JoeFromPA Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Hey all, My wife was caught in a severe hailstorm today. Golf ball sized hail pelted her car for about 10 minutes and there wasn't anywhere she could get cover. Our 2008 white legacy gt got about 40 hail dents/dings from this episode. That is not an exaggeration, nor did I take longer than 5 minutes on a cloudy evening to evaluate it. The hood, roof, trunk, and entire driver's side has dents/dings. The bumpers have no damage, nor the passenger side doors or fenders. There's no apparent paint damage, but I haven't checked it closely yet. Could be some chipping in places. I've never dealt with any insurance claim before. My deductible is $250, so that is what it is. I'm no expert (obviously), but I'm guessing it's $2000 in damage. I'm hoping for tips or recommendations on dealing with this. Ways to find a good shop, actual shop recommendations in my area, things to look out for, any creative ideas on how to turn this into a positive event.... Thanks in advance for anything. I must say, I suggested white to my wife for hiding dings/dents/scratches and it DOES "hide" the damage in that you have to look at it from narrow angles. But nothing can hide what just happened to my wife's "Elizabeth". Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Throttlejockey Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Dent wizard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Capacity Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Sorry to hear that. A buddy that own's a body shop uses Dent Wizard to remove the small dents. Hopefully your local Dent Wizard is as good and trust worthy. It's only going to cost your the $250 anyway's, find a good body shop and have them handle it. 305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD). CHECK your oil, these cars use it. Engine Build - Click Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeFromPA Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 Hey Max, It's only going to cost me $250 to remove 40 dings/dents across 6 body panels including dings/dents falling on body creases, edges, and other less pleasant locations? Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devobuzz Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 No he just means you'll have to pay the deductible... insurance will cover the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cino135 Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 the insurance will almost 100% call a dent specialist, ie Dent Wizard. here what you need to do. get an estimate from a body shop to do a complete repair, repair and repaint. then call the Dent Wizard independently, w/o the INS first, and get a quote from him. the insurance is gonna have the Dent Wizard come out and do it and still charge you your deduct. im willing to bet the Dent Wizard bill is gonna be at least 1500 IF you go through the INS. if you do it yourself w/o the INS, Dent Wizard or other specialist , may charge you much less. so factor in your deduct amount, if you have rental coverage through your INS and how much over 1800-2000 the INS bill will be. in the state of NC, anhything over 1800-2000 will increase your INS rate IF youre at fault. hail is considering an "act of god/nature" and therefor under comprehensive converage IN MOST states. know your plicy BEFORE you call your INS. if you have any particalur questions, PM me or ask on here. im an adjuster for 4 body shops that repair Lexus, Honda, Volvo, Mercedes, Toyota, BMW, etc (obviously a foreign pattern here, sorry to say, rare i see Subies ) GL and conact your INS agent and they will disclose most of this info for you. you DONT have to tell them this info is for your car. it could be your neighbors problem that made you question your own policy. (see what im getting at here?) if you go right in and call your INS, theyre gonna give you a claim #. if they do that, uits irreversiable. your claim has now been filed and you cant go back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsTheAceOfSpades Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 This guy is about 45 minutes south of you (Bear, DE). I have had him do some work on my car and he does a good job, and I am pretty sure he is willing to travel (does a lot of work for dealerships). Called "The Dent Guy", (302) 832-8781. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsTheAceOfSpades Posted June 10, 2009 Share Posted June 10, 2009 Btw, I got caught in that same storm yesterday as it rolled south. Luckily only dime-sized hail and no damage to the car, just my ears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeFromPA Posted June 10, 2009 Author Share Posted June 10, 2009 thanks, I called a shop named Car-Isma (pronounced Charisma) that does PDR in my area. I'm going to try to get an estimate from them and from a high-end body shop next door named Cavallo (BMW, Ferrari, Lambo, Rolls, whatever, they make cars into art). Going to see if they are out of their goards Joe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John M Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Make sure the PDR shop you choose has experience with Subarus. These guys: http://www.hailmasters.net fixed my car to perfection. They travel wherever large hail events have happened so they may have a team in your area. My hood, roof, and trunk were bad and they fixed it to showroom appearance and I'm very picky about my car. They also waive your deductible so there's nothing out of pocket. After my car was finished I also had them fix my truck (03 Dodge Ram quad cab), my brother's LS 430, my dad's Tundra and my grandfather's Tundra. All turned out like the hail had never happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWeatherWarrior Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 worse case scenario...try to sell your car to a storm chaser....they love buying cars with hail damage already on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tingtang Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 man... that sucks... theres usually local guys that take out dings for like 50 dollars per ding... your saying 40 dings thats around 2000.... ive seen cars at dealers get totaled because of the massive amount of hail damage.... ill try to find a picture... these cars literally have like 3 miles on them.