1st Road Trip (Hail Damage) ^#&*%@!()
 

Went to Ft Worth and the day we were leaving (yesterday), hail hit at 0430 and 0630, nothing I could do. 16 ES 350 had 750 miles, first road trip. So pissed, about 7K in damage Luckily the panaramic roof didn't break unlike this mercedes near mine. And I am not sure how to upload pics, feel free to post the picture!

https://imageshack.us/i/pnrABSxcj

That's terrible - I had hail damage years ago on an almost new car and it is hard to fix. Are they going to repair it "the old fashioned way" because of the extent of the damage or can a paintless dent repair guy do it, a very patient paintless dent repair guy. I saw a pretty well hail damaged car repaired this way and it looked real good and most importantly no repainting necessary.

This will almost certainly show up on Carfax and be an issue for you in the future as well. I was just debating the premium for leasing with my son and this reinforces the leasing side of the argument.

And on the positive side you did fair better than the Mercedes. I had a friend a long time ago who returned for his 25th class reunion in a new Buick or Oldsmobile convertible and just as he arrived a hail storm came up, cut right through his roof and dazed him enough to cause him to crash. So much for showing off.

Again, I really sorry this happened to you.

Dave Mac

Oh man, I know how you feel about your Lexus and I feel for you. I check my car all over after parking at a mall so I feel the pain. Good Luck with the repair whatever they do.

Oh my goodness, you got caught in that storm?

The local paper this morning had a picture of a fellow and his car, where the
car had about 8 - 10 large caliber holes in the windshield!

That's MEAN hail to blast through an auto windshield.

Yikkes!

Good luck
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Angle parked in a parallel universe

I drive a 2IS but came across this thread by accident... I completely feel you pain because I live in Ft Worth and my car was hit badly by that hail storm 2 days ago as well!!! Waiting for insurance to give me an estimate now. Would you mind to post a picture of how your car looks? I would like to see how much a 7K damage looks like.

I saw some damaged vehicles on the local news from that storm, Im glad I park in a covered carport at least but I was still worried

just got back from the body shop, estimate is 9K. :egads: replacing the trunk lid and hood.

Ill try and post pics later.

Good luck with the repairs.

What color is your ES? That can make a big difference with regard to how well they are going to be able to match the paint on the new trunk lid and hood with a panel-to-panel match. If you have the pearl white or other 3-stage pearl paint, getting a good match could be tough. Light silvers, light golds, and reds are also tough but not as bad a a 3-stage pearl. On the other hand, a skilled technician shouldn't have much trouble with a darker 2-stage metallic, and, if you have the non-metallic black, getting a perfect match should be quite simple.

I would get a second estimate. I had pretty extensive hail damage to a Toyota Prius once and it was completely repaired with pointless dent removal, no paint involved, plus a new windshield. That Prius had an aluminum hood too which is harder for PDR. My 2011 Jeep was also extensively hail damaged before I bought it and repaired with PDR. You would never know.

Several body shops and my insurance company said it would need a new roof and hood, but that wound up not being the case, protected the factory paint, AND never showed up on a Carfax. Total repair was about $4,000.

The paintless dent guys (the good ones, anyway) are real artists. The tools for PDR have become very specialized, and they can be used to get to just about any spot on the car. The guys who are good at it can work real magic. While there are some types of dents that aren't good candidates for PDR, whenever PDR is possible, that would be my first choice, even if I had to pay a bit more out of my pocket, because not having to break the factory paint is always a positive.

I just got an estimate from the insurance adjuster today - $8900... Need new hood and roof panel, other dents may be fixed by PDR. Gonna take it to Lexus tomorrow and see what the actual repair bill will be.

I would take it to a highly respected PDR place before I let anybody start replacing panels...

This is a PDR place, best in town. Just sucks!

What is a PDR? Thank you

Paintless Dent Removal...