Hail Damage

I certainly sympathize with you, I was caught in a severe hail storm with my BMW last summer in Kansas. Fortunately it didn't last to long but still did almost $5000 worth of damage. No problems whatever with the insurance company, State Farm. I decided to go to a regular body shop rather than use the PDR because I used PDR once before on my pickup truck and it didn't work out to well. The BMW was completely repainted and I had to take it back to have the hood resprayed because it looked mottled, fortunately they got it right the second time and it came out pretty good. They did not bake the paint on and I had to be real careful with it for the first couple of months and wait 90 days before waxing it.

I suspect having the car repainted decreased the value a little. I saved the paper work from the body shop so I could prove it was repainted due to hail damage and not a collision.

Perhaps others have had better luck with PDR than I have. A few years after my old truck was fixed using PDR the paint started pealing off where some of the dents had been, but it's an old Chevy with silver paint and it might have pealed anyway, a lot of them did.

 

Sorry to hear about the damage. I know how frustrating that can be even if you do have insurance. What a shame! Any vehicle can sustain severe damage from hail (Prius included). Since the Prius has an aluminum hood I would imagine it is even more vulnerable to hail. Rest assured, the insurance company will make sure your Prius is fixed to your satisfaction. Good Luck!!

 

I ran my own PDR business for 3 years and have been doing PDR for over 5 years.
PDR is all about how good the tech is that is doing the work. Whether its worth having it done by PDR depends primarily on the number of strikes and the severity. Hail damage usually comes out pretty good. Hoever PDR does have it limits and some areas can be unrepairable.

As far as the alloy not being suitable, I've never pushed a Prius but I've done tons of Toyotas and Lexus vehicles without problems.

After market paint (in general) will never be as good as the factory finish.
If you can post up some pics of the actual damage I might be able to give you a better idea.
Also remember if you have it repaired by PDR and don't like the result you can then do a conventional repair, unfortunately you can't do it the other way around.

 

I have no advice on which way to go with the repair, but you have my total sympathy! I think I would cry if it happened to me. I travel about once a month, and when I get my Pri, I'm switching to a covered-parking facility. Unfortunately, I have no cover at work, and we have been getting hail pretty frequently here. It usually seems to be during non-work hours though when my car is in my garage. I can only hope that trend continues...

So sorry to hear about the damage to yours.

 

Most likely you will get a brand new hood (aluminum) and repair on roof. Honestly, you wont be able to tell it was repainted, but the hood will carry a "replacement" sticker that will not affect value. It really is no big deal. It will look/feel new and you will soon forget this ever happened. Dealer will just pull the dents, smooth them out, seal, and repaint.

 

Monday ? I was in Los Alamos

 

I've had the same thought... I wonder if anyone makes a padded cover, maybe something that could be tucked into the top of the doors or windows to secure it?

 

At least you don't have to worry about dents.

Tom

 

WOW!! I've never seen so much hail in my life, and I live in the Midwest!!!


So sorry to hear about your hail damage, Joc...I hoped you get it fixed up soon.

 

I am soooo sorry.

Last week, while I was visiting relatives in San Diego, my husband sent me a cell phone picture of the quarter-sized hail on our back deck - it looked like someone had emptied a cooler back there! I immediately called him, knowing he was using my precious Prius in my absence. Although the car was not in the garage at the time, he had taken it 15 miles down the road, where their thunderstorms brought no hail. Phew!