WEATHER Just had a large hail event in my neighborhood - UPDATE, Post-Mortem on my car, post 46

Dennis Olson

Chief Curmudgeon
_______________
A severe thunderstorm came through about 20 minutes ago, with winds to 70 mph and hail up to ping pong ball size. Shortly before it came through, I loaded the dogs into the car and we bolted for someplace covered. I couldn’t find anyplace covered until the event was mostly over, but the route I drove had me miss all but a bit of it. I can’t tell if the car is damaged yet. When I got back to the house, the ground was covered with an inch or more. I took some pics. In the 10 years I’ve lived down here, this is the first time I’ve been on the receiving end of hail like this.

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TxGal

Day by day
That line of storms is heading for us now, since we're further east of you. It isn't supposed to be that severe here, just loud with heavy rain. I really hope your place and car are okay.

It's amazing how fast the drive through at banks can fill up with cars trying to avoid the severe storms.
 

et2

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Had that happen one summer. Severe damage to both cars. Needing repairing. It’s amazing they have a way to pop them back out. Couldn’t tell.
 

thompson

Certa Bonum Certamen
That line of storms is heading for us now, since we're further east of you. It isn't supposed to be that severe here, just loud with heavy rain. I really hope your place and car are okay.

It's amazing how fast the drive through at banks can fill up with cars trying to avoid the severe storms.
We're just now hearing quite a few rumbles
 

hunybee

Veteran Member
would that be an event with one hail of unusually big size, or and event with a many smaller hail equaling a large volume?
 

Ogre

Veteran Member
I've had two roofs destroyed by hail, about 320-25 years apart. Good insurance, thankfully.
 

Lone_Hawk

Resident Spook
When I saw the headline, as Dennis lives in Austin, I envisioned hundreds of BLM in front of his house all yelling "All Hail Dennis!"

But seriously, file the insurance claim then wait till the end of July and the heat will pop the dents out. I grew up in Texas, never paid to have hail dents removed, just waited.

Now if you were caught out in the open in the spring of 79 when we had softball sized hail in the DFW area, all bets were off. Saw vehicles that looked like they had been shot up by a 40mm with holes in the hoods and roof and no glass left...
 

AlfaMan

Has No Life - Lives on TB
If you were driving when the hail hit, then your hood and the front 1/3 of the roof took the brunt of it. The hood based on the bracing on your Murano might need to be replaced completely, or could be reskinned-just depends on how many hail hits it took. The roof, at least the front of it probably has some dents as well. Those can be PDR'ed (paintless dent removal) out. Check the drip rails at the edge of the doors-those are the most expensive hail dents to repair because they're so tough to get at. And they're tough to pop out too-HSS (high strength steel) is used pretty extensively in the upper sides of the unibody structure.
You may have the occasional dent on the upper part of the fenders, but doubt there were any hits on the upper parts of the door panels or upper side of the quarter panels. The hatch is probably hail free as well.

Estimating hail damage is a part of my job; even up here I usually get one to two hail damaged cars a week. So, for the hood R&I time (removal and installation) figure one hour. Figure 3 hours to paint the hood (half hour prep time, 2 1/2 hours to respray it. Your yellow color is probably a 3 stage paint (primer, base coat, pearl coat, clearcoat) so it takes a bit more time to spray it.

If it's regular hail damage repair, in TX, I'd estimate 3.5 to 4 hours; less if the hood is flat, more if there are contours in it. More than likely they will just fill in the dents with filler and sand them down, then respray it. BEWARE of grind marks and fish eyes/solvent pop where filler is applied. Look it over with a magnifying glass once you get it back-paint shops bank on slipping shoddy work by unsuspecting and uneducated (about the body shop business) owners. If it ain't right tell them to fix it again.......You can buy a "hail light" to look at the damage on Ebay for 25 bucks or so. Very useful. If the hood is reskinned figure on 4 hours to reskin and reseal/weld the patch panel on.

The roof will take 3.5 hours to respray-3 hours for the paint, half hour prep time. Figure on 2-2 1/2 hours for regular hail repair. Again, if they use filler on the dents in the roof microscope the work for fisheyes solvent pop and grind marks. And overspray and tape lines around the sunroof opening .

Paint flaws are easy to hide in areas that are hard to reach; sloppy work is also done in these areas because people won't get up there to look. Don't be that man.

