Hail Damage Repair

[Wavey Davey]

Anyone have any tips on do it yourself with dry ice or whatever to take out dents in a car? Thanks.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Set it in the sun. On a good sunny day the heat from the sunlight will bork out some of the dents.

[Valv]

Where was your car parked ?

[Fishin4Life]

I will guess he was either near new prague or coon rapids...

You get any damage Val? I heard lons dale on the radar yesterday too...

[Valv]

Actually Northfield had the worst hail damage yesterday morning, baseball size. Any vehicle along HWY 3 is totaled, and mean ANY !!!! Including dealers and businesses.

Yes my Rav 4 was at a shop replacing tires and got totaled too...I just bought it....

[stmichael]

Val,

Glad to hear that you were not involved with the mess last night. When I left your place I was tempted to drive through Northfield, but, I figured the last thing the residents needed was tourists.

It was a pleasure meeting you and thanks for the great deal! I hope to be installing the livewell this weekend.

Mike

[Fishin4Life]

That stinks, sorry to hear it Val. I do remember you just posted questions about that vehicle. I bet dealers are going be having some good sales on Hail damaged vehicles in your area, unless they just junk em. If you see any of sales due to hail maybe you could drop me a line. I don't mind dents if the price it right

[Wavey Davey]

The cars (three of them ) were in the Anoka/Coon Rapids area (golf ball size hail). Two are really bad. Insurance will cover one of them (about 50 dents). The other has liability only, so that's why I may try and fix it myself.

Many dents and a smashed windshield. Windshield is going to be replaced Monday. I've heard dry ice can be used, the extreme cold contracts the metal and pulls the dent out without having to repaint. Just wondering if anyone has tried it on their own.

[LuckyNorm07]

one of the dealers located in northfield.. had most all cars wrecked.. windows smashed huge dents.. est. damage between 8-12 million for the one dealership.. that was some huge hail(baseball, softball size) never seen anything like it.. northfield is quite the mess.. glad my truck was not there..

[Eric Wettschreck]

In the spring of 97 here in SW MN we had softball sized hail. Needless to say I understand your situation. I tried the dry ice thing with limited success. In all honesty sitting it out in the sun, all day long, will bork a lot of those puppies outta there.

[Matt Johnson]

We got peppered with golf ball size hail yesterday in Coon Rapids. My brothers car and my truck took a little beating. We're in the process of trying to get them fixed. Sucks right now but nothing we can do about it...

[stmichael]

Matt, did you get that yesterday around 6 ish?

I was in Coon Rapids and all we had was high wind and drenching rain. There may have been a fine line of who got what. If it happened between 4-5 I was trying to watch t.v., but, my eyelids kept getting in the way. No word from my boy about hail, if it was within the 4-5 time frame, I am surprised he was not jumping up and down screaming. (he has seen the movie twister too many times and does not like storms, especially when hail comes...hard to keep him calm)

[Fishin4Life]

Hey matt, that does stink. My girlfriends family is from Anoka. They just got hammered up there. Her moms car has major dents and dings. Luckly she was able to get her car under some cover before it got too bad. Hope all goes well with the repairs.

[Matt Johnson]

Yep, right around that time I believe. It was raining like cats and dogs and then all of a sudden we had golf ball size hail coming down left and right. It lasted about 10-15 minutes too. We saved a couple of pieces of hail and put them in the freezer... largest hail I've ever seen by far. Looks like I'll be bringing in the truck on Monday to get fixed...

[iland99]

Wow, it sounds like we just missed it here in Blaine. I didn't see any hail at all. Lots of rain though. A couple years ago I had a cousin who's brand new Ram 2500 was nearly totalled due to hail damage. As he was driving it home from the body shop he hit two deer with it and did several thousand dollars more in damage. Now THAT is bad luck!

About the dry ice trick: I think you need to heat the dent up with a hair dryer first, then hit it with the dry ice. The temp extremes cause the metal to contract, popping the dent out. I've seen it work on bad door dings. Your results may vary.

[Juan Grande]

I work in Anoka and it hailed here around 2 or 3. We had golf ball to baseball sized hail for about 10 minutes.

We watched the cars and trucks in the parking lot below get pummeled. You could see the dents forming as the hail was hitting the hoods and roofs. Most people parked outside lost at least one window or wind shield.

One of the trucks in the lot by our building had a topper that took a beating. It had dents in it that were 3 inches deep!

Biggest hail I've ever seen!

[LovenLifeGuy]

I live in anoka and have over 100 baseball size dents in my roof and siding. The holes in the roof were 1/2 inch deep or more. My 2004 z71 is a mess When I came outside I had two close to baseball size hail balls that hit my hood and did not move, they stuck! Just what a guy needs, but what do you do.

LovenLifeGuy

[picksbigwagon]

I just returned from Northfield with a 2005 F150 XLT super crew, with hail damage on the hood and roof, but no broken glass for one heck of a deal. Did I mention it had 4500 miles on it? No I am not missing a zero there....of course it was a mad house there and I waited over 4 hours to sign the papers..........

Now I need a new hitch, probably a 6" drop and I need an extension for the wiring attachment.....

Needless to say, I will run this truck into the ground, looking like a golf ball....I only put 8K miles on my vehicle a year......12 years will put me at 100K.....

[Pat K]

I used dry ice on a hail damaged car about 16 or 17 years ago. Hot sunny day, Park the car in direct sunlight for about an hour, place a chip of dry ice close to the size of the dent in it making sure it contacts the deepest part of the dent. They either pop out right away or not at all. It worked on about 75% of the dents. Seemed to work best on large flat areas. Dents close to curves in the body didn't pop out.

Some of the larger dents would reapear when temps got realy cold in the winter and would pop back out on a 90* day in the summer. After a few years they stoped popping out in the summer and stayed dented.

Didn't take much work and took care of 2/3 of them permanently. Wear gloves designed for handling dry ice and safety glasses wouldn't be a bad idea. The chips can fly when the dent pops!

Good Luck, Pat K