Hail sucks! Beat up both my trucks!

[AirSpeed]

Had a 45 minute hail storm last night, hail over 2" in diameter out about twenty dents in each of the cabs and hoods on my 69 and 72. My wife's car looks like it was hit with a machine gun! Then there's my house and property. I wanted to barf as I stood on my porch watching watching my hard work being destroyed. I guess I should be thankful I didn't get a tornado!
I'm hoping my insurance covers the damage, haven't called them yet, not sure if I'm covered! Anyone have any experience with hail damage and insurance? I would like to fix the trucks myself if my ins will pay me.
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[Lou Boffa]

That sucks. I had a car dinged up that way recently. Insurance paid, less the deductable. Must have been one hell of a storm to damage these tough old trucks.

[yuccales]

Yikes! 2" hail. Sorry to hear about your rides. Hope your insurance works with you.

[AirSpeed]

It was bad! The river in front of my house looked like the ocean durning a hurricane, thousands of golf ball sized hail broke branches of my trees, killed all the flower plants in my garden, greenhouse roof full of holes. When it first started it was just rain, I ran out to roll up my windows and on the way to my truck the hail started, I got hit in the head by a 2" hail stone, felt like a rock. When I got to my truck it was coming down so hard I had to dive in the cab. I sat in the cab waiting for it to stop, it was horrible! Sounded like a bunch of people beating it up with bats! Sat there for about 15 minutes when it subsided for a minute, ran back up to the house and it got worse. My teardrop camper got it the worst, the aluminum looks like hammered copper. It's gonna be expensive.
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[Madtat]

That's sad!!! I cant even imagine what that would feel like. Hope the insurance gives you a square deal. Maybe you build a carport? Good luck keep us posted.

[68bowtie]

wow! where is fall river?

[Stickman]

Wow sorry to hear about your damage,sounds like West Texas not California.
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[STOCKISH]

Man that really sucks. Any pics of the trucks and camper? SO sorry man.

[Madtat]

Originally Posted by Stickman

Wow sorry to hear about your damage,sounds like West Texas not California.
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^^^ Yep! TX size hail.

[AirSpeed]

Fall River Mills is in northern Ca, between Mt Shasta and Mt Lassen. We've never had hail like this, it wasn't Texas sized but I don't think it would make much difference at this point. I'll post some pics of the damage in a bit. My trucks only have about 20 dents each but I'm going to have to repaint the top of both of them. My wifes car got it bad, being a newer car the steel is pretty thin so it looks like a golfball, thouands of dents, i doubt the hood can be fixed and the windshield is cracked. The aluminum sheets on my teardrop will have to be replaced, 2 5X10' sheets will run me about $450.
Just got off the phone with Allstate, they're gonna cover the damage but like an idiot I bumped my deductable up to $500 a few months ago and I have to pay $500 on each of the three claims! I wanna puke!
Sucks cause I was going to buy a carport soon but know that money's going to my deductable.
They're going to pay me to fix my 69 and 72 and I'll let the shop fix my wife's car. Barf barf barf!
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[toms68cst]

We got hit with hail bad here back about 10 years ago or more now. I think it was 2001.

I had always kept my truck garaged at the time but I was re-doing a bunch of our home's windows and had them set up on tables in the garage for doing the work. It was about the only time I didn't have room for any of our cars including my old truck. I was really bummed to have some hail damage on my nice stock body/paint.

My truck came out OK compared to our newer vehicles. We are able to do paintless repair on them. The sheet metal is thicker on our older trucks. The hail damage on my truck is not really noticeable unless you look really carefully. There is some on the roof and hood. I talked to some local guys about trying paintless dent repair on my truck but everyone seemed to think the stock paint would be too brittle and the sheet metal too thick to try it.

Like you our plants and trees took a major hit. We also had a brand-new roof on our house that had to be replaced.

All in all our insurance treated us OK. My truck was not covered for hail damage so I now accept it as old war wounds. Some day I hope to re-paint my truck.

I hope you make out OK with getting settlement on your damage.

[Chrome8]

Your insurance should cover the damage as long as you have Comprehensive coverage and not just Liability. Most insurance companies I've dealt with will want to write a check to the repair facility AND you as well to ensure that you actually fix the truck. So fixing it yourself may not be too easy. The last time I asked my Paintless Dent Repair guy to fix a ding in the hood of my 72 C10 he said that the metal was too thick to push from the back side...but he wasn't the best PDR guy in the world either. Maybe a skilled guy with the glue and pull PDR tools could get the dents out. Hail really sucks man, I hope you get the damage sorted out and fixed by insurance.

