Thread: Dents Due To Hail Damage

I suffered extensive (every panel) hail damage to my vehicle.
It was assessed by NRMA Insurance and a representative of the repairer and was scheduled for paintless dent removal.
Estimated time of repair was a week.
The vehicle was subsequently repaired in one day.
When I picked it up, it was in showroom condition. There were no signs of the vehicle having been repaired, apart from the fact that all the dents had disappeared.
I say "Go for it!"

Originally Posted by Metal Head

Hi,

I have just returned from having gone to a temporary RAC(V) assessment centre in Thomastown. I had been led by their consultant (via the telephone) previously that they would assess the damage and I would be given an approximate cost of the repair and if it warranted being written off.

Well when I arrived for the inspection it was to take place in a inadequate lighted brick warehouse. I was then introduced to a RAC(V) repairer who after inspecting the car said that the damage was minimal (18 hail dents) would be repaired by having the dents hammered out (at a later date) by these professional repairers that had been bought in from Brazil!! I asked if they could be filled in and have it resprayed where required but he bluntly said that wasn't an option. However the work carried out would be guaranteed 100%.

Well I blew a gasket thinking I had been hijacked by this company who I have been with for 21 years (without a claim) yet they refused my request for having it filled and resprayed. Having worked on aircraft (many years ago) the usual method of getting a small dent out was to knock it out as best as one could, then fill in any imperfections prior to it being painted. They did offer me the chance to look at one of the imported tradesperson working his "magic" on another dented car but I didn't bother given the very poor internal lighting available.

Has anyone else been through this process and if so have you had this work carried out on your vehicle? If so were you happy with the end result?

Thanking those in advance of their reply.

Regards
Metal Head

I had my eight week old new car damaged by hail, and had the painless dent repair carried out, the car came back like new.

My panel beater imported a guy from the US to do the repairs (he travels the world doing it) I was shown how it is done and it is dam amazing. They get behind the panel with a tool the looks like a flat scraper these tools have different profiles on them, my guy had a suit case full, any how they get a light to shine across the panel to highlight the dent and then rub this tool (after selecting the correct profile) across the back of the dent smoothing out the sheet metal.

You did your crumpet for nothing Metal Head, your car will come back better than new and more importantly no bog and no bad paint match, these guys are magic at repairing small dents.

Regards

Phil

I've got a mate who is a panelbeater.

He recently got a paintless dent removal guru to fix some damage to his car.

Says it all for me.

I've seen these guys first hand, and you'd be hard pressed to even know that the car was damaged. Personally, I would much rather have my own car repaired by one of these than have it full of bog.

Why do these guys have to come from OS, is it not part of the training for a panel beater to learn how to do this or is it just easier for the owners to replace panels

Originally Posted by Jim Carroll

Why do these guys have to come from OS, is it not part of the training for a panel beater to learn how to do this or is it just easier for the owners to replace panels

Had a talk with a young bloke that did this, he said he had to pay about $60K to go to the US to learn how to do it, if he trained anyone else here to do it they would set up in business against him so he would be training a future competitor. He went to the US to learn because no one would teach him here.

Seems a bit short-sighted, but like everything else these days it comes down to the dollar and protecting ons own business.

It's quite common for these guys to fly in whenever there's a good hail storm.

I worked in the motor insurance industry all my life and the repairers we used brought their guys in from Europe.

I'd rather wait to have my car repaired by the dentless method then rush it and have it bogged and painted.

We repaired hundreds of cars (all top end cars, no Holdens ect) by paintless repair and never had a complaint or problem.

I recently had 2 cars damaged by hail in the carpark where I have my shop.

They flew these PDR guys in to quote on the jobs and do the repairs, one of the cars just had dents all over from the hail, the other car, a Holden Astra, had chips in the paint as well as the dents, when they inspected it to quote for the insurance, they told us that it would be resprayed when it went in for repair.

They did the Hyundai first, it went well, came back with no visible marks where they had removed the dents. The cars were swapped over and they did the Astra, when I went to pick it up, the chips in the paint were still there. An arguement was had out the front with the guy in charge, who kept stating that hail doesnt chip paint. Blind Freddy could see that the chips and the dents were from the same objects (hail), he was tring to make out the chips were from stone chips, but they are one the roof and sides of the vehicle.
If I hadnt of been decieved when I took the vehicle for the insurance quote, they wouldnt have got the job, I would have gone elsewhere and got the complete damage repaired.