If they do PDR work on the roof, remember the headliner, BOTH side air bags and all the other stuff up under the headliner has to come out before PDR Can be done. If the hail hit a lot of cars, thethere's a good chance your insurance company has contracted with someone to PDR the damage. These guys could be great, or they could do really sloppy work (a bad PDR job can look as bad, or worse than the original hail damage itself). Research them out. PDR can be a cheaper alternative in some instances, but as I say, buyer beware.

Another thing to consider is dimunition of value to the vehicle-the vehicle repaired has lost some value. The hail damage might get listed on the Carfax for the vehicle. And prior repairs (even PDR and regular hail damage work) can ALWAYS be determined by a good inspector. ALWAYS. We live to seek out damages. Ask your insurer what they intend to do to the vehicles' dimunition of value; they may just cut you a check for the difference.

Hope all this helps.
 
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xtreme_right

Veteran Member
North Texas has epic hail storms. I remember one year there was an outdoor event in Fort Worth. Everyone ran for their cars. The hail was softball sized and tore up tents and completely punched through windshields.

Edited to add: Found it on wikipedia


The 1995 Fort Worth Mayfest stormwas a supercell storm that occurred on the 5–6 May in the Fort Worth and Tarrant County areas of Texas. It affected a highly populated area with hail up to 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter, as well as striking the local outdoor festival known as the Fort Worth Mayfest. At the time the storm was the costliest hailstorm in the United States history,causing more than $2 billion in damage. The hail injured at least 100 people, and flash flooding and lightningfrom the same storm killed at least 13 people.
 

pauldingbabe

The Great Cat
If you were driving when the hail hit, then your hood and the front 1/3 of the roof took the brunt of it. The hood based on the bracing on your Murano might need to be replaced completely, or could be reskinned-just depends on how many hail hits it took. The roof, at least the front of it probably has some dents as well. Those can be PDR'ed (paintless dent removal) out. Check the drip rails at the edge of the doors-those are the most expensive hail dents to repair because they're so tough to get at. And they're tough to pop out too-HSS (high strength steel) is used pretty extensively in the upper sides of the unibody structure.
You may have the occasional dent on the upper part of the fenders, but doubt there were any hits on the upper parts of the door panels or upper side of the quarter panels. The hatch is probably hail free as well.

Estimating hail damage is a part of my job; even up here I usually get one to two hail damaged cars a week. So, for the hood R&I time (removal and installation) figure one hour. Figure 3 hours to paint the hood (half hour prep time, 2 1/2 hours to respray it. Your yellow color is probably a 3 stage paint (primer, base coat, pearl coat, clearcoat) so it takes a bit more time to spray it.

If it's regular hail damage repair, in TX, I'd estimate 3.5 to 4 hours; less if the hood is flat, more if there are contours in it. More than likely they will just fill in the dents with filler and sand them down, then respray it. BEWARE of grind marks and fish eyes/solvent pop where filler is applied. Look it over with a magnifying glass once you get it back-paint shops bank on slipping shoddy work by unsuspecting and uneducated (about the body shop business) owners. If it ain't right tell them to fix it again.......You can buy a "hail light" to look at the damage on Ebay for 25 bucks or so. Very useful. If the hood is reskinned figure on 4 hours to reskin and reseal/weld the patch panel on.

The roof will take 3.5 hours to respray-3 hours for the paint, half hour prep time. Figure on 2-2 1/2 hours for regular hail repair. Again, if they use filler on the dents in the roof microscope the work for fisheyes solvent pop and grind marks. And overspray and tape lines around the sunroof opening .

Paint flaws are easy to hide in areas that are hard to reach; sloppy work is also done in these areas because people won't get up there to look. Don't be that man.

If they do PDR work on the roof, remember the headliner, BOTH side air bags and all the other stuff up under the headliner has to come out before PDR Can be done. If the hail hit a lot of cars, thethere's a good chance your insurance company has contracted with someone to PDR the damage. These guys could be great, or they could do really sloppy work (a bad PDR job can look as bad, or worse than the original hail damage itself). Research them out. PDR can be a cheaper alternative in some instances, but as I say, buyer beware.

Another thing to consider is dimunition of value to the vehicle-the vehicle repaired has lost some value. The hail damage might get listed on the Carfax for the vehicle. And prior repairs (even PDR and regular hail damage work) can ALWAYS be determined by a good inspector. ALWAYS. We live to seek out damages. Ask your insurer what they intend to do to the vehicles' dimunition of value; they may just cut you a check for the difference.

Hope all this helps.


If I ever went into an auto body shop and got that kind of answer as to what needed to be done to my vehicle, I would probably cry tears of joy.

Seriously.

Most of the time they just look at my boobs and my pocket book. Lol
 
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