[LONGHAIR]

Yep, I have seen it like that, bigger actually, more like madtat showed.
Many years ago, Mother's day 1980, was the greatest hail storm in Ohio history. It moved across the southern suburbs of Columbus, hitting the area where I lived the hardest. It destroyed nearly everything, windows, roofs, awnings, carports, cars, signs, trees.

I was here during "the great blizzard" in '78 too. Winters were more severe when I was a kid.

[AirSpeed]

My ins co (Allstate) said if I want to fix the trucks myself they will write me a check, now I need to figure out how much it's gonna cost. I'm going to strip the paint down to steel and start over. Most of the dents in my trucks are right where the braces are, no way to tap them out so ill have to pull them from the top with a stud gun maybe. There's one dent on the front edge of the hood that's over a 1/4" deep, that chunk of hail must have been massive, that's a strong area of the hood! I think the hail was able to bounce off the open areas but the braces must have made the steel not deflect as much as the open areas. The only damage I can see on my trucks is the hood and roof. I had a paint less guy do a few dents on my 69 years ago and the paint cracked in every dent a few months later. The hood and roof on my wife's Pontiac are totally destroyed, litteraly thousands of dents. The hood will have to be replaced, no way anyone would be able to fix it without a gallon of bondo.
It made me sick just standing there watching all that hard work getting beat to hell! I can't imagine how people who have lost everything in tornados or hurricanes feel, this was horrible enough! I guess I should count my blessings it wasn't worse!
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[Stocker]

Really sorry to hear about this and I sure can't blame you for feeling sick about it. All we got was rain but we're quite a ways west of you. Small comfort but in a way you're lucky, insurance might have denied the claim as an 'act of God'. Part of me wants to see the pics.... part of me says don't look at 'em. Those rigs are far too nice to get damaged like that....

[Hawghauler]

I've had some luck with smooth dents like these just using a map gas torch and some ice cubes. Heat the general area of the dent then while hot apply ice to the center of the dent. Sometimes this will work without ruining the paint.

I've heard that sometimes hail dented vehicles in the south will actually heal themselves when the temps are up and the sun bakes them for a while. I haven't experienced that though.

Hope it helps, Sorry for your pain...
Curtis

[AirSpeed]

I tried to get some pics but had a hard time getting them to show but this is typical of most of them


Here's one of the hailstones, I picked this up after I hugged my truck for awhile, it melted a little.

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[AirSpeed]

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[AirSpeed]

There's about twenty of those dents on my hood and that many more on the roof. Both my 69 and 72 have them.
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[BADPURPLE70CHEVY]

uggggg....

[PanelDeland]

My niece and her husband had a brand new PU(dodge farm truck) in 2008.The small town they live in in OK had Grapefruit sized hail hit.It literally went thru roofs,siding windows and windshields.Their new truck was totaled.They took the ins. and kept the truck since it had less than 1000 mi on it.The hail killed livestock and destroyed that years wheat crop.
I'm glad the ins. is covering you but it still sucks getting your rigs and trailer torn up like that.I thought Allstate had the deductible that dropped $100 for everuy year(maybe it only does that for accidents).

[special-K]

I know you want to fix your trucks,but what about paintless dent repair? This is the type of dent they can fix. I think it sucks that anything else on your property is covered under your homeowners,but just because vehicles have their own insurance (intended to cover it while in use,which includes parked away from home),they aren't covered and the ins. co. gets paid three or four deductibles for what is in reality all one claim...all one incident

[LONGHAIR]

Insurance is just a shameful racket.
I have a friend who had his Harley stolen from inside his house. It was in pieces, but the whole thing was there. Since it was not assembled and ride-able it could not be insured as a motorcycle. Everything else in the house was covered by the homeowner's policy, but the motorcycle, even though it was in pieces, was not. They said it "could" have it's own policy, therefore it "should" have had it's own policy.
It was caught in limbo by being in pieces, but they did not recognize this "state" of being. I'm sure that it is a minimal percentage of bikes, and even fewer claims...but it is still a loss.

[Lou Boffa]

amen. they don't call them "adjustors" for nothing.

[sboris]

Man I really feel for ya. I hope in the end insurance treats ya fairly. That must of been some storm to hail for 45min ! We've had some killer storms out here in the Midwest, but I don't recall that much sustained hail. No vintage sheet metal or property could survive that. Can't imagine. You should see me scramble when the clouds appear, 2 car garage, 75ft Morton, I can get all 6 rides stuffed in. So yes, get that carport up!! Peace of mind for the future!
Anyway, feel terrible for ya. Keep us posted. Be a 4th you will for sure remember...
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