Hail...depressing

[jb747]

Just got back home from a trip to London (work), to find that the house had survived the Xmas day storm without much damage, the garden was pretty severely hit, and the nice 4 month old Disco 4 was nuked. Hundreds of hits on the bonnet and roof, and a few on the passenger side panels as well.

Sad...but at least the Audi was safely tucked away.

[p38arover]

Bugger. It may just get written off if there are a lot of hail damaged vehicles in Melbourne.

[unseenone]

It may be repairable, regardless of the number of hits. Post a picture.

[Tombie]

Ur happy the Audi was in the shed?

I'd be upset! The D4 deserves the shed...

Sorry to hear of your damage.




"Where the Desert meets the Sea"
'Did I mention some great 4WDriving is just 5 minutes from home?'

[p38arover]

Ur happy the Audi was in the shed?

I'd be upset! The D4 deserves the shed...

Sorry to hear of your damage.


I agree. :p

[Robocop]

Terrible luck there mate.

[400HPONGAS]

Ive just seen some amazing repairs on Hail dents , would you believe done with DRY ICE , Solid CO2 . Just rub over with the dry ice , and Viola !!!! no dent . Look it up on Youtube . !!!

[p38arover]

Ive just seen some amazing repairs on Hail dents , would you believe done with DRY ICE , Solid CO2 . Just rub over with the dry ice , and Viola !!!! no dent . Look it up on Youtube . !!!

I've tried it a number of times but never could get it to work.

[VladTepes]

Sorry to hear that jb I know you'd spent ages looking until you found that a LR was the perect car, after all ! :lol: If they write itoff I hope you replace it with another one.

On an aside... how do those aluminium skinned aeroplanes cope with hail like that?

[jb747]

Sorry to hear that jb I know you'd spent ages looking until you found that a LR was the perect car, after all ! :lol: If they write itoff I hope you replace it with another one.

Although writing it off was mentioned by the insurance company, I really can't see that will happen, unless, perhaps, the time frame for a repair is beyond reason (and even then, why would they care). A bonnet is fixed by the simple expedient of fitting a new one. The side panel dents are few enough that the paintless repair people should be able to do it...but it will need a totally new roof panel..that's beyond any reasonable repair method


On an aside... how do those aluminium skinned aeroplanes cope with hail like that?

When the big storm hit Sydney about 15 years ago, it damaged quite a few aircraft. The worst was a brand new 767, which needed about $10 million worth of repairs. Skins are relatively easily removed and replaced with new sections. On that aircraft the worst damage was to the composite panels, which all looked like golf balls...the aluminium stood up appreciably better.

[VladTepes]

Cheers for that I'd always wondered.
Will be interesting to know how (or if) they addressed that in the design of the 787.

[oldsalt]

This is an example of the hailstones that landed in the Watsonia area - luckily my D3 was on Raymond Island at the time and my wife's Honda was in the garage ... she saved these in the freezer for me to see upon my return.

http://files.myopera.com/veedub5/albums/10209572/RI%20christmas%20007.JPG

[jsp]

The hail where I was for Xmas was between half and 2/3rds the size of yours.

Strangely the car two doors down was a mess whereas one or two small dents were found in others in the street but nothing which jumps out at you.

I had the small bit of luck of parking under a plum tree, you can see bits of plum on the car.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2011/12/49.jpg

[AGRO]

Same sad story ocurred in Perth approx. 18mths ago.

At our office the whole car park full of 70+ cars was hit by the hail storm with each car having varying damage. My 79 450SL Merc was totalled and written off under a reasonable "agreed value" policy and became a deposit on a D4 with a working radio and aircon.

The Jap/Korean and newer cars took a pounding due to light panels.

Many cars were totally written off but not repaired and still used by their owners albeit with a few dents. Bit of a dilema if the car is mechanically sound and being paid off!!!

We have on guy with a BMW 2door with the fancy retractable roof still waiting for his "turn" at the panel beater.

Several Prados had their roof replaced between the roof rail tracks - so roofs are done if the repair is cheaper than the "notional write-off".

Hope all goes well for you.

[PCH]

In Nov 2010 my D3 was hit with the same size hail as Melbourne's storm the other day. This occured whilst I was nearing the competion of the Dirtworks 100km MTB race at Woodend and I was caught in a severe thurderstorm about 5 km out from the finish. Riding in the hail was like having rocks thrown at you. Even my helmet got cracked but my carbon frame didn't get trashed so you can tell the force the hail has. I had to hide next to a tree for a bit of protection but I still got pelted.

My D3 was trashed from bonnet to tailgate with hundreds of big dents across the roof and even the window sills. The repair bill was well in excess of $10K. I was afraid the D3 would be written off but my insurance company said the repairs had to be > 50% of the agreed value/market value and it was well under. I suspect your D4 will also be well under.

At first the repairer said the roof needed replacing and after spending many weeks trying to source one (even from O/Seas) they gave up and repaired the roof using a specialist. The bonnet was replaced. The tailgate, doors and sides near the roof were all repaired. Even the scuttle panel under the wipers was smashed by the hail and ended up with big holes. The roof mouldings where the roof rack tracks fit were also dented.

The worst part about the repair was the wait of 8+ weeks. The job done was absolutely fantastic and there was not a ripple to be seen anywhere. These guys I used are specialists in hail repairs after having done many cars from the previous Melbourne hail storm back in 2009.

If you need to know who I used. Send me a PM and I can let you know.

Chris

[unseenone]

My partner owns a high end paint less dent repair company. Good techs, that are few and far between (he is) can fix it up so well you can't tell it was ever damaged. From my non technical view, it depends on the size of the dent. That equates with regard to hail, to the size of the hit, the golf ball size as pictured, probably stretched the metal, so true PDR would not be effective on ALL hits. The smaller pea size, up to 1/2 or larger can be fixed.

For every good tech in that business there are 10 "blow and go" repairers who do more harm than good in repairing, by blowing the dent out with tools in a hurry, leaving crappy work, then GO back out of town. These fly by nights are the ones to watch out for. While quality guys travel to do repairs, like my buddy, not many do the quality work he does.

This type of work, does not involve dry ice, and the other strange repair methods. Tools are used, kind of like spoons, and the like, on the back side of the dents, to massage it back to it's original shape. An artist can perform this flawlessly, and you cannot tell there was a dent. All forms of tools, lights and so forth are used in the process. Typically the work is faster, and less expensive, than say, cutting the roof off, and replacing it.

That being said, LR lists the entire body shell (I assume less the doors, hood, etc.) for about 6k US in their parts book.

Cheers