Hail sucks! Beat up both my trucks!

[barraza]

A tip I learned from a hail claim a few years ago. The roof on your house is definitely damaged and the insurance won't complain about the claim. Roofing rates will shoot up if the storm was widespread. Get your estimates while the rates are up, and if it is not leaking, wait a year or so, and the rates will come down enough to more than pay the deductible and pocket some cash.

[lowrollin70gmc]

I hate seeing old metal get smacked up, but everything can be fixed with some time and ability.

You could also take the insurance money for the trucks and invest in a carport before you repair the damage. Then start fixing them in the new carport and know they're protected from the damage happening again.

[DUD2STUD]

Sorry to here that. I think I'll stick to my earthquakes out her in California
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[elf w/capital T]

Oh my!! If we ever got hail here, oh man, i would build me a quick cover for my vehicles. Yikes sorry to hear all of that!!

[Hubscrub]

Originally Posted by DUD2STUD

Sorry to here that. I think I'll stick to my earthquakes out her in California
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funny thing he IS in california

[70cst]

WOW Sorry to hear this ...

[67ChevyRedneck]

Really unfortunate. Went through the same thing a couple years ago. Damaged my wife's brand new 6 month old Mustang, did 11K worth of damage to my roof, and another couple grand to random stuff around the property. Best of luck taking care of everything! My wife's car looked like new again thanks to a great paintless dent guy I know, but I don't know if they can handle metal that thick?

[BarryB]

My thought is, forget about the trucks, and be thankful your still alive or at least not seriously hurt. Being hit in the head by a 2" hail stone could have been detrimental.

[ChevLoRay]

You had nice, smooth, pretty hail. What we get is like Texas gets...ugly and full of ice warts.

If the paint is dark...the heat of the sun will help pop 'em out, but it won't do all that is needed. Anyone who does paintless dent removal is a prime resource. If there was enough hail damage in your area, you will see plenty of people who will show up and set up a dent removal site. As for your roof on your house, you will also have roofers move in and offer to do the repair. Do your homework and make sure they're reputable before you obligate yourself. If it is money up front...boot their hiney off of your property.

Us folks in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas (etc.) have plenty of chances to incur hail damage and witness the vermin that come out to scam unsuspecting folks.

[Hubscrub]

^ agree, we had a major hail storm here couple years ago i got so tired of people coming around wanting to fix roofs. If i needed it i wouldn't have hired one of them anyways, i would have gotten a local guy instead.We had set ups in town for dent repair for awhile too. Thankfully my old iron survived i was 20 miles south in my truck, seen a tornado but no hail, wife got hers under cover. Sorry about you losses

[AirSpeed]

The roof on my house is steel and only few years old, ironically my ins paid for it after a really bad winter caused ice damage to the comp roof that was on it. I was looking over my policy and remembered two years ago I bumped up my deductible to $500, I have to pay the deductible on each of the three vehicles. I wonder now if the damage is going to cost that much. The hood on my wife's car can't be fixed, it will have to be replaced and painted, the roof has about 25 dings around the sunroof but it can be fixed. I don't know what the adjusters going to estimate the repair cost will be on each vehicle. The agent said I could do the work if I wanted but can I say how much it's going to cost? Do I get to include my labor? Anyone have experience with ins and doing the repairs yourself? The adjuster will be here tomorrow so if like to be prepared.
I've had cars fixed before but I always took it to the body shop for estimates, never had to deal with an adjuster.
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[AirSpeed]

Originally Posted by BarryB

My thought is, forget about the trucks, and be thankful your still alive or at least not seriously hurt. Being hit in the head by a 2" hail stone could have been detrimental.

When the storm started I ran out to roll up my window and got hit in the head with a hailstone, it hurt like hell and actually scared me enough to climb in the truck and wait it out. That sucked horribly, it was loud! Sounded like 20 guys were beating on my truck with bats. I sat there for 30 minutes thinking how horrible it must be to have a tornado or flood destroy everything or kill a loved one, made my little dings seem like nothing in comparison. It's such a hopeless feeling being in a situation like that! I lost relatively nothing compared to the victims of tornados and hurricanes.
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[Stocker]

Originally Posted by AirSpeed

how horrible it must be to have a tornado or flood destroy everything or kill a loved one, made my little dings seem like nothing in comparison. It's such a hopeless feeling being in a situation like that! I lost relatively nothing compared to the victims of tornados and hurricanes.

That really puts it into perspective.... I admire your attitude.

[lowrollin70gmc]

Originally Posted by AirSpeed

The agent said I could do the work if I wanted but can I say how much it's going to cost? Do I get to include my labor? Anyone have experience with ins and doing the repairs yourself? The adjuster will be here tomorrow so if like to be prepared.
I've had cars fixed before but I always took it to the body shop for estimates, never had to deal with an adjuster.
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The insurance company should pay you the amount that it would cost for a body shop to repair it, that is the main job of an adjuster. It may take you longer to repair the damage but they will pay you the book time for a shop to fix the same amount at the average charge in your area. Hopefully that makes sense.

