Hail Damage.....

The roof isn't too bad really, I guess the "ribs" that run the length of it stiffened it up some, I can live with that part. The hood drives me crazy though, I just can't stand looking at it when I'm behind the wheel. I located a hood,I'm thinking about having it painted to match the car, the shade might be off a little but that's OK. It's a white car and you can "hide" a lot of flaws. But that old hood's gotta go.

 

At least the "made in china" winshield that I had put in 3 weeks ago didn't bust.

 

Sorry to hear of your misfortune. This happened to my 1989 Pontiac Safari wagon in May of 2002 when we had our big hail storm! It smashed the windows out of many cars in our city, it was so huge. Grandpas car (next door) even got smashed windows). ALL of our cars were badly dented, even the wagon, but it made it through with the least damage of the cars we had at the time.

Last week a city about 30 miles SW of here (in Rogersville TN) had soft ball size hail!! Tornadoes too. We were lucky here.

Its been a bad year for severe weather.

 

Hey, HH....I have seen this place advertised. Seems they do small repairs at a small price. I looked them up while looking for a good detail business and noticed that they have a bold header that says they fix hail damage. This one happens to be at several locations in Wisconsin, but, I think this may be a chain so there may be one near you.

http://www.autocolorwi.com/

 

Sounds like he specializes in localized repairs with paintless dent repair (PDR) and/or spot refinishing. On an older car it's going to be hard to do spot refinishing and making it blend in sufficiently so it's unnoticeable. Also if you've got hail dents all over a panel, it doesn't make too much sense to do a spot here, a spot there, etc.....Just paint the whole dang thing.

I'd be more inclined to use a shop like this to 'clean up' a car prior to sale......

 

Never know until you look.

 

NO JOKE! Years ago I had a little Mazda pickup for going back and forth to work and one day got caught in a terrible hailstorm. The insurance company wrote me a check for about $4200, which was more than blue book. I did nothing to repair the dents. Three years later the dents were all just about gone except for the ones that had creased corners. That hot ol' Texas sun is good for hail damage, I suppose... Good luck with yours. The heat/cold does work with patience.

Rodney

 

It looks like I may be selling it. I have a employee in his mid-60's who needs some cheap transportation. He currently owns a 91 Olds Ciera sedan that's on it's last legs. He doesn't drive that much and he could care less about the body damage. He has 2 dogs that he takes to the dogpark(the A/C is still good and cold) which is a good thing for dogs. With only 69K miles it should last him a long time. I got a friend that wants to sell me a 96 Roadmaster Wagon anyway, and it's one of those wagons I always wanted. And there still is a few "box" Ford wagons on the road around here...if the urge strikes...

 

Good Luck on your decision, HH. Let us know what you end up with!

 

Sell it and don't look back! Buy the Buick, and start fresh!

David

 

Yep, what David says...................

AND, you are helping out someone else in the process. Doesn't get a whole lot better than that.

 

I really hate to hear about you car. I live in fear of hail as well.

Let me say though, you'd LOVE that '96 Roady. I adore mine, and I've owned tons of cars over the years, but this is my favorite.

-Mike

 

There's 2 really nice white 96 Roady's in my town. One belongs to a High School Senior (female) that loves wagons,she's heading off to college with it. And another owned by the local guy I know. The one I'm looking at is dark blue with a tan leather interior and wood paneling. It needs some cosmetics,tires,A/C compressor but only has 75K. The guy got it from his Uncle,but it's barely been driven the past 4 years,and it's sat outside so it's gonna need some TLC.