Jeep and Hail Damage

[Godzilla]

Whereabouts in Wyoming did you get the damage, I know Cheyenne is a hail magnet. I'm from WY and soon to move back. The harbor freight pads are brilliant.

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[MTM1974]

PDR (paintless dent repair) works great! I had over a hundred dents repaired from a hail storm a few years ago on my Dodge Charger. It would have been much worse and deeper dents had the tree I was parked under not have absorbed a lot of the damage!

 

[NavyVet1959]

From what I understand, steel has a sort of memory effect and can often have hail dents popped back out, but aluminum does not.

For the big stuff that is big enough to break windshields or come through the roof of houses, I doubt the Harbor Freight moving pads solution is going to prevent damage, but it'll probably help with the medium size stuff (the light stuff doesn't even damage unprotected vehicles, so no reason to worry about it). Of course, when a hail storm is headed your way, you don't know what size hail you're going to get.

 

[MTM1974]

The factory hood on my '07 Charger is actually aluminum. The storm that dented it was breaking windshields but thankfully the tree absorbed enough energy to keep the glass intact and the dents smaller for PDR to work.

 

[geauxin]

Hail damage stinks. Sorry to hear you got hit on two fronts. If memory serves, USAA goes the paint less dent removal route when possible. The moldings will be replaced, but on the panels, they can work it out from underneath. It is a relatively simple process, faster, and you keep the factory paint! Hope it can work for you.

I would shy away from the dry ice. It can not only burn your fingers, but burn your paint as well. On the darker Honda, try to park it out in the sun as much as possible. It is amazing what it can do. Some of the dents will just pop out. Maybe a road trip to the desert is in order.

Good luck, and hope all works out.

 

[Blackwing 55]

We’ve had our Jeep for about 6 weeks. This evening we had a hail storm, some as large as golf ball size. Most were ping pong ball size. My new JL came out pretty good considering. Only damage I can see is the hood so far.

My wife’s Honda Pilot didn’t make out so well. The hood, top, passenger side, and back are pretty dented. I’ll try to get a few pictures tomorrow after the storm has passed.

Hard to believe an aluminum hood made out better than our Honda! Go figure.

I too picked up a new JLUR three weeks ago and last week got caught in a hail storm in southern Colorado about quarter size, tried to nose up under a tree but the hail pretty much stripped all the leaves off, I was traveling with my dad and both of us were sure the windows were going to break and the hood would be destroyed but after the hail quit and we were brave enough to assess the damage were shocked we could not find any.

 

[CanAmMick]

Whereabouts in Wyoming did you get the damage, I know Cheyenne is a hail magnet. I'm from WY and soon to move back. The harbor freight pads are brilliant.

We’re about 10 miles north of Buffalo.

 

[CanAmMick]

I too picked up a new JLUR three weeks ago and last week got caught in a hail storm in southern Colorado about quarter size, tried to nose up under a tree but the hail pretty much stripped all the leaves off, I was traveling with my dad and both of us were sure the windows were going to break and the hood would be destroyed but after the hail quit and we were brave enough to assess the damage were shocked we could not find any.

You were lucky! Hopefully you won’t see any more for a long while. I hope we won’t too, but we probably will. We’ve had hail here before but usually it from the size of a dime to a little bigger than a nickel. Both of our vehicles survived with no problem. This time was a little different. Most was the size of a ping pong ball, with some golf ball size.

We did drop our Jeep off at the dealer today to have a new winch, bumper, electric running boards and a few other items installed. We’re suppose to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. Insurance adjuster is suppose to be here Wednesday at 2 in the afternoon.

After dropping off the Jeep, we took the Honda to a body shop to see what they had to say.

They quoted repairs at $12,663 plus parts that they have to get from Honda, hood deflector, window deflector and pin striping.

 

[CanAmMick]

PDR (paintless dent repair) works great! I had over a hundred dents repaired from a hail storm a few years ago on my Dodge Charger. It would have been much worse and deeper dents had the tree I was parked under not have absorbed a lot of the damage!

They said they are going to do that with some of the dents on the Honda. The roof and right front fender will have to be replaced. All on all it could always be worst.

Wednesday we’ll know for sure when the insurance adjusted looks at both of our vehicles. Curious to see what he says about the Jeep. It sure did fair a lot better than the Honda.