[AirSpeed]

My ins adjuster just left, some 25 year old kid who's never held a wrench in his hand estimated 1 hrs worth of repair on my truck, he said paintless dent repair is what they'll offer. I told him no way! The hood and cab have to be sanded to steel, dens fixed correctly and repainted. I asked him how that would only take an hour. I've seen such dent repair and the paint is always stretched showing rings around the dent. He said he would make a note on his report so I guess I have to wait and see. He totaled my wife's car, estimated the damage at $6500, said they would pay around $3800 and we could buy it back for around $300 but then I have to have an inspection at an authorized dealer and then the car will have a salvaged title. I was kinda mad at the guy for suggesting 1 hr worth of repair on my 72 and forgot to ask about my 69, he took pics of it so for now I have to assume hell offer the same 1 hr paintless repair on it. I wish I could have got the estimate from the body shop, I stopped there this morning and he gave me an estimate of $5000 for repairs. Looks like I'll be fighting insurance for a while.
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[AirSpeed]

I'm going to fix them myself, I painted my truck to begin with so I would rather fix it my self. My work paint work looks better than the paint on my 69 that was done in a shop. I think I can fix my 72 for $300 to $500 not counting my labor of course but it doesn't sound like they're gonna pay even that!
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[GRX]

Sorry for your losses. You were in the truck during the storm? Wow! Cannot imagine what that was like. I am with Hawghauler on the hand torch and ice to work the dents. In fact, I've seen guys pop out similar dents with just a small piece of dry ice. Sometimes takes a few tries to get it all the way out. Ice to fix ice damage. Gotta love that! Fixing your property will be a different story for sure. Best of luck!

[AirSpeed]

Originally Posted by GRX

Sorry for your losses. You were in the truck during the storm? Wow! Cannot imagine what that was like. I am with Hawghauler on the hand torch and ice to work the dents. In fact, I've seen guys pop out similar dents with just a small piece of dry ice. Sometimes takes a few tries to get it all the way out. Ice to fix ice damage. Gotta love that! Fixing your property will be a different story for sure. Best of luck!

I wasn't driving but I was in it! It started raining so I went to roll up the windows and that's when the hail started, beat the crap out of me on the way out to the truck so I jumped in and waited it out. It sucked sitting there listening to all my hard work get beat up. I don't think dry ice will help these dents, some are so deep the steels almost creased, I'm sure the paint was stretched as well. I'm not so worried about the roof but having flaws in the hood staring at me everytime I drive it will bug the crap out of me!
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[67ChevyRedneck]

Originally Posted by AirSpeed

He totaled my wife's car, estimated the damage at $6500, said they would pay around $3800 and we could buy it back for around $300 but then I have to have an inspection at an authorized dealer and then the car will have a salvaged title.

Was $3,800 the value of the car? Your insurance guy is a dick. The state farm guy that came to my house was more than fair, they even gave me over a grand for my rotted out metal shed I was going to replace anyway and for my boat cover that was damaged, I didn't even ask them to look at those.

[AirSpeed]

Now I'm really mad, I just found out the ins adjuster isn't employed by Allstate, he was a subcontractor hired to save the ins co money by giving low estimates! The guy knew absolutely nothing about cars or body work. I wish I had gone straight to the body shop before I called my ins, that's how I have done it in the past, the body shop would hen file the claim for me.
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[Hawghauler]

Originally Posted by 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

I happened to be watching the latest "Fast and Loud" and watched them do this very trick. He didn't use ice, just heated the center of the dent and It popped out. A few taps of the body hammer and he was done. This is close enough to what I've done to remark. Check it out if you can catch the last episode next week. I don't think this will work as well on newer cars but with the thickness of the older cars it should work okay. I won't save the paint, but better than complete replacement.

[treveiger]

Hey sorry to hear that. Keep pushing your insurance company they take money and give as little back as possible that's how they work. They wouldn't help my sister after her accedent UNTIL she had her lawyer right them a nice little letter then boom all of a sudden they were like they were actually doing their job. So keep pushing you'll get it. I'd still get a quote from that body shop and send it in. Maybe even more quotes? As far as PDR goes, if their good at it you can't tell but they can only fix so much.
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[70Custom10Nut]

"Daddy ther's golfballs hitting the truck...." that's how my 3 year old son (he's 21 now) informed me that there was hail falling. Lost the windshield and have dent in the roof and one on the hood. Really hope you have the right kind of insurance for all the damage. Oh and don't let the insurance company try to weasel out of re-embursing you.