Hail Damage

jason71 · 22-12-2010, 10:12 PM

My once dent-less Ba XR6 received about 11 dents from the hail we had in Penrith last Thursday, 6 on the bonnet, 4 on the Roof and one in the boot. Of them four are easily noticeable and the rest are really hard to see (but I know they are there).

A rang my insurance AAMI, basically I have two choices let them sort it all out or get two quotes one must be AAMI approved. My excess is 450 dollars and I will not loose any no claim bonus.

What do I do? I love this car, even though it as a plain old XR6.

Yaw · 22-12-2010, 10:19 PM

Which Ever you feel comfortable with....Either way they gaurantee the job

jason71 · 22-12-2010, 10:28 PM

Ok. Can any one recommend a good paint less dent removal person in the Western Sydney area? Are they any good? Some of the dents are above structural ribs in the bonnet and boot.

Yaw · 22-12-2010, 10:31 PM

Sorry mate I am a in Brissie, Don't know Sydney Repairers

XAGSV8 · 22-12-2010, 11:05 PM

Get it fixed because you will always look at them when you go for a drive which will eventually turn you off the car. Paint less dent removal should leave no sign of any damage.

The Sunshine Coast had hail last Thursday as well. I gave up counting when I got to 200 noticable dents on my car. I have to wait until next year to find out what the insurance company wants to do after having it inspected. My guess is I will be looking for a new car.

There are plenty of hail damaged cars at the moment claiming insurance and with Christmas and NY's don't expect much to happen in the near future.

au2000 · 22-12-2010, 11:15 PM

pdr work can be excellent, my ba xr was damaged in melbourne's storms.. pdr removed all damage on the roof, bootlid & every panel on the drivers side, they just could not save the bonnet. the only word of caution is that they do occasionally damage internal panels for the repairs, my bootlid interior was all scratched after the repair, luckly my insurer agreed to my panel beater giving the scratches a quick once over then fitting a bootlid liner to cover it all on them..

schmidty · 23-12-2010, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason71

Ok. Can any one recommend a good paint less dent removal person in the Western Sydney area? Are they any good? Some of the dents are above structural ribs in the bonnet and boot.

My FG XR ute was peppered with dents after the Perth hail storm earlier this year. Had well over 100 dents. A couple of nasty ones on the ridges in the bonnet, edge of roof above windscreen, top of guards right on the fold. There was no way in hell did I believe they could all be removed with pdr. Even my panel beater said it wouldn't work.

To my utter amazement, there is not one single mark on the car anywhere. I went over in a dozen times, under lights, in the sun, shade, you name it. There was no evidence that it was ever damaged or repaired. Came back in perfect condition. Only evidence it'd been worked on was I had to adjust my seats back to where they go.

I had one small dent fixed conventionally a few months earlier. If I knew what was possible with pdr I'd never have let in anywhere near the panel shop.

GTP534 · 23-12-2010, 08:32 AM

There is a guy at Glenmore Park, "BS Dentpusher". I have seen his car around the area. I haven't used them but they have a website, www.bsdentpusher.com.au. I understand access to the affected area is the main concern, this is in relation to dings on doors but yours seem to be on the top panels. Might turn out to be cheaper than your excess. Good luck!

Struggo · 23-12-2010, 10:01 AM

I had my VS Berlina fixed by Dent Star after a hail storm, highly recommended.

http://www.dentstar.com.au/

ThaFlash · 23-12-2010, 10:36 AM

respray mate i wouldn't let a pdr guy even look at my car in this situation.

bigsta · 23-12-2010, 11:53 AM

Ive heard that the PDR does not work as well on the newer fords because they do not use primer any more and the robots just spray the paint directly on the metal so it does not hold on too well and can come off easily during the dent removal process.

Not speaking from direct experience but a mate who has a BF ute reckons a PDR place told him that but your best bet is to ring around and see whats what.

GTP534 · 23-12-2010, 01:01 PM

A couple of years I picked my car up from the storage place. (I was overseas at the time and everytime I visited home I would take the car out for a couple of weeks). This particular time, luckily I was standing near the passenger side when they brought the car out, I saw a small dent on top of the LHS front guard, the paint was not broken. They agreed it had happened in storage and when I took it back to storage they had it fixed by pdr. You cannot tell there was ever a dent there. The colour of my car is Mercury Silver.

mik · 23-12-2010, 01:03 PM

what XAGSV8 said , definately get them fixed one way or the other, if you don`t it will **** you off down the track big time, even if its hard to see you will know its there.

jason71 · 23-12-2010, 10:04 PM

Thanks for the advice, I'll ring a few PDR companies and gets some quotes.