 

[NavyVet1959]

You were lucky! Hopefully you won’t see any more for a long while. I hope we won’t too, but we probably will. We’ve had hail here before but usually it from the size of a dime to a little bigger than a nickel. Both of our vehicles survived with no problem. This time was a little different. Most was the size of a ping pong ball, with some golf ball size.

FYI... There's only 2.7mm difference between the diameter of a ping pong ball (40mm) and a golf ball (42.7mm).

Quite a bit lighter though... Just imaging how long a game of golf would be if they used ping pong balls instead of golf balls...I'm thinking par would be around 350-400...

 

[CanAmMick]

Well five days ago just before it started snowing again we got hit by another hail storm. This time we had just left the house and we were driving our Jeep, and luckily had the wife’s Honda Pilot parked in the barn.

Last July we got hit, with over $17,000 in damages to the Honda, and almost $8000 in damage to the Jeep. Last repair to the Jeep was in February due to the hood being on backorder. Now this again!

I was finally able to get off the interstate and under an overpass, but that was after about 4 minutes of driving through the storm. It rained so hard after that so didn’t have much time to actually see what was damaged other than the hood. I could feel the dents in it, but at least they are not as many and as deep as they were last time.

As soon as we got back home I parked it in the barn. Started to dry it off so I could get a good look at it, but figured might as wait till I can clean the whole damn thing.

Since then it’s been cold and snowing. Not looking forward to going through all the hassle of having it repaired again. I beginning to believe Wyoming weather hates us.

 

[Turfman]

For whatever reason, in this part of the Houston area, we don't seem to get large hailstorms. Any hail that we get is usually pea-size and I have yet to have any damage any of my vehicles that have to park outside (because they wouldn't physically fit inside the garage). On the other hand, up north of I-10 on the west side of Houston, they get larger hail and it definitely damages cars. There's also a lot of car dealerships up in that area and every couple of years, we have a pretty good hailstorm and them you see ads from all of those dealerships selling the hail-damaged cars. I've seen cars that looked like golf balls since they had some many dimples on them. I've also seen cars with windshields broken out because of really large pieces of hail. I've very glad that I've been lucky with respect to this.

I’m currently looking to move to Houston but either north east or west, hows the east with hail?

 

[DaltonGang]

I’m currently looking to move to Houston but either north east or west, hows the east with hail?

Baseball sized hail, last week, in the Northeast and East side of Houston. I lucked out, and only was hit with pea sized hail, and no damage. But, I live in the far Northeast side.

 

[dsgrey]

I’m currently looking to move to Houston but either north east or west, hows the east with hail?

Hail can occur anywhere in Houston or Texas or many other states especially in tornado alley. I've lived in north Texas for 50+ years and have never filed a hail damage claim for a vehicle (house is another story) but mine are kept in a garage at home and at work for most years. Last year my boss had damage on two Lexus cars, holes punched through his roof and when his cars were being repaired, another hailstorm damaged his two rental vehicles. We had 1" diameter hail on Saturday but that's too small to cause damage.

 

[roaniecowpony]

Well five days ago just before it started snowing again we got hit by another hail storm. This time we had just left the house and we were driving our Jeep, and luckily had the wife’s Honda Pilot parked in the barn.

Last July we got hit, with over $17,000 in damages to the Honda, and almost $8000 in damage to the Jeep. Last repair to the Jeep was in February due to the hood being on backorder. Now this again!

I was finally able to get off the interstate and under an overpass, but that was after about 4 minutes of driving through the storm. It rained so hard after that so didn’t have much time to actually see what was damaged other than the hood. I could feel the dents in it, but at least they are not as many and as deep as they were last time.

As soon as we got back home I parked it in the barn. Started to dry it off so I could get a good look at it, but figured might as wait till I can clean the whole damn thing.

Since then it’s been cold and snowing. Not looking forward to going through all the hassle of having it repaired again. I beginning to believe Wyoming weather hates us.

Sorry about your luck Mick. I live in Socal where there is low probability of hail and almost no probability of large hail. But when I take road trips across the country, especially thru "tornado alley", I try to keep apprised of the weather. I got chased out of Grand Island NE one fall, by a super cell. Got lucky and just escaped the hail and twisters.

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