Auto Hail Damage

E

El_Guapo

500+ Posts
Mrs. Guapo was at Barton Creek Mall this afternoon when apparently a nasty hailstorm came through. Up north you wouldn't have even known anything was happening.

Anyway, she got dinged, not horribly, but it's definitely noticable and something will need to be done.

I've heard of places that can "pop" the dings out at much less trouble and expense than taking it to a body shop for smoothing/repainting, etc. I understand they sort of freeze the area which causes the metal to bend itself out?

Are these places legit? Does the process work? How much are we looking at? The paint appears to be intact and the car is barely a year old (a 2003 Honda Accord, if that makes a difference).

Thanks - any info will be very, very helpful.
 
how many dings are there? My car got hit by the Austin hail all over the place a few years ago and I had to get pretty much everything replaced.
 
I've heard this works -- let me know if it's true:

On a relatively hot day, leave your car outside for a few hours. Grab a bucket of ice and put the cubes inside the dings. The ice (from what I've been told) will tighten the surface of the body and pop back up.

Sounds decent in theory, but I've never attempted the procedure. I think it's safe to assume that this will not work on very deep dings.
 
I believe the name of the place is Dent Busters, on Burnet Road. Try them. They do the minor dent popping without regular paint and bodywork technique, and they will tell you if it will come out perfect that way, or not.
 
We had a major hail storm come through my little town in early April. Those dent fixers showed up by the dozens. Every vehicle that they worked on (that I saw) looked good as new.
 
Consumer Reports wrote up the do-it-your self vs. the professional dent fixers a few months ago. It sounded like the pros were legit. It did indicate that most of the repairs were imperfect, but the pros sound like the way to go.
 
I will vouch for these guys. Some ******* loser whacked the passenger door of my wife's '04 Honda Accord last week. Three separate, noticable dents. Took it to Honda and they said they would need to use filler, etc....500 bucks. Honda did mention one of these dent removal places but since the dent was on a seam (just below the door handle), they said they probably couldn't remove it. Well, they were wrong. I would have never known it happened but for the small area of paint damage. Two of the dents were much less subtle and not really noticeable...but now they are gone completely. Cost me 120 bucks...well worth it.
 
by replaced I mean they put on a new hood, trunk and top. I had dents all over the car, so it was cheaper just to do it that way. If your insurance covers it, then that might be the best way to go.
 
We had a car caught in a nasty hail storm - it left dents all over the top and sides of the car. Not huge, but noticeable. Actually, I believe that the warranty, from BMW, covered it - they did the paintless dent removal over the entire car. It came out great.

I had heard that the process may have some long-term issues with the paint bonding to the body, but I can find nothing to back it up. Still, on a new car, I preferred this to a repaint. Factory paint is generally much better.
 
Took it by Dent Busters today for an estimate. Quite a bit higher than I anticipated. I was hoping not to have to file an insurance claim but that's not gonna happen now.

The adjuster is coming out later in the week to give his assessment. At this point, we're out the deductible regardless so I don't much care what else they do, although I agree that I really don't want to have to repaint a year old car.

If that happens, we're trading her in.

Hailstorms suck.
 
Yeah, it is the number of dings that makes the difference. One or two, and Dent Busters would be a lot cheaper than regular paint and body work. But they charge for each ding, so if there are a large number, it may cost less to do the paint and bondo routine.
Many people get the insurance money and don't fix the car, since it is hard to fix properly, and costs a lot.
 
I've heard that after a year or so the paint starts to crack and flake off. Since your insurance will cover this, I would take it to a body shop and have them pop them out and repaint just to be safe.
 
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