Crazy Dazz · 25-12-2010, 04:35 AM

In March we had a humongous hail storm in Perth. Insurance companies are still sorting out the cars.
Depending on the extent of the damage and the value of your car, you should be pushing the insurance company for a write-off.
I personally have a very low opinion of PDR. To dent your car, the metal and paint has been stretched and stressed. To “remove” the dent, it is then stretched and stressed in the opposite direction. It simply cannot be as good as new. Shallow dents in a wide flat area (eg boot lid) are less of a problem than those on the tops of fenders, etc. If you’re paying for it yourself, then it might be a cheap alternative, but if Insurance is covering it, insist on a proper repair job.
People should also beware, that many times the “magic” PDR repair has in fact been a quickie bog job. Nobody wants to be told “we’re going to cover your car in a ton of bog” so they’re told it will be PDR. Hence when they come to collect the car, they waste all their time looking for signs of imperfectly straightened dents, in the surface, and are suitably impressed when none are seen, when they SHOULD have been looking at the reverse side.

schmidty · 27-12-2010, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

In March we had a humongous hail storm in Perth. Insurance companies are still sorting out the cars.
Depending on the extent of the damage and the value of your car, you should be pushing the insurance company for a write-off.
I personally have a very low opinion of PDR. To dent your car, the metal and paint has been stretched and stressed. To “remove” the dent, it is then stretched and stressed in the opposite direction. It simply cannot be as good as new. Shallow dents in a wide flat area (eg boot lid) are less of a problem than those on the tops of fenders, etc. If you’re paying for it yourself, then it might be a cheap alternative, but if Insurance is covering it, insist on a proper repair job.
People should also beware, that many times the “magic” PDR repair has in fact been a quickie bog job. Nobody wants to be told “we’re going to cover your car in a ton of bog” so they’re told it will be PDR. Hence when they come to collect the car, they waste all their time looking for signs of imperfectly straightened dents, in the surface, and are suitably impressed when none are seen, when they SHOULD have been looking at the reverse side.

Definately no bog in mine, where if I had it fixed conventionally itmwould have been full of bog. Weeks after the hail storm it was virtually impossible to buy bonnets, bootlids and roofs for pretty much anything. Panel beaters were being instructed by insurance companies to fill and paint.
I've seen cars literally full of knifing putty, they weren't even attempting to beat any dents out. The insurance companies were up for such a big hit everything was and still is being fixed on the cheap.
We had the head lining out of my ute and there's not a ripple left in it. But the company doing mine was a specialist hail damage repairer from the states that travels the world chasing hail. I've seen a couple of local blokes fix hail damage and they only come up 95%.

I'd prefer to keep my original paint, especially cause silver is such a ***** to match. And as is the case with all insurance work, it's covered by a lifetime warranty, so if any paint issues were to arise later it will be covered.

jason71 · 07-03-2011, 09:12 PM

I got my car back today and it looks fan-bloody-tastic! I can't see one single dent on the whole car.

450 bucks well spent.

Australasian hail did the repair through AAMI insurance.

CODSASR · 07-03-2011, 10:32 PM

good to hear jason

geckoGT · 08-03-2011, 08:48 AM

That is great news, it is pretty amazing what these guys can do without any bog or paint. It seems as long as they can get behind it and the paint is not damaged, it will disappear.

JC · 08-03-2011, 10:07 AM

Mine was PDR'd recently, as was my next door neighbours - the PDR guys in both cases did a fantastic job, and i thought it time to dispel some myths about PDR:

PDR is the BEST way to remove small dents, whether they are caused by hail, shopping trolleys or stones falling off the back of a trailer.
PDR may result in paint cracking - if it does, this is then addressed by a "normal" panel shop (ie repainted)
PDR will not remove dents where the metal has creased (ie the normal sort of dent you get from a collision)
PDR, if done properly, puts the car back to exactly where it was prior to any damage; "normal" panel repairs do not, as they invariably use some form of bog to skim any repairs.

I was very skeptical that PDR was going to fix all 150 dents my car sustained in the Jan 2011 hail storm, but I was pleasantly surprised that it worked. The abovr info is a combination gleaned from the PDR guy (Pete), the normal smash repairer (Craig Hall) and the insurance company because I asked so many questions, mainly because I was so skeptical.

richo77 · 08-03-2011, 10:19 AM

Just be weary of the damage they cause on the undersides of the vehicle! Make sure they refinish where tool marks are left and replace broken clips etc. Eg Xmas tree clips on the bonnet and boot lining.

You also should look out for drill holes in the frames of doors where the person has drilled to access the panel instead of spending the extra 30 minutes to r/r the door trims.

jason71 · 08-03-2011, 10:42 AM

I was also very sceptical about PDR, as there were a few dents above the structural ribs that I thought would be impossible to get out.

They ended up showing me the tools they used and let me watch them do a repair. I was impressed.

There are no drill holes and they have replaced any broken clips.

**Mesa** · 08-03-2011, 02:13 PM

I've watched them a few time fixing dents at a car yard I was once working at. I must say the pdr guys do an excellent job.

barra265t · 08-03-2011, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jason71

I was also very sceptical about PDR, as there were a few dents above the structural ribs that I thought would be impossible to get out.

They ended up showing me the tools they used and let me watch them do a repair. I was impressed.

There are no drill holes and they have replaced any broken clips.

Has anyone seen PDR remove a dent out of the front section of rear a wheel arch? I have no clue how to get in behind that section of the car

NAFairlane · 08-03-2011, 06:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by barra265t

Has anyone seen PDR remove a dent out of the front section of rear a wheel arch? I have no clue how to get in behind that section of the car

normally have to remove either the inner guard or the sill.