Hail Damage Question

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nicholastheczar

nicholastheczar

Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
1,411
Location
Magnolia, TX
So my wife's car, a silver 2010 Chevy Camaro SS, was parked at DFW airport when the big storms blew through a couple of days ago and it took a beating from the hail. Every body panel has hail damage. The car has 6000 miles on it and is, was, in perfect condition. I called the insurance, Farmers, and they are sending an adjuster out on Tuesday to look at it. In the meantime, I called a local Chevy dealer and talked to their body shop. The guy I spoke with said they will use paintless dent repair as much as they can and then "skim coat" the rest of it :rolleyes: . He said that most likely the insurance won't total it out. Now he hasn't seen the car but I don't want a new car with bondo to bandaid the dents. The camaro has lots of "shape" to the body panels and it sure seems like it is going to be hard to pop those dents. Anyone have experience with adjusting a car from hail damage and what it takes to have one totaled due to hail? I just want it fixed right and not "patched" up. Is this common practice on new cars?

Thanks,
Nick
 
I have not had good luck with insur. co.s lately. Sounds like it should be totalled. MIke
 
Nick, I've worked many hail claims. The process is called push-to-paint. They will do PDR on all the smaller dents, generally up to 1' or so (some GOOD PDR techs can go larger). They will then push and/or pull the others as close as possible to the original shape then use a very small amount of filler, block it out, seal it and paint it. Most insurance companies won't total a car until the damages reaches 70% of ACV or Actual Cash Value..... I don't recall Farmer's procedures but would guess they are also at 70%. This all depends of course on the number of dents and the size of the dents.... without having seen any of the vehicles from the Dallas storm I can't guess at that, however the OKC storm two years ago we simply wrote to estimates to replace most of the top panels and PDR the sides...... It's a very expensive process but you end up with new OEM sheet metal.

Please note most all company adjusters and independant appraisers will underwrite an estimate as a means to either save money if you don't repair it or generate a "supplement" if you do repair it. The supplement shows that they tried to write the estimate as cheap as possible. Feel free to call me if you'd like, 316-six four four 8 six 3 five.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE only use a local well established bodyshop and not a side-of-the-road PDR guy that's chasing storms. Some of these guys are very good, don't get me wrong, but some are hacks. At least with a local shop like Service King or CarStar, and others I'm sure, you'll get a lifetime warranty on the work. Most dealerships have good bodyshops but I've seen some that also suck. The good bodyshops will also use traveling PDR guys and generally only contract with the better techs..... and again, back up the work with a warranty.

Hope this helps.
 
In my experience the insurance company will ALWAYS take the cheapest way out. They generally could care less how new it is. Again this is just my experience and I hope you end up with better results!

~Daniel

Sent from deep in the mountains of Honduras using only sticks and rocks.
 
When we have a big hail storm here every couple of years, the insurance compamies band together, rent a warehouse, and bring in adjusters from across the country.

Then a few weeks later they bring in PDR guys from across the country and have at it. I know many people, my self included, that got a perfect job done withhout the need for new paint.

My son had just bought a brand new Versa the week before the last big storm. He got over a hundred dime sized dents.
 
Thanks for all the good info.

66fj40x2 - Thanks for taking the time to lay it out there for me, I appreciate the info and the insight.

I will post up with the outcome of the adjuster, I guess the PDR doesn't sound like to bad of an option. I would think that I would probably have to get a new hood for sure and don't know about the trunk lid or the roof.

Thanks again!

Nick
 
My neighbor had tons of damage on his Ford Focus and he told me the damage was appraised at $7,000... :o There gonna replace the roof, hood, trunk lid and the front and back glass.

~Daniel

Sent from deep in the mountains of Honduras using only sticks and rocks.
 
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