While it is never advised to drive in a hailstorm, if hail damage does get to your car, it can wreak havoc on its hood, roof, and trunk. Often, if the hail is paired with intense winds, the dents and dings of hail damage can easily extend to the sides of your car as well. This problem raises the question…
Can Hail Damage Be Repaired?
Despite how bad a hail-damaged car may seem, hail damage can be repaired. However, if you want the most comprehensive and fruitful hail damage repair, you should always opt for paintless dent repair (PDR) from PDR-certified technicians, like those at Sioux Falls Dent Repair.
Unlike traditional dent repair from a body shop, PDR can fix even the smallest of dents on your car. PDR-certified technicians use a special PDR UV light to expose even the tiniest of dents and dings from hail damage not visible to the naked eye.
This allows them to repair the hail damage completely. Furthermore, with PDR, the repair job restores your car’s body, and you don’t need to replace parts or fill and repaint them like with traditional dent repair. This means your car gets to retain its original paint coat and resale value for longer.
You won’t even need to spend money on expensive replacement parts, fillers, or paint. You simply pay for the skills and experience of the PDR-certified technician from a trusted PDR shop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, like Sioux Falls Dent Repair.
They offer only the most highly skilled, trained, and experienced PDR technicians, who can repair all dents and dings, including hail damage repair.
Is Hail Damage Covered by Insurance for PDR?
If your car insurance covers hail damage repairs, they will cover PDR from Sioux Falls Dent Repair. Moreover, the friendly staff at Sioux Falls Dent Repair works closely to give you and your insurance to provide the most accurate estimates because, unlike typical body shops, they use UV lights to expose all the hail damage.
So, where traditional dent repair services may under-quote your repairs and provide poor results, Sioux Falls Dent Repair always provides the most accurate estimates and superior hail damage repairs.
Why Sioux Falls Dent Repair?
Apart from the numerous reasons already mentioned above, Sioux Falls Dent Repair has an immaculate track record for repairing dents, dings, and hail damage through PDR. Their customer satisfaction rate goes beyond any other dent repair service you’ll find in all of South Dakota.
So don’t let hail damage from hailstorm harm or devalue your car and get the best results from PDR immediately.
If you want to learn more about hail damage repair, paintless dent repair, or if you want a free estimate for PDR on the dents, dings, and hail damage of your car, Click Here!
If your car has suffered hail damage in South Dakota, you may be interested to know what hail damage repair entails. Naturally, paintless dent repair, or PDR, is the best dent repair option when it comes to hail damage, more specifically, PDR from Sioux Falls Dent Repair.
Today, we have decided to answer some common questions regarding hail damage repair that will help you better understand the entire process better. From damage assessment to repair estimates, insurance pitfalls, and much more.
Here are some questions regarding hail damage repair with PDR and their comprehensive answers.
Do you need to get competing bids for hail damage repair that is covered by your car insurance?
Answer: Let’s suppose your car gets dents and dings from hail damage in South Dakota, and you contact your insurance. They may tell you to go get estimates and competing bids, or they may not. Frankly, getting estimates and competing bids does not matter, and it is only a waste of your time.
Ultimately, whichever dent repair service you choose, its service people will work closely with your insurance company on the entire hail damage PDR process. So, the old days of going out and getting competing bids are over, and it is only a waste of your time.
Why do I have to come in person with the vehicle for a hail damage repair estimate?
Answer: This is an important one. The problem is that the amount of hail damage you see on your car is nowhere near the actual damage. Looking at the damage in sunlight or typical lighting, especially if the car is dirty, will never reveal the actual damage.
Going in person with your car will enable the PDR-certified technician to use their special PDR UV lights to show you the actual damage you are dealing with. Trust us, it is way more than meets the eye, even on a clear, sunny day in South Dakota.
How long do estimates take?
Answer: An initial estimate typically takes 20-45 minutes to write up. The initial estimate may not include parts pricing because that process requires calling up your car dealership and getting part prices and availability. This is typically done when you are getting the actual dent repair done and takes around 30 minutes.
