Anyone with hail damage experience?
 

Looks like I have 3 vehicles here that are covered with dents. We had a hail storm today of absolutely biblical proportions... have never seen anything like it in my life. All my landscaping and newly installed trees are busted up, roof is leaking and I have drywall damage. Assuming my asphalt shingle roof is pretty dented up, too. The house stuff will be straightforward. Anyone know about the lanscaping and vehicles? Are they totaled? I can't imaging anyone could repair a thousand dents on each car/truck. Any advice on dealing with the insurance companies? I'm one of those schmucks that spends $25,000 a year on insurance and never makes a claim. Time to start getting busy :eek:

For the vehicles, do a search for the dry ice or hair dryer/air technique.

For the insurance company, take pictures and document communications.
They do.

Best.

We had a hail storm hit one of our cars twice. They did paintless dent removal on most of the panels, but the last storm ruined the hood so it had to be replaced. If the paint isn't damaged then that is the way to go.

Thanks... we're talking hundreds of dents per vehicle. Can they do dent removal on that? Even the un-replaceable panels, such as the roof, pillars, etc are hammered.

The dry ice hair dryer technique does not work on hail dents. I just tried it last week. Collected a $4,500 check on my DD due to bad hail last week and figured it was worth a shot and pocket the cash.

Wifes Tahoe was $4,200 in damage and even though that's less than half the street value it was close to totaled so be careful there.

Get a GC out to look. You'd be shocked at the damage they find that can be claimed. A roof guy will find roof damage, you want them to find everything.

Besides you'll end up with several trades in to deal with different things. Roof, gutters, fence staining, landscaping so depending on what you need a large GC outfit may work best.

On the house I have a 1% deductible (1% of rebuild cost on house) on the act of god stuff like hail which can be covered pretty easily by a good contractor. Some of my neighbors have 2% which is minimum 2/3 rds if not close to 100% of what their roofs will cost so they are kinda screwed. Don't understand why, homeowners ins is cheap in TX, like $1,000 a year. What could they have saved? Couple hundred bucks that will now cost them $12-15,000.

One of my guys just got his WRX back.

Had dings everywhere including the same areas that concern you.

Car is absolutely perfect. What a good PDR guy can do is simply amazing.

I was sold.

Much better option and IMHO better result than a respray.

I have 4 vehicles and 2 are always in the garage. Now I know why they want to know where I keep them. If you spend 25K/yr for ins, I guess they can fix and repaint your cars. For me, keeping the better 2 out of harm's way is not even a slight nuisance.

I guess that's why I pay a tenth of Richard's fees.

Call your insurance agent. You will have to pay your deductibles on each car and on the house. The cars are most likely total losses. It usually isn't worth it to replace that many body panels. If you still want to drive them, you can buy them back at a salvage price and have salvage titles put on the cars.

Call quickly. They will want to look at the house ASAP. They will want it fixed quickly to avoid mold, and can give advice on how to make temporary repairs.

No advice, but a kid on my sons swim team bought a hail damaged car. Fairly new, but it looks like a giant golf ball. Every panel is damaged with hundreds of dents. They picked it up for dirt cheap though.

I take it it's Montana Hail !

Good news every body is pretty used to it, the insurance companies do not typically fight hard with the insured about hail damage here.

1. Get quotes for repairs for every thing house, siding, roof (West faces will typically have more damage) & cars, animals, tanks, anything that dents, from people you trust and would have do the work. Talk to neighbors for the best roofing and siding contractors.

2. Call the insurance company adjuster and spend the required time outlining the damage with them and going over the quotes. They will most likey use the the quotes to establish the claim (It's what you want).

PM me if you need help. In the last 2 Years we have had $300K in claims on commercial and residential Property in MT due only to hail damage. I'm waiting on a new dryvit face on our office building $75K- $100K more.

I watched a hail stone, softball size hit our horse on the forehead. That ges a reaction! :eek:

Hey golf balls have dents for a reason. They go faster;)

Great advice, thanks. I am in the process of getting estimates. The first body shop says, yeah, the trucks are totaled. I love those things, so will probably buy them back as salvage (how do they determine the salvage value?) and then try to get them straightened out with a PDR guy. We don't have anyone in town doing that, so might need to drag them down to SoCal. I guess they have more character now :)

Evan... yes, here in Red Lodge. We sustained an hour of solid hail activity. Talking to old timers today, they say nobody can remember anything like this. It seems that there was some significant downdraft action with the hail. I could not believe the force that they were striking the concrete and how high they were bouncing. Its 77 degrees now and I still have piles of ice a half foot deep around the house!

In the case of my wifes truck, KBB or some other industry standard for valuation puts it at ~$8k.

Repairs are $4,200.

If estimated repairs were $4,500+ they would have totaled it.

Auction value of the vehicle is at least ~$3,500.

$4,500+$3,500 is $8k.

So if they total it they give me $8k and they hope to get more than $3,500 at auction. (appraiser told me if I stick it on the street with a price tag of $6,000 firm it'll be gone before the weekend.)

So if they had totaled it and I opted to buy it back they would simply cut me a check for $4,500.

Wifes truck is an 01' Tahoe with 100k on the clock.

It's the family hauler so it's got it's share of battle scars already.

I only found 2-3 dings on the sides that were caused by the hail.

The bulk of the damage is to the hood, it's pretty hammered. Roof has some dings but nothing you can see unless you are Shaq or are on a ladder and even then it's only a few.

So my plan is to put in an order at the local bone yard for a color matched A or B grade hood from as close to an 01' (to match fading) Tahoe, Suburban, Yukon, Siiverado as they can get.

$500, a couple of hours in the driveway, 2-3 beers and I get to pocket the rest. A lot of bone yards will even do the work so I can get a "receipt" for the repair. That way if i have damage in the future I get full value on the next claim.

Your vehicle is usually totalled at 80% of FMV (fair market value). That is usually determined by sales estimates. Kelley Blue Book "wholesale" or trade-in value averaged with private party sales will get you close. That sum, because of how it is obtained and the condition of your vehicle is most definately negotiable.

If you are in a somewhat rural area, there may not be alot of PDR guys around. If there is one or two, they are going to be booked solid for a while. It might be worth your effort to take the vehicles to someone out of area for the repairs. No wait, and that person may have alot more time on their hands for a heavily damaged vehicle.

You can also have some PDR done, and some body work/panel replacement done. You don't have to go 100% either way. You can opt for aftermarket parts, such as hoods and fenders to "save" totalling a vehicle. Don't overlook used parts either. Sometimes, especially with pickups, you get lucky and have a color match on the used parts. There seem to be a few less colors in pickups than over vehicles and if yours is a work truck, good chance it's white as are most other work trucks.

angela

Thanks Stomachmonkey and Angela, that's a huge help! Awaiting estimates...

Back in 2002, our Ford Taurus (company lease car) was damaged in a hail storm. The damage was just over $1000 and the car was covered with "dimples" but the paint was not penetrated. The "paintless dent guy" the dealership hired did a great job and you couldn't tell it was ever damaged...

Had my truck totaled by hail last october. Also got one of the Jags.

House got it as well and got a reasonable amount to repair it. Make sure your A/C and heating are ok and may need to be replaced.

Joe, did you buy back the salvage and keep the truck? Did you get the dents removed with PDR?

I had a 1995 Altima this happened to in 1997 or 1998. It even cracked the windshield. They had the car 2 weeks and had to repair every panel. The argued on the driver's door but I said it wouldn't match. I don't remember the cost, but the car was never the same....it later developed an electrical problem where the turn signal would short out the whole circuit. I think someone did a sloppy job on reassembly. I don't know why they didn't total it.

I'm a little late joining in here, but I had a newish Sebring convert get over $5000 worth of hail damage when it weas about 2years old. Looked into the dent wizard guys; that was going to cost well over $9k; not realistic for the car even if it was only 2 years old.
I took the $5k insurance check and put it toward buying an beautiful 87 Targa!
I have heard form others and been told by body shop folks that dry ice will do wonders, but it has restricted sales so not that easy to buy. I know others here have suggested it and that is what I would do if I was motivated.

I was told to leave it in the sun and that might pop them out to, but over the last 6 years my daughters driving has fixed all but the rear deck lid and the drivers door due to accidents. So far I've had over $10,000 worth of work done to this car and the crazy insurance company keeps paying for the repairs, so I keep getting it fixed. Anyone want to buy a 2001 Sebring convert with 133k miles with all service receipts from new, slight hail damage and a a lot of new sheet metal and new paint? Not holding my breath, but it will probably make a good trade in when my daughter gives up banging into things or others into her. I figure no matter what they give me for it I'm ahead of the game and then some!

As for buying back a vehicle with salvage title, I would aviod that if at all possible. Work something out with the insurance company. It's bad enough they have hail damage adding salvage title to the mix, you will never be able to sell them later except for scrap or parts?
Just my 2cents
Good luck with your situation.

Yes I did. They hemmed and hawed back and forth and finally totaled the truck. Dents were pretty bad but hey, its a frigging pickup truck.

I paid $12.5k for it two years ago and they gave me a check for $7600 and I kept the truck. Only difficult part was that they would not do anything until the title was marked "salvage."

Well here in AZ they force you to inspect the vehicle before doing anything (unless you do salvage it) and its then marked "salvage/repaired" and the insurance company finally accepted that.

Dents have been taken out of the roof, and will put a new or salvage hood and left front fender on the vehicle when I get time and find one for a reasonable price. Found a great guy who flies around the country removing dents. He did the truck roof and the Jag and you cannot see a thing on either where he worked. He is a 911 owner and was very happy with his work.

BTW, regarding the post above, I could care less about the salvage title. I do not plan on selling the vehicle, its got 133k miles on it now and a Cummins engine usually lasts 500k, so its a keeper for me.

That's why the whole "salvage title" thing really bothers me. The vehicle has cosmetic only damage. It is now "salvage" because an insurance company made a payoff, that's the only reason.

Salvage title does kill you if you want to sell it - big hit. But you have the right attitude, drive it till it drops.

I drive a salvage title 911. I drive it everywhere. Damn fine car for $3,500.

angela

Angela,

Same here but at least in Arizona we have "salvage/repaired" and when they see the date everyone around here knows that its hail damage and once its fixed you might lose 10% but not like a regular salvage vehicle.

Numbers are in. $18K for a new roof for the house. Each of the F150s has $7K damage. I guess they decided to not total the trucks. I'm not really too excited about the local small shop doing this kind of repair, so I need to decide what to do from here.

I think this is pretty much exactly what I'll do with my trucks, only they'll still have clear titles. They're only worth 10-12k each and I'll drive these things into the ground. They're just pickup trucks. Except now they'll have a bit more character.

Speed Dimples!

Just PM'ed you the contact info for my hail guy.

Joe A