Just got my new 2016 F-350 and was on a trip to San Antonio and got stuck in the bad hail storm there with nowhere to get cover. Of course now I am sporting lots of tiny dents all over it. The collision center at Ford says that the way the roof of the cab is made that it will have to be cut completely off and taken apart, headliner and all. The other option is to go with dent-less repair. I am just contemplating at this point what would be the better fix. The insurance company will cover the cost either way. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

A number of years ago when we lived in Austin, my wife's Volvo station wagon got hammered in a hail storm while sitting at the dealership waiting to get serviced (ARGGHHH!!!). Normally it would have been home in our garage.
We had it repaired through a dentless repair company and when they were finished you could not even tell anything every happened. They had to replace a couple of trim pieces but as far as the body goes, I was amazed at how they could take the dents out.
That is the way I would go if I were you.

 

I've had entire roofs and hoods replaced before. It's easier, they drill the welds out, drop in a new part, then paint. The only way to tell is on one Jeep they went a little overboard with the filler inside the rear hatch and didn't sand it enough before painting. I've had bad luck with PDR, to the point where insurance paid to have a second shop replace a hood and re-do trim work because it was so bad (first shop were the ones who did the roof with the filler problems).

If the paint is cracked PDR is a problem waiting to happen.

 

When we picked up our 2015 Super Duty is was cold, windy and raining. The weather had been nice all day, then changed drastically so we were not prepared. A few days later when I was washing the truck I noticed dents in the roof, the clearance lights were cracked and the drivers door had dings in it. I took it back to the dealer and they had a paintless dent guy fix it. It looks amazing.

 

Hey,

I dealt with this exact thing about a year ago. Was up Northwest of SA in Concan (Garner State Park) and got caught in the storm of the century. Hail stones the size of CDs (no joke, a compact disc sized hail stone). My 1 year old F350 was camping with us. After the storm i have hood damage, roof damage, dents in the sides of the truck. Took it to a ford dealer here in Victoria, tx. I was thinking they would have to cut the roof off after reading all the horror stories on the internet. I talked to them about it. They said, "well maybe but let the PDR guy take a look at it and see what he can do" Sure enough they were able to knock every dent out, including dents that were on the curve of the roof, on the ribs, and other weird places. The hood was totally replaced and i had the replaced the mirror chrome and some other places that had minor damage. Long story short, i am very pleased with the repair job and since it was done at a ford dealership the paint and workmanship is guaranteed for the life of the vehicle. I definitely wouldn't let the cut the roof off before taking it somewhere else. PDR techs can do some amazing things, and cutting the roof off is not something you want to deal with.

*PDR is paintless dent repair. I forgot to mention, the PDR was just for removing dents. Everything was repainted that was damaged. I didn't give them a choice.

 

My wife's Lexus RX350 was hit pretty hard last year in a hail storm. We had the repair done at a PDR shop and in just two days, the car is like new with original paint in tact. Find a good PDR shop and let them do their magic.

 

Bump for lots of hail lately.

My truck got shotpeened by some about the size of 00 buck shot and I was driving which I guess makes it worse. Sounded like I had a mob beating my truck with axe handles.

But I couldn't see any dents scratches or dings. . Kinda strange I guess some hail is not bad enough? Were supposed to get more tomorrow and I'll be driving my 1980 bronco to work.

 

Have used PDR on a number of vehicles. when they were finished could never tell there was a problem.

 

Don't be afraid of Paintless Dent Repair. If the individual knows what they are doing you'll never know the dent was there. I have a friend that does that for a living and he has done several for me with great success. Know if it is a bad bad bad dent in a bad spot then yes the paint can crack in the process in which case your insurance will still get it fixed for you.

 

If dent less repair is using existing roof and pulling or sucking out little dents I would definitely go with cut off roof repair. My thought is all of those little dents will be little puddles for water to sit in and rust a hole in your roof. remove roof and head liner sounds extreme but will be a new roof and headliner and that what you want and purchased.

 

PDR leaves a surface that looks and feels like new. No puddles.

 

I'm not certain how there could be puddles left on the surface unless the hailstones were the size of cinder blocks.

 

My thought is years after beautiful dent less repair of the sun beating the heck out of fillers on the roof little hairline cracks may appear for water to get trapped in and then a rust hole . With a fully replaced metal roof new paint it s all brand new no dents no holes and all the rain, due, ect. water will run right off as new design intended.

 

Folks who have never used PDR need to see it in person. I have used it on four different vehicles including my 02 dually. The results are impressive. It also is not all the cheap if you use someone who does it full time. Around me the best ones have a waiting list to get in.

Steve

 

Had it on my truck five years ago. No little hairline cracks. Have you ever used PDR?