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Contrary to the numerous DIY articles, amateur advice and commercial products on offer, the easiest and best way to fix dents and hail damage to your vehicle is to actually just ring a professional! Do not attempt the dent removal yourself.
There are a few different ways that hail damage can be repaired. Paintless dent repair (PDR) is a quick and inexpensive method that corrects the dents without needing to repaint the vehicle. … Hail can damage windshields, windows and sunroofs, so auto glass repairs may be needed as well.
Most bodywork specialists use long-handled, thin metal pushing tools for hail damage repair. Usually sold in kits, these tools are designed to reach inside or under body panels, using carefully applied leverage, gently, gradually and repeatedly pushing on the underside of the dent until it disappears.
That’s because sunlight warms the metal on your car’s body. As the metal warms, it expands, and if you’re fortunate, expanding metal may cause the dents to pop back out and disappear. Parking your vehicle for just one week in the hot sun may eliminate up to 90 percent of the dents caused by hail.
If you have no problem driving a hail-damaged car and initially planned to drive it to the ground, then getting it repaired won’t be worth it. On the other hand, if you care about the condition of your car or have plans to sell the car, then getting the damaged repair is definitely worth it.
Although hail that is smaller than an inch can damage your vehicle if it is wind-driven or very, very dense, it is unlikely that hail smaller than an inch will damage your vehicle. But when it gets to the size of an inch or larger, the chance of it damaging your vehicle is very high.
The average devaluing of a car due to hail damage runs at $250 per dent, with moderate damage lowering the value of a car $3,000 and severe damage resulting in a total-loss (vehicle becoming essentially worthless at resale). In general, the devaluation of the car runs about the same as the cost of repairs.
Before applying tools, try the following: wash the dented surface with hot, possibly boiling water. With a bit of luck the metal will flex and pop back in its original form. This also works on plastic bumpers. The hot water always supplies sufficient heat to make the paint and the material smooth.
Hail damage can easily be removed using dry ice. … Dry ice is preferred over regular ice to remove dents because it’s lower temperature–acccording to Dryiceinfo.com, dry ice’s temperature is -109.3°F or -78.5°C–and can more quickly reach the temperature difference needed to pop out the dents.
S.M.A.R.T repairs use Small, Medium Area Repair Technology, which focus on fixing and painting the hail dented area, to avoid having to respray the entire hail damaged car part. Alternatively if no painting is required then paintless dent removal (PDR) can be used.
PDR can be used to remove minor dings, dents and hail damage from a vehicle’s metal panels so long as the paint is intact. … A timely repair will prevent further damage like cracking or bubbling paint caused by moisture making its way into the indent.
Great for Major Dents: When these occur, the hail damage car can be repaired, but there may be damage to the paint, so sanding, filling and then repainting will be necessary to ensure a proper match to the rest of the car.
Breaking down the average cost:
They’ll be able to give you quotes for the type of repair and labor they expect to be involved in restoring your vehicle. The average cost for traditional dent repair is $125-$325 per dent, and the average cost for paintless dent repair is $50-$150 per dent.
For the most part, small hail “stones” do very little damage. … Here is what you can expect in terms of damage in relation to the size of the hail and how auto hail damage repair can fix that. Pea-Sized to Penny-Sized. This size of hail would have to be hurtling so hard and fast at your vehicle to cause any damage.
There is no “hail damage” option on Carfax Auto Hail Repair Claims will be reported to CARFAX if your vehicle is totaled, and you choose to retain the car. … If your vehicle is totaled by hail damage, the insurance company will pay out the vehicle’s actual value and not the amount you owe.
In many cases, yes! In fact, your trade value might be higher if you trade your car in with the body damage unrepaired. Not only can the dealer see the problem as it is, but they can also profit from doing the repairs themselves.
This is the biggest question homeowners face after a hail storm. … If your roof is leaking after a hail storm, a roof replacement is likely required. However, roof damage isn’t always that obvious.
Most metal hammers will do nothing more than dent, scratch and compromise the body of your vehicle. It’s very easy to make things worse with a standard hammer. Instead, professional bodywork hammers come in a range of head shapes and sizes to handle a variety of dents.
Pop out the dent with a hair dryer and compressed air
This will expand the dent and make it more pliable. When the car is hot to the touch, immediately spray the dented area with a can of compressed air. The cold air coming from the can will cause the area to contract. This should make the dent pop out.
Run inside and grab your plunger. This method works well for small to medium-sized dents and dings in your car. … A cup plunger works much better than the flange plungers commonly used for toilets. Stick the plunger to over your dent and start plunging until the dent pops back into place.
The dents which form a big depression on a body panel and not sharp indents can be pulled out. If there are cracks on the dented panel, the dent can most likely not be pulled out. Very large dents can not be suctioned out. If the body panel is made of aluminum, the dent cannot be pulled out in the majority of cases.
To ensure that doesn’t happen, body shops use a process called “paintless dent removal” (PDR). PDR requires no fillers or sanding, as a trained technician uses a variety of special tools to gently and slowly push dents back into place without harming the factory paint job.
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