by Jack | Jun 5, 2020 | Educational, Hail Damage
How Do Electronic Heat Induction Tools Help Remove Hail Dents?
Hail dents can cause a real amount of damage to a vehicle, and be very annoying to look at, and can even drive the price of your car down by hundreds of dollars, for a good reason: they can be hard to get out. Many times the process of getting dents out can even make the spot look worse, as it leads to mismatched paint jobs and a more noticeable amount of damage. Luckily, Sioux Falls Dent Repair uses a number of methods in order to save your car’s value and its appearance. Sioux Falls Dent repair can repair your dents in a couple of manners, some of which include:
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Electronic Heat Induction Tools
Sioux Falls Dent Repair is the premier paintless dent repair specialist in the Sioux Falls region and the entire surrounding area. We can remove dents of all sizes, including hail damage dents in your vehicle, all without resorting to using any painting or bondo, as more traditional body shops are keen on doing. We utilize special tools in order to push and pull damaged metal out. This includes metals such as steel, high strength steel, and aluminum.
By using our paintless dent repair services, you are enabling your vehicle to retain the superior paint job it received in the factory, and as a result, there will be no color mismatch or peeling paint. Additionally, you won’t have any negative CarFax history report, and there will be no way of detecting that there was ever any damage to your vehicle. Most amazingly, however, is that it only takes a few hours, and you won’t have to leave your car at a body shop for a couple of days.
Electronic Heat Induction Tools
Electronic heat induction tools are typically handheld units that are aimed at making the removal of hail dents and small door dings easier and safer for the vehicle. The tools are designed to be very quick and easy to use, making them highly efficient for body shops, dent repair shops, and even laymen. The appliance generally comes with a number of settings that can be appropriately adjusted depending on the application of it.
It is specifically designed for paintless dent repairs, and it allows paintless dent repair technicians to remove small soft dents by lifting the small soft dent through the magnetic heat induction. “Small soft dents” are dents that don’t leave sharp impressions and don’t have creases. Ideally, these dents come out perfectly within one minute, while others may take a couple of minutes when used in tandem with other paintless dent removal techniques.
Some of these other techniques include glue pulling techniques and the use of traditional paintless dent repair tools. Electronic heat induction tools save time and money for both the technician and the vehicle’s owner, and it always creates a large return on the investment into paintless dent repair, for the owner and technician alike.
You can call or text Sioux Fall Dent Repair today if you have hail damage, dings or dents on your vehicle for a free damage assessment. Call or text 605-250-1023. Let us bring your vehicle back to its original condition.
by Jack | Apr 20, 2020 | Educational, Hail Damage
Should I Buy A Vehicle With Hail Damage?
Often times we have people contact us asking “Should I buy a vehicle with hail damage?” They then send us photos of the damage or a web link to the vehicle on a website. Also they may have already purchased the vehicle. There are many considerations to take when purchasing a vehicle with hail damage and today we will cover those.
First off, Why Do You Want To Buy A Vehicle With Hail Damage?
People get attracted to hail damage vehicles because of the purchase price. After all the car is just cosmetically damaged. No frame damage or inner structures are damaged on the vehicle. Typically they have low miles and a very nice clean interior. The only downfall is the outside of the vehicle is full of dents and dings. To some buyers they are ok with the damage being there. They will drive the vehicle for years without a care in the world and not fix it. Others are looking to purchase the damaged vehicle cheaper than an equivalent vehicle without damage, then have it repaired later.
Does The Vehicle Have A Damage Disclosure or A Salvage Title?
These are very important questions that you will need to know. Even if the vehicle is fixed 100% correct a salvage title or damage disclosure may still haunt the vehicle for the rest of its life. Each state is different so check with your local state to see the requirements.
If it does have either of those on the title, was it added to the title because of hail damage specifically? The reason we ask is cause some vehicles have been repaired because of frame or other structural damage then these vehicles get hit with sometimes even light hail. The seller may then say something like, it has a damage disclosure or salvage title because of the hail. The will say this so you think oh its super simple damage, only a few dents per panel, no big deal. Later you may then find out it has previous frame or structural damage that was actually the cause of the bad title.
Extreme hail Damage – Sioux Falls South Dakota
How Does A Vehicle Get A Damage Disclosure or Salvage Title?
When a vehicle is damaged the total cost to repair the damage is assessed. The cost to repair the damage will be in excess of 60% to 80% of the total vehicles value. Each state is different but most states range from this percentage.
