MZ5 hail damage questions.

[torquelover]

MZ5 got caught in a bad storm yesterday. No glass broken, but all metal panels except hatch have damage, passenger side being worst. Since it was parked next to a van, the hail bounced off of that and took out the driver's side too, but not as bad.

I am not interested in having the panels filled, smoothed, and painted. Spoke to a body shop and they said most likely the car would have to be completely repainted (all panels color+clear, hatch and bumpers clear only) to blend it properly. Insurance agent said this is the norm. I have seen some damaged cars on dealer's lots fixed by paintless dent repair guys. I am wondering if these guys can repair dimples in the door frames and the sharp creases along the a-pillars, Nagare creases, and roof rails? I think I can live with those as long as most of the flat sections get worked out. Anyone use these guys for anything more than a half-dozen or so dings?

 

[Vasy]

They so miracles on the hail damaged cars.
Looks for a company specializing in the pointless hail dent removal ad they do many of this time of cars and will Know best

 

[chad99]

I have seen a few hail damaged cars end up at auto auctions, if its as bad as it sounds the insurance might just total it.

 

[thaxman]

I have seen a few hail damaged cars end up at auto auctions, if its as bad as it sounds the insurance might just total it.

And I've seen a few of those cars that have been bought cheap and driven because the owner doesn't care less about the exterior of the car. In fact, its a great option for people who refuse to wash and NEVER wax their cars.

 

[tuanies]

Sucks man. If it gets totaled, can you sell me the silver grille garnish on the front of the car?

 

[90210]

And I've seen a few of those cars that have been bought cheap and driven because the owner doesn't care less about the exterior of the car. In fact, its a great option for people who refuse to wash and NEVER wax their cars.

I would imagine those losers are not on thos forum

 

[Davicho]

If it's totaled and then sold at auction it will be a good delivery vehicle for a small business

 

[Donewood]

Oddly enough I have had some pretty good luck, when I used to work autobody. Try warming the panels carefully to about 100 Deg. with a heat gun. Then hold a cube of dry ice. (frozen nitrogen) with pliers and gloves over the dent. With all the magical stars aligned, the dent may contract poping right out. With bad luck you may just pop the paint off.

Good luck.

 

[Silentnoise713]

Sorry to hear abt the damage. I take back all the "pre-dented door" comments I made in the past. I can't fathom the amount of time it would take to recreate those crease lines. Hope you have better than liability to cover it (I think comprehensive covers act of nature). Worth consulting a PDR guy.

And I've seen a few of those cars that have been bought cheap and driven because the owner doesn't care less about the exterior of the car. In fact, its a great option for people who refuse to wash and NEVER wax their cars.

live in a metro city and you have no choice but accept it.

 

[torquelover]

I have seen a few hail damaged cars end up at auto auctions, if its as bad as it sounds the insurance might just total it.

No glass was broken, so that helps. I don't think the car would be a total. If the glass did break, and the interior had standing water and debris/damage to the interior like a lot have had in that town, it would surely be a total.

And I've seen a few of those cars that have been bought cheap and driven because the owner doesn't care less about the exterior of the car. In fact, its a great option for people who refuse to wash and NEVER wax their cars.

I don't think it bothers my wife, and she is the primary driver of the car. This could be a possibility since the paint is mostly unharmed, and where it was hit with debris, the scratches are not though the paint down to metal.

Sucks man. If it gets totaled, can you sell me the silver grille garnish on the front of the car?

Silver garnish? I see a chrome Mazda badge, but no silver?

With all the magical stars aligned, the dent may contract poping right out. With bad luck you may just pop the paint off.

Good luck.

Damaging the paint would be the worst possible option...

Sorry to hear abt the damage. I take back all the "pre-dented door" comments I made in the past. I can't fathom the amount of time it would take to recreate those crease lines. Hope you have better than liability to cover it (I think comprehensive covers act of nature). Worth consulting a PDR guy.

live in a metro city and you have no choice but accept it.

I have contacted two PDR guys and they are backed up pretty badly, but I am in no hurry. I am curious what they can do with a dent in a crease, if anything at all?

The car has a 3k mile trip coming up soon, with a lot of city parking and heavy tourist area parking, so no repairs until after that. If/when it gets fixed I will let you all know. I was going to foam inject the A and B pillars. Glad I didn't, that would have been a problem for the PDR guys.

I would never put anything I had to drive in a daily city street parked situation. I am too OCD for that! Paying $40 for a few hours of parking is rough compared to Indy and Detroit, but there is a little bit more peace of mind for the price.

 

[Silentnoise713]

I have contacted two PDR guys and they are backed up pretty badly, but I am in no hurry. I am curious what they can do with a dent in a crease, if anything at all?

Sounds like the locals are keeping those guys busy. I’m not so optimistic about the creases.

I would never put anything I had to drive in a daily city street parked situation. I am too OCD for that! Paying $40 for a few hours of parking is rough compared to Indy and Detroit, but there is a little bit more peace of mind for the price.

I am a practicing parking etiquette disciple (for my own sake) BUT no matter what/where/how you park, dents, bumps, and scratches will occur. It's bad when you see folks “bump park” even when the spot is huge… Do you not take your car out to the events (shopping malls, supermarket, movies, etc.)? It’s unavoidable.

 

[torquelover]

Well, took it to a PDR specialist. They counted 700 dents on roof and halfway down passenger side and stopped. Repair bill at that point would be $8k+ and they said insurance would never pay it, they would just replace panels. Unfortunately the panels that definitely could not be PDR'd were the roof, roof rails, and rear quarters, exactly what I did not want replaced or filled/smoothed.

 

[Vasy]

Perhaps you can make a deal with the insurance, they pay out portion and you keep the car.
Maybe you gonna get better gas mileage now with all the dents.
The as now you gonna get a "golf ball effect", they are not smooth for a reason. I recall MythBusters were doing this test and got improved economy.

 

[mazdadude]

Well, took it to a PDR specialist. They counted 700 dents on roof and halfway down passenger side and stopped. Repair bill at that point would be $8k+ and they said insurance would never pay it, they would just replace panels. Unfortunately the panels that definitely could not be PDR'd were the roof, roof rails, and rear quarters, exactly what I did not want replaced or filled/smoothed.

700+ WOW!
That must have been noisy...

Yes a good opportunity to see what your insurance wants to do about it...
I would think perhaps you might want them to total, and then buy it back?

There are kits used for repairing hail damage on ebay. They use a hot melt glue gun, a special pull pad that gets glued to the surface of the dent, and a lifter/puller tool gets attached to the pull pad. There are several different pullers and pull pads that are used in different places, or when there are obstructions, etc. Maybe do a panel a weekend?

 

[Silentnoise713]

Well, took it to a PDR specialist. They counted 700 dents on roof and halfway down passenger side and stopped. Repair bill at that point would be $8k+ and they said insurance would never pay it, they would just replace panels. Unfortunately the panels that definitely could not be PDR'd were the roof, roof rails, and rear quarters, exactly what I did not want replaced or filled/smoothed.

Wow! I get the feeling you only have liability coverage on this car? Otherwise, insurance claim would have been your first answer and given the number of dents, it would be totaled for sure.

If under-insured and you are willing to put a little time into the car, a cheap fix is probably spending a day with a bucket of bondo and a quality spatula to fill the dimples then quickly take it to a shop and get the whole car wrapped (might actually come out looking nice). We demand before/after pics. Or if you are willing to do some prep work (bondo, deep washing, removing/tapping off exposed panels, DIY wax stripper), take it to Maaco for a $500 paint job. Cheap b/c they dont do any or do really bad prep to save labor and only 1 stage (no primer or top coat which you can add on) to save cost.

If you have time and wiling to DIY, you can get the car to look pretty damn good for about $100 TOTAL. The main cost is your time. http://rickwrench.com/index79master.htm?http://rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html

 

[torquelover]

Took it to a PDR guy that works with the insurance approved local bodyshop and got more info. Still no estimate, but the PDR guy did say 500+ dents in roof alone, 35 in small panel on hatch between roof and spoiler. Several hundred on roof rails. Only panels he could do that would be cost effective would be driver's fender, maybe passenger fender. He's guessing the bodyshop side of the equation will cut out and replace the roof, passenger quarter panel, and passenger side door skins. Fuel door, rear hatch, and maybe passenger fender will need to be replaced.

I spoke to the wife on this, she would rather drive it as-is than to have so much cut out and/or replaced/painted especially since we are in the rust (salt) belt. I spoke to the bank about this as well (still a loan on car) and they usually don't do this, but might work with us on not fixing it if the insurance check goes towards the loan, which will most likely pay off the car or get it close to that point. The insurance company said this is not a problem on their end, they will just cut the check in our name and the bank's name as well.

Unless the whole estimate is way higher than what I have heard so far the car will not be totaled out. I'm not sure how well I can get the damage to appear in photos as they are very small shallow dents aside from debris that impacted the car. It's really not that bad, and can't be seen at about 10' or so. I'll try to post up something soon anyway.

 

[90210]

Do you have any pictures of damage?

 

[CaboWabo]

My Tribute was parked in a severe hail storm 3 years ago. The drivers side and roof were completely riddled with hail dents, but all the windows were fine. My insurance looked at it and totaled the car. They paid me out and I elected to keep the vehicle as it drives perfectly. I had it looked at by some local PDR hail damage repair companies. Their estimates were in the thousands and not worth doing due to the age of the car. I'm still driving it today and I will drive it until the wheels fall off! Honestly the majority of the dents seem to diminish over a year or so. I think temperature changes such as the extreme heat in the summer and ice in the winter actually pop out a lot of the dents on their own.

 

[switz]

I had hail damage repaired with no filling, sanding, and painting. The duo were miracle worker-artists. Don't know how they got to all the dings, but they got them all. A couple of guys from Oklahoma came all the way up here to do it. I think they were making tour of the Cdn pariries going from auto body-shop to auto-body shop. They were awesome. Insurance covered it. It was cheaper anyways. Not sure who the guys were though. That's all the auto-body shop told me.

 

[Porsche]

Living in Texas we get hail damage during this time. In fact we had a storm come through last night that had mellon/softball size hail. (I was an hour away from it so my cars are good.)
I had my Protege Mazdaspeed at work a couple years ago and it got into a hail storm. Took it to a body repair place where the insurance had setup a booth because they had so many claims. They went outside, counted all the dents, added them up and cut me a check minus my deductible. They gave me the option to get it fixed but it had a lot of miles and was already had a dent on the back so I just drove it until a sold it a while back. It was the best option for me. Unless you drive a newer car or something high end I dont see a reason to fix it. If you were going to sell it and wanted top dollar then get it fixed now.
Good luck!