Why are insurance companies’ estimates always substantially lower than your costs?
Answer: Insurance company adjusters never get estimates right. They never use the expensive, specialized PDR lighting to assess the hail damage and immensely underestimate your hail damage dents and dings. They may tell you, “Oh, there are about 6 to 8 dents,” when there are more close to 100 in reality. This is very common across the board.
An untrained eye cannot make the correct assessment, even trained PDR-certified technicians will never give you an estimate without assessing the damage under special PDR lighting. They also use a “PDR matrix”, or chart, to give an accurate estimate, depending on the number, size, and category of dents and dings.
The insurance company said I need to go to their approved or preferred shop. Can I still use you?
Answer: You can take your car to any shop you want to get your estimates or repairs done from. If your insurance company tells you that you can only go to their preferred shops; otherwise, you don’t get their warranty, or you will pay the additional repair costs, they are using a scare tactic called “steering.”
Steering is illegal in South Dakota. Most dent repair shops, including Sioux Falls Dent Repair, offer a lifetime warranty on repairs. We even offer you a written warranty card for peace of mind. As for additional costs, sometimes there is an element of negotiation with insurance companies, but it isn’t something that will cost you much in the long run.
If anything, preferred shops cut corners to save money for the insurance company, and this can mean poor results.
Why should someone take their vehicle to the Sioux Falls Dent Repair?
Answer: If you want accurate estimates for the hail damage on your car, you need professional PDR-certified technicians to look at your car in person. Insurance companies will always underestimate the damage and compensate you accordingly.
Do not let them get away with your deserved compensations and “steer” you into insurance pitfalls. Take your hail-damaged car to Sioux Falls Dent Repair today to get an accurate estimate, compensation, and lifetime warranty results.
If you want to learn more about hail damage repairs or about paintless dent repair with Sioux Falls Dent Repair, please visit our website today.
In today’s video, we are going to check out some of the hail damage tools that we use here at Sioux Falls Dent Repair. We will be looking at some of the pushing tools or hail rods that we use to get out all kinds of hail damage. While most of these tools can be used for all kinds of dent repair, they have twin tips which is specifically designed for hail damage repairs.
As you can see on the first tool, we can attach two different sized tips so that we can take out all the damage from a panel without having to change tools constantly. The tips are interchangeable and all depend on the size, depth, and severity of the dent itself. The bigger tip is the R4 from DeadDentTools.com and we use a Cherry Hard Tip on it to get out the initial damage. On the other side of the hail rod we have a sharper tip that is available on EdgyTools.com and is used for fine tuning and completing the job. There are companies that have even taken it even further and produced a four sided hail rod for holding four different tips but we haven’t gotten around to using one of those, yet.
The next rod is not only one of the first ones we got, but it is also one of the best ones we have in the shop. It is called the 36-inch Hail Interchangeable Tip Rod from DentCraftTools.com and it is all made form metal and is extremely durable. Going up from there, we also use the 60-inch Hail Interchangeable Tip Rod which is exactly the same – just bigger.
Tools Made From Carbon Fiber?!
The first rod that we saw is made entirely from carbon fiber and is available on CarbonTechPDRTools.com. The one we use is the Hail Rod and it comes in three separate pieces at 12-inches, 26-inches, and 46-inches. When we put the rod together, it measures 7-foot and gives us access to all parts of a damaged panel with ease. However, they do sell extensions to make the rod even longer. While it might not make sense for most to have a 10-foot hail rod, it is actually extremely helpful when you’re looking for extra leverage on larger vehicles.
Carbon Tech also has some grips on offer which are made from aluminum and make using the rod easier. Another great handle option from the brand is the T Handle which allows us to use both hands for some of the more stubborn dents that we have to deal with. We also use the T Handle to twist and push out the damage from tighter spaces where the entire tip head will not fit. Also, when dealing with tight spaces like truck beds, the twin tip head can be replaced with a single tip head – also available from Carbon Tech.
Another attachment you can get is the Single Bend Pick Tool and is used for taking out the smaller dents. There is also a Double Bend Pick Tool and they are great for getting under the roof of a car and pushing out any damage. Lastly, we also have a Whale Tail extension that lets us get out dents from tiny spaces.
If you have any queries or questions give us a call or text at 605-250-1023 we’ll be happy to chat with you.
Today, we are answering one of the common questions we get asked and that is; “Should I Buy a Vehicle with Hail Damage?” We have actually had two cars come in on consecutive days where the customer purchased the vehicle with hail damage already on it.
We here at Sioux Falls Dent Repair, get calls from across the country on a regular basis with customers wanting to get an estimate of how much it would cost to get out hail damage on a vehicle they are thinking about purchasing. Also, we get calls from customers who have already purchased a hail damaged vehicle and are looking to get the damage out.
Our advice to anyone looking to buy a hail damaged car is to not do it because it doesn’t matter how big a discount you got on the car, it will never cover the cost to repair the hail damage. Out of the two cars that came in with hail damage, one was a 15-year-old Chevrolet Equinox and the customer got an $800 discount on it from the car lot where they purchased it. However, when the customer brought the car in, it turned out that there was several thousand dollars’ worth of damage. Even when the customer requested that we look at a specific part of the car, our estimates were higher than the $800 that they received as a “discount” from the car lot.
These kind of cases are deemed total losses by the insurance companies and car dealerships therefore have no other option but to sell them at a lower price. Nevertheless, the sellers never run at a loss and entice customers with “unbelievable” price cuts and discounts. We have come across cases where the cost of repair supersedes the price of vehicle. So, any hail damaged vehicle should be avoided at all costs unless you get the car for free or the damage is very minor.
This brings us to the follow-up question we get asked. “What is the vehicle has very minimal or medium amount of damage?” Again, with us being in this business for so long, we have seen a lot of hail damaged cars and generally the estimates for those vehicles end up being anywhere between $3,000 – $5,000. That number goes up with heavier damage and drops when the damage is not as severe. When it comes to $800 – $1,000 in hail damage repair, a regular car owner won’t even recognize the damage because the damage would have to be that minimal.
Another common mistake customers make is think they have a couple of dents on their car and ask for an estimate based on that and here is when we ask them to bring the car into the shop because we know that there cannot just be a few dents after the vehicle was caught in a hail storm. It is only under the PDR lights that the true extent of the damage is visible.
There is a lot of work before we can actually start getting the hail damage out and we inform the customer of that in our estimate. On a bigger job where hail damage is throughout the body of the car, without actually touching any of the damage, we first have to remove the hood, take off any kind of assemble (if there is any), remove the trunk lid, take off the headlights and taillights, both the front and/or rear bumper, and other panels. The cost only to have these panels removed and installed (R and I), is about $500 – $800. So, as you can see, buying a hail damaged car and then looking to repair it just does not make sense.
Eventually, the decision is the customer’s and it all depends on the situation. If a customer is looking to buy a cheap car just to drive it, a relatively new hail damaged one can save them a pocket full of cash. However, if the customer is buying a hail damaged car to fix it and then resell it, it is definitely not worth it.
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Today Jack Bucknell our ARC Master Hail Certified technician at Sioux Falls Dent Repair will be discussing hail damage estimating. This was a Facebook Live video for hail damage estimating. We are a professional auto hail damage repair company located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We have recently had a ton of hail damage repair claims from around the area including the other side of the state in the Black Hills, Rapid City and Spearfish. We wanted to take a moment and discuss how we go about processing all of the damage for repairs.
Should I submit my own photos and videos to my insurance?
No, while your insurance company will need photo documentation in order to process your claim. It is extremely important for you to have your vehicle looked at by a professional with professional lighting in the right conditions. A professional with these conditions will be able to write a much more accurate assessment of your vehicles damage.
