Hail damage! :(

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Sun Apr 24, 2005 12:06 pm

My Lanos has little dents now.

Driving home yesterday, the sky suddenly turned black, the wind got so strong that light poles and signs broke off and fell over, and hail the size of large marbles started falling.

Luckily, I was able to park under an overpass so my car was not in it the whole time.

I need to get the dents taken out, and this looks like the best way.

http://www.dentwizard.com/

Cliff

MMamdouh · Post by **MMamdouh** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 12:46 pm

so sad to hear that man

MMamdouh

norman · Post by **norman** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 6:30 pm

moin,

is this not a case for the vehicle insurance? in germany it paid for damages caused by storm etc....

tschau norman

asam · Post by **asam** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:07 pm

Cliff,

Sorry to here about about that. That would really make me mad. Be carefull with those dent removal kits. They work, however they have been known to also spider paint. The cheap ones dont work very well. I hope you can get the dents out with no damage, especially with how nice your lanos is.

lanos2001 · Post by **lanos2001** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:24 pm

i've heard that the way some body shops take hail dents out is by using a small blow torch or something like that and move it in a circular pattern on the dent and move into the center of it and vice versa. i live in oklahoma so we're about to get hail like a sun of a bitch here since its tornado season.

nick

delphis · Post by **delphis** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 7:24 pm

norman wrote:moin,

is this not a case for the vehicle insurance? in germany it paid for damages caused by storm etc....

tschau norman

I wish there was more insurance companies like they have over in germany, no insurance company would pay for hail damage over here. :LOL:

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:21 am

delphis wrote:
norman wrote:moin,

is this not a case for the vehicle insurance? in germany it paid for damages caused by storm etc....

tschau norman
I wish there was more insurance companies like they have over in germany, no insurance company would pay for hail damage over here. :LOL:

My insurance company paid to have $3400 of hail damage fixed on my Suzuki X-90.
It had to have a new hood, right front fender, trunk lid and then repaint the whole car. The hail that caused that damage was as big around as a beer can!!!

It smashed windshields, put holes in convertable tops and broke windows in people's houses.
When that storm was over, you could not see the street, sidewalks or grass as it was about 6 inches deep in hail. This was all back in May of 1999.

This time, the damage on my Lanos is no where near as extensive as it was on my X-90. I am going to just pay for the repairs in cash for my Lanos as I now have a different insurance company and I do not want to make a claim and cause my monthly payments get more expensive.
The dents are really quite small and you have to look at the car in the sunlight at an angle to see them, however, they are noticable and there are at least 60 on the hood, and that many or more on the roof.

I heard they popped them out with dry ice and a heat gun which the contracting and expanding of the metal makes them pop right out ... however, I am not sure if this is how they fix them.
I'll find out and let everyone know!
Maybe after I learn how they do it, I can share their secret and some of us may be able to fix hail dents ourselves with only the cost of dry ice!

Cliff

CHNDROSE · Post by **CHNDROSE** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 1:35 pm

Sorry to read that, hail damage sucks. I have lucked out and even with my considerable time in the north and the storms that come through NC, I have never had hail damage. I even drove next to a forming tornado that pelted my car (not my Reno, the typical in college Honda Civic that had no AC) with hail and not one dent.

Rose

rev320 · Post by **rev320** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 2:42 pm

I have heard of this, but thankfully have never had to try it. If the hail dents are small (dimples) it might work. Leave the car out in the sun so the metal gets hot, or heat the area with a hair dryer or a heat gun. Then use an eye dropper to put a drop of ice water on each dimple. The rapid cooling of the surface is supposed to pull the dimple outward. I f you try it, please let us know the results. It's pretty much free to try

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Mon Apr 25, 2005 2:50 pm

rev320 wrote:I have heard of this, but thankfully have never had to try it. If the hail dents are small (dimples) it might work. Leave the car out in the sun so the metal gets hot, or heat the area with a hair dryer or a heat gun. Then use an eye dropper to put a drop of ice water on each dimple. The rapid cooling of the surface is supposed to pull the dimple outward. I f you try it, please let us know the results.

I think a spray can of liquid nitrogen would get it a lot colder a whole lot faster.

I can get spray cans of that for tracing faulty circuits in electronic boards.

CHNDROSE · Post by **CHNDROSE** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:01 pm

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote:I think a spray can of liquid nitrogen would get it a lot colder a whole lot faster.

And suddenly I have flashbacks to the show called Home Improvement.

Rose

rev320 · Post by **rev320** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:04 pm

One other thing that would probably work is the hot-glue-on dent pullers like "Pops-A-Dent" or similar units sold many places. It consists of a bridge device and pieces that look like the screw from a c-clamp. You hot-glue the pad on the screw to the dent, and using the bridge to spread the load, you back out the screw to pull the dent out. I'm not sure if you reheat the glue to release it, or just push it sideways to break the bond. The kits sell for something like $20 up. Maybe the Eastman Company or JC Whitney have these, or do a search for "pops-a-dent."

You might just try to hot glue something like the head of a nail to each dent and pull it outward with vise grips or a slide hammer, but you would have somewhat less control than with the kit.

rev320 · Post by **rev320** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 3:06 pm

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote:I think a spray can of liquid nitrogen would get it a lot colder a whole lot faster.

I can get spray cans of that for tracing faulty circuits in electronic boards.

Hehehe . . . but I think the point is to just get a small area cold quickly. Water can absorb heat in a hurry.

TheGreatAndPowerfulOz · Mon Apr 25, 2005 4:02 pm

rev320 wrote:
TheGreatAndPowerfulOz wrote:I think a spray can of liquid nitrogen would get it a lot colder a whole lot faster.

I can get spray cans of that for tracing faulty circuits in electronic boards.
Hehehe . . . but I think the point is to just get a small area cold quickly. Water can absorb heat in a hurry.

This does get a very small area very cold, very quickly; much more so than water could.
It is a spray can with a small tube that directs the nitrogen to a specific spot ... a tue sort of like the red tube that always gets lost from a can of WD40! LOL

Rose ... like the time Tim tried to light the BBQ grill! LOL

Audacity Racing · Post by **Audacity Racing** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 7:09 pm

circuit chiller can be expensive.... just get a can of air (the stuff for dusting your computer) and spray it upside down... the liquid chemical comes out so cold that a friend of mine and i froze a grapefruit solid (and proceeded to drop it from the 4th floor window of his dorm room) :twisted: