jimbug

I just purchased this L/Certified vehicle last week in Fort Myers and drove it to TN. We had a sudden bad storm with large hail Tuesday. I managed to get an inflatable paddle board over the sunroof, windshield, and part of the hood. But, what wasn't covered took a beating. No broken glass, but ~ $7000 worth of damage. Mostly dents from the hail. My town's body shops are slammed with repairs much worse than mine. April 10th was my date to bring it for repairs. So, today I called Service King in Knoxville, TN to get a shorter wait time and then drove up for estimate. They can start Monday after their PDR guy returns from my town (Cleveland, TN) where he has been helping do PDR for body shops here.

If you have a nice shiny unblemished NX200t enjoy and cherish it. Maybe get a boat cover (cheaper) to throw over it in case a hail storm shows up.

I'll try to get some photos and post. Before repair and after. I just haven't got to it yet.

I probably have hail damage to my home's roof as well. Keep those insurance payments current:-)

From ABC New (this isn't me): http://abcn.ws/1c0VIdW

LNXT200

that sucks, sorry to hear that. Have any pics of the vehicle? just curious to see how it looks.

hadiguy05

Jim,

I hate to hear that! You just got that beauty home too!!!!

TechNut

Sorry to hear about your car. That really does stink. I would be sick. At least your color is probably one of the better ones to repaint and get a good match.

jimbug

Thanks guys! It sucks for sure. I'm an overly optimistic person, so I'm visualizing it all fixed up like new. The hood had some imperfections in the clearcoat (acid rain?) I was getting ready to buff out. Now it may get all new paint and clear coat as the aluminum hood is harder to get dents out of without stretching the metal. Will try to get some photos tomorrow. Here are some photos:

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

Yikes, sorry to hear about your incident.

If you're a golfer, this may work out for you

jimbug

Oh my!! LOL

typocl

I want to know what the estimate is going to be from the PDR guy. Seems like it'll be a lot to fix all the dents.

And I don't want to think about someone getting caught outside during that hail storm.

lesz

Sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Know, though, that the PDR guys are like magicians, and they can do unbelievable repairs.

The toughest of the ones to remove will likely be the ones near the edge of the roof close to where the sheet metal bends sharply. I believe that those are the kind that are difficult to remove with PDR. So, you could well end up with some more traditional body work being needed, but the good news is that there is no color that is easier for a paint technician to get get a perfect match with than a non-metallic black.

Good luck with the repairs.

jimbug

Thanks guys!
Here's an image snapped of the first estimate's PDF. The other estimate from Service King included some things the first estimate forgot to include plus labor was $48/hr instead of $44. Otherwise they would have been $75 different.

lesz, I expect there will be a good bit of traditional body repair as I have dents close together on the roof, the aluminum hood, and the dents you mentioned. Not ideal situation, but Service King has lifetime warranty supposedly on their repairs.

wpath

Ouch...
Hope she looks good as new after all that!

LNXT200

I would ask the insurance to replace the vehicle cause that will show on the carfax probably will affect the selling price in the future?

lesz

Based on the guidelines that insurance companies use in determining claim disposition, there is no chance that the insurance company is going to replace the vehicle. Those guidelines recall for declaring a vehicle to be considered to be "totaled" when the cost of repairs reaches or exceeds, I believe, 80% of the vehicle's current value. In this case, the repairs don't even hit 20% of the vehicle's current value.

Since only a small fraction of repairs/body work that is done on a vehicle ever shows up on a CarFax report, there is a very good chance that the work on this vehicle will not be reported or included on any data base that would result in its being included in any CarFax or other vehicle history report. And if the repairs are done by a skilled PDR technician, it should be virtually impossible for anyone to look at the vehicle and determine that repair work was ever done on it.

I'm somewhat surprised, in looking at the repair estimate, to see that they are indicating that all of the repair work would be done with PDR, and I don't see the inclusion of any repairs done with traditional straightening and refinishing or replacement of panels. I'm not sure if that means that they are confident that they can do the repairs entirely with PDR or if it means that, when the work is started, they might end up choosing to replace panels, like the hood, or do traditional body work on some parts of the vehicle.

jimbug

PDR is working well on all the dents except for those that our very smart Club Lexus member lesz mentioned. Those dents above the doors near the roof rails will need traditional body work and paint. I guess there are several thicknesses of sheet metal there which make it difficult/impossible to use PDR techniques on. The aluminum hood is also going to get paint. They're ordering a new roof rack from eBay just like the one I had to save time/expense. They also have to order the rear quarter window as the chrome trim is dented and it comes as one piece (glass & chrome trim). Estimate is now just below $10,000.

When they finish with the Lexus I think we'll leave them my wife's Suburban. We were going to live with the fewer dents we had in her 2007 Suburban, but after getting it cleaned they look pretty bad. Then this Tuesday we will meet with our adjuster about replacing our hail damaged roof:-)

typocl

see if they'll let you take the old roof rack. You can probably get a few bucks selling it to someone who won't mind a dent.

Try a line about "spare parts" if they question it.