knowledge? Hood=New hood, Roof= New roof panel??

 

Well I just washed it and it doesn't look good!! There is 50+ dents between the hood, roof and trunklid, and these range from the size of a dime up to the size of a silver dollar! The entire drivers side from the front quater panel to rear quarter panel has close to 20 dents. My window is chipped, the hood is also scratched from something else flying throught the air as well as the bumper!

I can't wait to see if the insurance company is going to give me headaches over this. I have never made a claim with them and I have been with them well over 7yrs! I will keep you posted.

 

Shh, but dents from a ball pean hammer wrapped in a few layers of cloth look exactly like hail damage... are there any 'good' panels? Any unbroken glass? You might want to take care of them... and then, when the car slid off the road and bent the rim... and f-ed up the front axle...

Take it in the garage, hug it, close the door, and when it's not looking, and put it out of your misery.

 

Sorry to hear about it. Regardless of whether the insurance company writes it off or decides to fix it, its still a big pain in the a$$ on your end.

Best of luck.

 

There are no good panels on the drivers side both quarter panels and both doors, even the gas door have dents. I think there is plenty of damage on the hood, roof and trunklid.

Overall 70+ dents, chipped winshield, chipped/scratched hood....I think there is plenty of natural damage!!

 

I'm not usually one to condone something like i suggested, but just recently my brother was in an accident and the adjuster told him "it's about $500 away from being totalled. If you want it fixed we'll do it. If you want a check, I'll go away and there better not be any glass when I get back."

Hope it all works out for you. Can you post pictures? I've never seen hail damage. Get a good, low angle on a very badly damaged panel if you could.

 

Sorry to hear about your damage. That hail was huge though. I'm glad my car was in the garage for that. Hope it works out for you.

 

Yep, I was on the 101 just past Grand Ave when I hit it!!!

 

Man that sucks. Well let us know how it turns out. Crazy talking about huge hail in phoenix. That happens maybe once every few years.

 

if you want to keep you car I would recommend dent wizard or dent king. You will keep the factory paint and there will be no sign of dents. That is if your paint didn't chip any which I don't think it would with hail.

 

It didn't chip, but how will they take the dents out in the roof, trunklid, and hood? I don't expect them to total it, but I would say it's going to be expensive to fix!! I know that the Dent Wizard can remove the dents from the quaters and doors, but I am worried about the other parts of the car! BTW, the hood and the roof are the worst!!!!

 

dent wizard take out the head liner to get to the dents in the roof and the same with the hood and rear. I can almost guaratee that it will be cheaper than an auto body repair and paint.

 

First of all, in the words of Bill Clinton, "I feel your pain"!

My '98SE was nailed the first six months I had it, with golf-ball sized hail. Not as severe as your damage, but pretty bad nonetheless. I was devastated.

Don't remember who my insurance carrier was at the time, but they were highly cooperative, and allowed me to choose my method of repair. This was, a little fortunate I will admit.

The dealer wanted to putty and paint the whole damn thing for over $3000, but I would have none of it on a car with less than 10k miles.
And to add insult to injury, they wanted the car for no less than 30 days!!! (can you say, CRAPPY RENTAL CAR??!!)

Fortunately I found a reputable detail/repair shop in my area who also sub-contracted with a paintless removal specialist, and got the work done for a little less than the original estimates from the dealer; and here's the BIG BONUS -- it took only two days!!!!

I never thought it was possible, but it turned-out near perfect. There are some areas that are hard to repair on vertical surfaces, but 99% of the damaged surfaces were repaired.
I was thrilled!

I know you have some EXTENISVE damage, so the real issue is whether you have enough to total the car, and more to the point, if you WANT the car to be totalled or not??! (how many miles?)
I'm not sure I'd go so far as to start breaking windows and beating-in quarter panels, but definitely take a little stock in where the true market value of your car lies before you contact your insurance agent. You MAY even take it to the DEALERSHIP just to see if they give you a (typical) outrageous estimate to fix your damage in whatever barbaric method they devise.This will give you a baseline idea of whether or not you should consider pursuing a TOTALLING or not.
Suddenly a new hood doesn't sound so bad does it??!

Whatever the case - you still have an obligation to contact your insurance guy as soon as possible to let them know, so you can get the ball rolling. In the end - they're going to HAVE to pay you to save what's left of your poor car.

My 2C ~ be smart and give yourself the widest array of options available. Paintless is fantastic if it is APPLICABLE to the amount of damage you have suffered, and the relaitve value of your car.

Good Luck.

G.R.

 

If this is possible then I will be very happy. I am very curious to see how much this is going to cost!

BTW, I didn't mention that my sister-n-law was in the car, and she said "what are you so ****ed about, its only a car"!!

 

it's only a car?!?! You should have made her wait outside until the hail stopped. (jk )

 

Please don't take this a lecture.
As much as you are upset about your car (who wouldn't), your sister-in-law had the right attitude. What happened was an unexpected loss of property, not life. A tragedy would have been if the hail storm caused you to crash and your baby spent a week in ICU! BTW, I am speaking from personal experience. Be thankful that all your family are ok.

 

I 2nd that notion!

 

Sorry to hear about the damage, i know how you feel. My 2K2 had 2K miles when it was damaged by hail. Dent Wizard perfomed a miracle and all is perfect again. Mine had a couple hundred dents, however were only dime size, so i was lucky they were not any bigger. The repair only took a couple of days and cost about 1,300 total for mine. Much cheaper and quicker than traditional body work. My hood and roof too were the most damaged and i couldnt believe when i went to pick it up that it looked perfect. hope all goes well with your repair

 

I agree with you, but laughing as it is happening!! I am very thankful that my family in the car was ok, actually I was pretty scared myself!! I thought I was in the movie twister and I was going to see a cow fly by any minute!!

 

crazy woman

 

I'm a licensed agent with Liberty Mutual. As long as you have Comprehensive/Other Than Collision coverage on your policy this is completely covered by your insurance carrier. Usually subject to a deductible of $50-$500 depending on your policy provisions and coverage selections. If you have not notified your insurance carrier, do so immediately. You have 45 days from the point a loss occurrs to make a claim with your insurance company. If you have any questions, PM me. I am licensed in NY in all forms of insurance.

 

As far as I'm concerned, you should only have to tell the insurance company one thing: what color.

 

Now that makes a lot of sense.lol The color tells you a lot about a vehicle and how it should be repaired and rated appropriately.LOL Great statement.

 

Well I took the car to a couple of shops, and so far the average estimate is $3500.

 

As long as you notified your insurer and their claim adjuster saw the vehicle and gave his/her estimate, they will pay for the damage less your deductible.

 

Paintless dent removal works wonders as well as heat treatment methods (warming the surfaces to let the metal expand - many wil pop out than as well). THe only problem with these methods is if you have hail dents on the edges where the metal curves sharply. It's much more difficult (sometimes impossible) to get a clean dent removal in these areas.

I had a Nissan 200SX about 15 years ago in Columbia SC that got incredibly damaged. In that summer we had baseball size hail. My windshield went in the first minute. The car ended up being totalled. The problem was that so did a lot of others and it took weeks to get resolution with the ins. company. They did the best they could. There were about 40 people that went to the hospital with life threatening injuries for that 10 min period. It was lucky it didn't happen about 4 hours later. There was a USC football game at Williams-Bryce - 87,000 people woul have been exposed! The before game tailgaters cars were really damaged and there were a lot of injuries. I've never seen anything else like it.
Consider yourself lucky - hail ice is about as dense an ice as you can get. Good luck with your car. Glad no one was hurt.


Shaydz