Anyone else get damage during the Melb Xmas Storm?

[Crash76 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Crash76]

G'day, had the Prado parked on the street on xmas day. Had a quick look when i got home that night, looked o.k., but then when i had a proper look the next day there is small dings all over the bonnet, roof, and drivers side of the car. Rang the insurance and they will look at it in a few weeks once they have set up the hail damage assessment centre.........i know that they can "fix" the dents by pulling or sucking them out, but i dont know if i would be happy with this.....the dent means the metal has been stretched slightly and pulling it out wont really fix it.

Anyway, anyone else unlucky enough to get damage caught in the storm?

Crash

[DaveZ Member Find all posts View Profile Close DaveZ]

and pulling it out wont really fix it.

You'd be surprised. Check out some of their work before you dismiss them. We had a Fairmont that got peppered a few years ago, had the dints pulled out by one of the specialist mobs, the car was as good as new, buggered if I could tell where a single dint had been.

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

My mate is super super fussy with his prado, like you wouldnt believe (never been off road never will be while ever he owns it) uses it for carting the kids around, its an 06 VX V6 with 65k on it and as said to look at would think its never been on the road, kids dont drink,eat,climb across centre console (god help them if they did) so you can see how anal he is about it. he copped hail damage when his wife had it parked at work one afternoon here in Penrith, he had just sold the little pulsar she had for running to and from work (didnt want the prado not undercover) but as she was called in and he had the other car she had no choice. Well you could imagine it when he saw all the hail dents over it from a 15 minute storm, he had it in his garage that night under the fluro lights with a texta marking everysingle dent he could see (mainly roof and bonnet) he then went to hail repair place here in Emuplains 9they have another at Blacktown) to get it looked at. My mate even pulled off the required trim so as the repairer didnt need to do it so there was less chance of the bloke damaging anything, he told the bloke if it required any more things to be pulled apart to ring him and he would come and do it (now you can see how fussy he is) After all that they removed all the dents, ( I was praying they did a good job let me tell you, I wouldnt have heard the end of it otherwise) he bought the car around to me and showed me how he was so impressed with what they had done, not one dent anywhere, nothing remotely visible and nothing broken,chipped, gouged or anything. He still has the thing. He did say had it broken/chipped the paint he would have had it fixed and sold it, he would never keep a vehicle thats been repainted. So try and find yourself one with a good reputation. Depending on how quickly you want it done, maybe wait till the rush is over then have it done when things quiten down and try and take note of where people are going to get them fixed. There are some dodgy repairers around so yes you need to be careful especially if your fussy.Cheers Steve

[Shan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Shan]

Insurance companies can get away with Paintless dent repairs most of the time. It depends on where you have the dents and how deep they are. I had my corolla go through this couple of years back. Assessment centre guys sent me to "Dent Wizard" in Dandy saying they could repair it with paintless dent repairs, said it will take two days for the job.

I went there next day to check the progress and there it was covered from putty all over the place.
SHOCK !!!

Rang the Insurance guys and cracked the s%$ts !! After few heated arguments with the work shop manager and few more calls they agreed to pay two grand and wipe off my access.

So be careful !! Dent repairs are only good if they do it properly. As SteveM said take it to a reputable place and keep an eye out through the process.

[Crash76 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Crash76]

Thanks guys. I will prob wait a little while, as they wont assess it until late in Jan, and we move house on the 1st of Feb, so wont be till after that to get it fixed. Plenty of time to look at both options.

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Saw a few cars hit at work about 5 years ago- all repaired by the paintless method in 2-3 days- all looked perfect, including a new Statesman and a new Mazda 6- both with mica paint.My son's Magna also got hit [metalic paint] and came back better than new in 2 days- they even got rid of a few other minor dents and marks. In contrast ,my hobby '78 Peugeot 504 got hit in 1988 and was fixed the old way- putty and repaint and has never been the same since[I suspect they sprayed it while humidity was too high and the paint now has little blisters which show up in the wet] Go the paintless way! Neil