Hail storm damage

[bobski]

Anyway, got it assessed today and its repairable - still about $15k damage though, and must be close to write-off. Its being done by a company that specialises in hail damage who reckon they will make it as good as new.

Yeah my melbournian friend is waiting on his claim to be looked at. He is concerned it won't be a write off (Esp because it's agreed value is much more than it's worth to fix it). I did encourage him to try to find someone with a good rep and not who the insurance wants). My thinking is that if they take all the panels off and don't know what they are doing, he'll end up wih a very loose feeling, ratty car. With so much business on their hands, I can see Manu shortcuts being taken and unskilled hands used to do the shortcutting.

Intersted in anyones opinion if they've been there done that though...

[K1W1]

They don't usually take panels off for hail damage.
If the car is repairable it's done by special machines (I believe that there are three in Melbourne) that just suck the dent back out, no painting, no replacement of panels and supposedly a perfect result. I don't know how the machines in Australia work but a friend in the US tells me their machines use Freon gas to freeze the area around the dent then super hot steam to instantly heat it to cause the panel to pop back into it's original shape.

[bobski]

They don't usually take panels off for hail damage.

Well thats a relief I suppose. However, 3 machines and many thousands of damaged cars... Could be a long wait!

[gerhard]

Both my cars are being repaired by the paintless method.

The Jackaroo has bigger dents then the GTI, the bonnet of which has hundreds of small dents.

I quizzed the repairer guys several times about the GTI bonnet especially, but they seemed overwhelmingly confident in their technology.

I'll know by the end of April, if it's a perfect result. There's a lifetime warranty on the repairs, so I'll be keeping a keen eye out for missed marks and "relapses".

I'm very interested in how they achieve the repair, my rudimentary understanding of sheet metal is that to achieve a dent, it must stretch, and it gains a new "memory". Therefore to reverse the dent, the stretch must be reversed and the memory reset to original values.

[Transporter]

Both my cars are being repaired by the paintless method.

The Jackaroo has bigger dents then the GTI, the bonnet of which has hundreds of small dents.

I quizzed the repairer guys several times about the GTI bonnet especially, but they seemed overwhelmingly confident in their technology.

I'll know by the end of April, if it's a perfect result. There's a lifetime warranty on the repairs, so I'll be keeping a keen eye out for missed marks and "relapses".
I'm very interested in how they achieve the repair, my rudimentary understanding of sheet metal is that to achieve a dent, it must stretch, and it gains a new "memory". Therefore to reverse the dent, the stretch must be reversed and the memory reset to original values.

Just make sure that they can't say "oh sorry sir, that's a new damage".

[gerhard]

Just make sure that they can't say "oh sorry sir, that's a new damage".

Yes, for sure on that point.

Hail damage is apparently easy for them to spot vs say damage from a stone or car park dent.

As a matter of interest, the assessors were right on the ball for damage patterns relative to vehicle location. They hadn't repaired a single Rowville/Lysterfield vehicle, whereas my cars were in North Dandenong and Wheelers Hill.

Dandenong had endless marble sized hailstones with the odd one a bit bigger, Wheelers Hill had bigger stones but not so many, resulting in fewer but bigger dents.

Rowville/Lysterfield had monsters, many with spikes, looking like the ball of a mace.

[K1W1]

I've just been told this morning that one of the large European insurance companies has flown in several specialist hail damage repair crews from Europe to get through the work load.