Hail storm damage

[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.

[PROJET - L]

My wife was driving the Octavia during the storm.
A few streets away from home.
She rang me from the car and I could barely hear her over the sound of hailstones hitting the roof.

My heart sank...

A few days later our next door neighbour was lamenting about the dints on their newish Mazda CX9.
I then remembered that the Skoda had not one dint from hailstones at all!

Lucky or Tough you be the judge.

[K1W1]

Lucky

My vote.
I discovered four hail dents in my bonnet last night - and the car was under a carport!