John, I don't think there's a need to remove any panels. You said the paint wasn't broken, so a dent guy should be able to fix it. The only areas they wont fix is where there's a crease, but a good shop can fix that with a minimal use of a quality filler. White is easy to match. You will be OK.

 

John, sorry to hear about your car. I would be sick to my shomach as well. I had my car out last night and ran into hail twice, about pea size. When I left the house, the weather looked perfect.

About 12 years ago, we had terrible hail as you got. The PDR people came to town and opened shops with tents on every vacant lot they could find. A co-worker had a new S10 Pick up that got hammered. When they were finished, you could not tell a single dent had ever been there. As hard as I could look, I could see no evidence. I was amazed. Good luck John.

Mike, In 1979, a group of us got to tour the Camaro/Firebird assembly plant here in Cincinnati. One of the most interesting things I recall is seeing the workers melting in the lead where the roof met the quarters. The "iron" reminded me of the old irons that people use for door stops today. I saw one guy iron the lead so smooth, I doubt it needed anymore work for the finished product. I know that on some cars, they used bondo to fill in any imperfections after it was leaded. The lead was for strength, the bondo for a smooth finish.

James

 

Under the recommendation of some of you in this thread, I got to thinking about the "panel by panel" PDR guys and a light-bulb went off... I work directly in line with Nissan dealers.

So, I called my contact (the guy that normally bugs me three times a week) at Murfreesboro Nissan and asked them if they received any hail damage last night... "Only about 345 cars" he said. He said they already had a PDR guy on the site.



That means there's no trip-fee for me to have to pay for, so I asked him if he would give the PDR guy my name/number and see if anything could come from that. Hopefully I'll hear something this afternoon. Even if it's $300 for him to fix it, that's $200 less than my deductible and no trip to the body shop. If he asks more than the deductible, I'll simply go along as planned by filing under comprehensive.

But, for now, it appears I have an option. Keeping my fingers crossed...

 

Glad we could help, keep up the positive attitude through this crap and you will be much better off

 

Now that you mention it, I guess I proably did see areas that were leaded, and I just didn't realize that's what I was looking at. I started working at the Buick dealer when I was 16.
The one thing that did stand out in my memory was all the "Bondo" the factory used. Back then if your car had bondo in it people would turn their nose up at it. Most people didn't know (or wouldn't believe) the factories used it too.
I remember one of the best body men they had once told me there was nothing wrong with bondo as long as you're not trying to fill up a rust hole with it.
One of the worst batch of cars that came from the factory with a poor quality C-Pillar blend was the Road Runner and Super Bee's. Their vinyle roofs used to cover a multitude of sins. Some were so bad you could even see the 1/4 panel and roof seam show thru the vinyle covering.

 

The last manufacturer I am aware of that was still leading between the sail and quarter panels was Ford. They were down to one model (... a Lincoln, but I don't recall which one), back in the mid 90's. I'm sure it went away right around that time.

 

In the Chicago areas, dealer cost seems to run around $50 per panel. I know some of the PDR guys max it out at $200 (so, 4, 5, 6 panels... it would just be $200).

 

In the mid sixties I was picking up my car from the dealers body shop after a little bodywork due to a fender bender and I watched in awe as a guy filled a big dent in the vertical side of a fender. How he managed to keep that lead in place I have no idea. It was a large area and if I had tried I would have had pounds of lead on the floor. He had a what I would call a moleskin and was smoothing out just the top skin that he kept molten. You just have to learn the knack I guess, but amazing to see as there seemed to be no step between steel and lead.

 

In the early 2000's, I was at a meeting of a group of local body shop owners. The "entertainment" for the night was an old, old guy who did a leading demonstration, just to show all us younger guys what that was all about. Like your experience, the guy looked like a magician or something, the way he made it work.

 

Without knowing the amount of damage and how heavy the damage is, I've had some success with "popping" dents using a hair drier and a can of compressed air (one you'd use to blow the dust from you keyboard on a computer). Heat the medal with the hair drier get it good and worm. Quickly spray the area down with the compressed can of air. Should form a frost. Get a cup of coffee and watch the frost evaporate and watch for the "POP" . Contraction and rapped expansion within the medal has the potential to "POP" the dent back in place. There's "technical" video's on YOUTUBE on using this method.


Compressed Air Dent Removal - YouTube

 

Neat stuff, thanks! I have both at home, it's worth a try.

Still waiting on feedback from my local Nissan dealer. And they get pissy when I don't respond to them ASAP... hah!

 

Be careful with this technique. If the paint has not chipped or been damaged yet, sometimes the force of the 'pop' back into place can break it loose. Words of caution.

 

I think the fact that there are some 50+ dents on the car is a reason enough for me not to try it... I'd get ADHD and skip half the project.

As I mentioned earlier, the hood needs a good repaint anyways. So, I may lobby for that with the body shop.

 

Body shop wants no part of replacing panels, but insists all can be repaired via PDR...

Even with that, the estimate came to $2,112.64

They said it would be three/four weeks before the car is able to be brought in to be repaired.

With any luck, the car will be in San Antonio at that point.

 

John we have a shop here in Kingsport called Dentworx , I have personally seen cars that where beat all to crap (hail) and when they get done you would never know they had problems , they have locations all over i believe but i'm not sure of that. Good luck


Howard.

 

Dent Worx Is Your One-Stop Collision Repair and Reconditioning Shop
Chris Shelton, owner of Dent Worx, has helped pioneer the "Paintless Dent Repair Industry."
He has repaired Hail Damaged vehicles in 30 states (over 80 cities) in the USA.
Chris has also traveled overseas to Europe and Australia repairing hail damaged vehicles.

Dent Worx Inc.

 

Thats it.. I never knew they had a site (duh on me) the guy is very good at what he does he removed some dings from my door and I can't tell or remember where they where..