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnstein69 Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 thanks, I called a shop named Car-Isma (pronounced Charisma) that does PDR in my area. I'm going to try to get an estimate from them and from a high-end body shop next door named Cavallo (BMW, Ferrari, Lambo, Rolls, whatever, they make cars into art). Going to see if they are out of their goards Joe There is a Cavallo right near to where I am staying in Newtown Square. On any given day you can see at least 12 or 15 very high end cars outside that they are currently working on (from 911's, to Cayenne's, to M3's, Jag's, Benzes, etc) It is a very clean shop and I have heard great things about them. They are expensive though so I don't know how insurance would react to that. Sorry to hear Joe, it was really stormy around here yesterday as well, I guess the worst of the storm passed North or South of where ever I was. g/l, I hope it all works out for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boosten-n-bluntin Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Subarus have thin sheet metal. your local dent x guy is the way to go Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ehsnils Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 man... that sucks... theres usually local guys that take out dings for like 50 dollars per ding... your saying 40 dings thats around 2000.... ive seen cars at dealers get totaled because of the massive amount of hail damage.... ill try to find a picture... these cars literally have like 3 miles on them.... If it had been that expensive I would have kept the dings and rather had a repaint with some weird motive involving the dings. Sure - it would suck in some cases, but life sucks anyway. And it sure doesn't have much impact on the performance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vr4Legacy Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 My mom actually got her '09 Forester because it was salvaged due to hail damage. They used PDR on it and you can't tell it's hurt at all, but they couldn't sell it as "new" since it had repairs. Got a good deal and you can't even tell..... I say just call your insurance and let them handle it. You always have the right to challenge the repairs if they are unsatisfactory.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cino135 Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 ^^^sweet deal! wouldnt be the first, or the last time that happens. few PDR are are freakin amazing, 80% are mostly jive. been very fortunate to have a guy competing (and now has, hands down)for our business who does a wonderful job, is very honest and respectable. hes the only one i recommend in my 4 shops in the NC area. if he says its gonna cost_ _ and the final repair will look like _ _. then you can take it to the bank cause thats what its gonna be. hes certainly one in a milliom guys when it comes to this line of work! and not to mention, instead of getting commision on referrals i send him, (hes from, in his opinion, the beer mecca, Milwaukee) he brings me a case or two of my fave beer at the time. couldnt ask for a better outside business liaison to work with. (sorry for off topic rant) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob_m Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 PDR - definitely. My 05 LGT LTD got caught in a freak hailstorm in NH 3 years ago. There were dents in every body panel. I lost count somewhere at 250. Dent wizard in Danvers, MA had the car in the shop for 8 days. They were able to PDR every dent for the exception of a golf-ball size one in the rear sail panel, and one not accessible because of the sunroof rail. Two on the roof cracked the paint, so they had to paint the roof. All said and done, damage was $4000 minus $500 deductible. Every panel is perfectly smooth. Paint matched perfectly. Clearcoat blend is a bit shiny on the rear quarters, but you can't really tell. They pulled the headlights, taillights and just about every inside panel for access. Put together perfectly. And they only missed one little dent in the roof. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welby Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Hey Max, It's only going to cost me $250 to remove 40 dings/dents across 6 body panels including dings/dents falling on body creases, edges, and other less pleasant locations? Joe Joe, My wife had a simliar incident about 5 years ago with her white '97 Jetta. It was white, so it literally looked like a golf ball. We paid a $100 deductible through insurance and dent wizard fixed the car. I was shocked at how well it came out, I couldn't find a single mark left when they were done and believe me, there were a lot. Those guys are artists, if you ask me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.