Did you know that for some insurance companies will “total out” a vehicle even into the fifty percentile just because the insurance company knows that the specific vehicle manufacture and model will bring a premium when later auctioned off for sale. That’s right, a vehicle that is deemed a total loss will then be purchased by the insurance company from the vehicle owner. The insurance company then takes the vehicle to an auction to then be auctioned off to the highest bidder. This is why car lots tend to have vehicles with hail damage, they buy them at auction.
So for easy math lets say you have a vehicle that is valued at $20,000.00 In order for a vehicle to be deemed a total loss, the total amount of damage the vehicle would have to have is somewhere between $12,000-$16,000.00 range. As stated in the previous paragraph it may even be as low as $10,000.00 in damage on extreme cases.
Extreme Hail Damage – Sioux Falls Dent Repair
How Much Are You Really Saving?
How much are you saving verses purchasing a vehicle with no damage and equal miles on it? Some save as little as a few hundred dollars and some save several thousand.
The Seller Said It Would Cost Less To Repair.
In some cases the new vehicle owner says the seller told them they had quotes for only some low amount to fix the damage. This happens with hail damage as well as collision style damage. When the vehicle is looked at by a facility like ourselves for an actual estimate we give them a through estimate on the actual repair costs. Remember this is what we specialize in specifically.
Often times moldings and trim pieces on the vehicle become damaged, if these are missed they can add several hundreds of dollars to the repair estimate. For instance lets say some of the trim around the rear quarter panel glass is missed and has damage, those windows can range from a few hundred to over a thousand dollars to replace and that is just one side! The reason being is the molding is bonded to the glass, the glass must be replaced with the molding since they are all one piece.
Also remember the person selling the vehicle is trying to get rid of it. They are a salesman! We see it time and time again of people being taken advantage of when buying a damaged vehicle. Unfortunately we end up becoming the ones to deliver the bad news that the vehicle will not actually cost as low of a price to repair, it will actually cost much more. We typically tell a person expect the ACTUAL repair costs to be double at least but probably closer to four times the amount mentioned by the vehicle seller. Remember, they are TRYING to sell the vehicle, not actually repair it!
Our Actual Experiences
All of the pictures featured in this article were either taken by us or sent to us by customers. All of these photos show damage that we will not be repairing.
The silver car, the Toyota was purchased by a customer then brought to us for an estimate. The entire top side of the vehicle needs to be replaced and taken to a body shop.
In 2018 we had a customer come to us with a newer BMW 7 series with hail damage. He purchased the vehicle out of Colorado and was shocked when he found out the cost of the repairs. Here he thought he had basically stole the vehicle. He was given over $7,000.00 off of the price! When we looked at the vehicle the cost to replace just the hood, roof and trunk lid and NOT counting any other damages was over his $7,000.00 savings. Its unfortunate but we hope to combat these dilemmas for future customers by informing them before hand!
Our Final Thoughts and Input
Think of it this way, with hail damage, there is a reason we ourselves do not typically buy hail damage cars and fix them ourselves. We can do these repairs for just the cost of our time and still choose not to. It is just not cost effective.
Want to read more about future insurance claims, future repairs, Carfax history reports and more?
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by Jack | Feb 24, 2020 | Educational, Hail Damage
How Long Do Hail Damage Repairs Take?
Most hail damage dent repairs can be made in just a few days. Smaller and lighter hail damage repairs can be made in 1-3 business days. More extreme hail damage repairs are often made in 3-5 days. When parts are damaged from hail we must order new ones to be replaced. All parts are ordered once a final insurance approval is made. Often times parts can be delivered in 1-3 business days unless on back order. If this is the case you will be notified right away of any potential delays. We will update you daily on all hail damage repair claims unless otherwise discussed ahead of time.
Most often we schedule hail damage repairs to be dropped off on Monday. Most customers have their vehicles back by that Friday. This allows them to have their vehicle back DENT FREE for the week!
I Already Have an Insurance Hail Damage Estimate
Be sure to bring any copies of your insurance paperwork with you to better speed up the repair process. We will look the vehicle over for damage using our specialized lighting prior to doing any repairs. This lighting will almost every time find more damage than a person or Insurance adjuster will see in normal outside lighting or shop lighting. All additional damage that we find and added parts that need to be replaced will be added to our estimate and submitted to your insurance company.
This is called a supplement, a supplement is a request from a repair facility for the additional damage to be paid for by the insurance company to repair the additional damages found. Almost every single vehicle has additional damage that will be found by a Paintless Dent Repair Facility, the insurance companies are well aware of this and very aware of this whole process.
How Do You Submit A Supplement?
We contact your insurance company and inform them of additional damage or parts are needed to do your repair. From there it depends on what your specific insurance companies needs.
- Some insurance companies will have one of their personal adjusters come to the repair shop and look at the vehicle in person, from there they take pictures of additional damage for documentation. They then update their estimate to match the repair facility and we can begin repairs. Often times this will take 1-3 business days for one of their own adjusters to come to the repair shop and then we can start repairs.
- Other insurance companies hire independent adjusters to work for them. These adjusters are subcontracted by the insurance company when they need them, this is common in a catastrophic hail storm, where there is a huge need for adjusters and they hire on more for a short time to handle the influx of claims and damage.
- Another option is an insurance company will contract an independent adjuster company. This company hires out multiple forms of adjusters for automotive, RV’s, home and commercial policies.
Every Claim Is Different
This is just a general overview of the options an insurance company uses. Some adjusters will come and look at the vehicle in person, some want just photos of the damage circled then submitted via email and all approvals are made online. Every company and claim is different. One may do it one way for one claim, then next week the same company may go through an entirely different process.
After an agreement is made with the insurance company about your vehicles damage most hail damage repairs can be made within just a few business days. If any parts are in need of replacement they will be ordered once the final insurance approval has been made.
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by Jack | Aug 9, 2019 | Educational, Hail Damage
The 2019 Jeep Wrangler features some big changes from the existing models.
First off it has for the first time ever has aluminum doors, a plastic cowl, aluminum windshield post and aluminum hood. Now while these may not seem like big issues for the new Jeep Wrangler but it does create new challenges.
The added use of multiple aluminum panels makes repairing dents much more difficult. Many folks think that aluminum is very weak and easily dented. This is probably from the common thought of a pop or soda can being so easy to simply squeeze and crush. The aluminum on vehicles is much thicker and ranges in strengths. A study done by NAPDRT, short for the National Association of Paintless Dent Repair Technicians and multiple Insurance Companies found that aluminum easily takes double the amount of force to dent as appose to traditional Mild Steel. Repairing the same damage takes over twice as much force as well as a different selection of tools to push specifically on aluminum.
JEEP Wrangler Hail Damage
The plastic cowl is the biggest noted change. These vehicles specifically use to suffer from a very notorious “Jeep” dent. See an example of a Jeep Cowl Dent we repaired: CLICK HERE
With this panel now being plastic they will no longer be dented like the previous models!
The Jeep Wrangler challenges to dent repair technicians is nothing new, these types of metal changes and moving to plastic will only continue. With standards in the automotive industry raising the bar in safety as well as fuel efficiency, aluminum and plastic will only continue to grow in its usage in the automotive industry.
by adminsioux | Jan 22, 2018 | Hail Damage
Sioux Falls Hail Damage Repair
Once you’re caught in a hail storm you might as well forget about avoiding the damage. You can prevent future dents with a little bit of preparation but often it’s too late. Sioux Falls Dent Repair is the leading repair team in hail damage and dent removal. With years of experience in hail damage, small dents, large dents, motorcycle repair, and much more we have prepared ourselves to handle any kind of PDR damage you could conjure up.
A Team Dedicated to Results
Our specialty here at Sioux Falls Dent Repair is fixing extensive hail damage. If your car was caught in one of the recent hail storms then our experienced team and advanced technology can return your car to its factory fresh condition 100% satisfaction guaranteed! Restore your car to its pre-damaged condition today with our Sioux Falls hail damage repair team!
- Highly Trained Technicians – Sioux Falls hail damage repair technicians continue their training while they work. This maintains a consistent level of quality while supporting innovation in techniques.
- Advanced Dent Removal Technology – We provide our Sioux Falls hail damage repair team with top-of-the-line equipment to supplement their skills. Now, the team can complete repairs in a matter of hours without risk of scratching or scarring.
- Retain Your Resale Value – Dents and dings are the leading cause of resale depreciation in most vehicles. Therefore, we’ve adopted a non-invasive process that doesn’t affect the factory finish of your car.
- Insurance Approved – Since paintless dent repair is a non-invasive process it won’t affect your vehicle negatively in anyway. If you have comprehensive coverage then most Sioux Falls insurance companies will allow you to make a claim on the damage. This means the repairs could come at little or no cost to you!
Our hail damage repair process begins with a damage assessment. For your free estimate call 605-595-4061 today!
