Hail Damage
FTE Leadership Emeritus
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 23,174
Likes: 1,678
From: Stephensville WI
My SD has been in the body shop twice for hail damage. The first was tennis ball sized hail. The hood was replaced, and other dents were corrected. Windshield was replaced, plastic B pillar covers were replaced. 6 months later we had grape sized hail. All dents from the grape sized hail were corrected.
Mountain Pass
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 243
Likes: 33
From: Montana
BTW, My son owns a PDR shop, I go & check up on him and the crew daily - You know, to make sure their doing it right
-- bigfootpdr.com
Fleet Owner
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 21,195
Likes: 306
From: Near Salmon Arm BC
Sounds like you might need to try a more qualified PDR tech. Paintless Dent Removal is only as good as the tech performing the work. I've seen hail tech's with "many" years of experience that can't even finish 1 dent to 100%. I've also seen some with only 2 years of experience that have that magic PDR touch and can make almost anything disappear.
BTW, My son owns a PDR shop, I go & check up on him and the crew daily - You know, to make sure their doing it right -- bigfootpdr.com
BTW, My son owns a PDR shop, I go & check up on him and the crew daily - You know, to make sure their doing it right
-- bigfootpdr.comWe have 3 of them around us.
1 is useless and can't fix much of anything.
Another is pretty good and do decent work.
But then we have a guy who is like a magician, and he can make a hail, baseball, or what dent disappear, and nobody will ever be able to find it.
A few of my company pickups had hail damage, and several employees vehicles to, when he was done it was impossible to see anything wrong. My mustang took a baseball to the hood while parked at a ball game, but after a visit to him, there was not a trace.
I might have ran into my pickup practicing how to ride my one wheel 😁 leaving a dent in the box side. But when he was done with my pickup it looked brand new, and I would dare anyone to tell me which side was fixed.
The wife has put a few dings in her Jeep, after his magical hands are finished working on it, I'm unable to see it.
OP find a good paintless shop, drop by for them to have a look, the worst it costs you is 10 minutes of your time.
But don't believe anyone who tells you that all hail damage is unable to be repaired, I've seen it many times.
Cargo Master
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 2,238
Likes: 475
I'm not saying PDR can't fix a couple dents and make it look good. We originally had a guy we'd hire to come to our body shop for small stuff like that, then the owner bought some tools and we started doing it ourselves. PDR isn't going to fix a large flat panel like a hood or roof with dozens of hail strikes. Once the metal gets stretched, you can't shrink it back to size without enough heat that it will mess up the paint, not to mention trying to shrink/stretch modern body panels is a losing situation for a shop, which is why they either get replaced, or filled with mud after hammering it out close enough.
Also, in my professional experience, what the majority of people think is a good body work repair..isn't.The shop i worked in was mostly quick insurance jobs and auction flips to sell, so it was fast and dirty body work most of the time. I always thought the customer was gonna say something about the ripple/wave/low spot/etc. I could see as plain as day, because i was trained to look for it, but they almost always thought it was perfect.
Also, in my professional experience, what the majority of people think is a good body work repair..isn't.The shop i worked in was mostly quick insurance jobs and auction flips to sell, so it was fast and dirty body work most of the time. I always thought the customer was gonna say something about the ripple/wave/low spot/etc. I could see as plain as day, because i was trained to look for it, but they almost always thought it was perfect.
FTE Leadership Emeritus
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 23,174
Likes: 1,678
From: Stephensville WI
I'm not saying PDR can't fix a couple dents and make it look good. We originally had a guy we'd hire to come to our body shop for small stuff like that, then the owner bought some tools and we started doing it ourselves. PDR isn't going to fix a large flat panel like a hood or roof with dozens of hail strikes. Once the metal gets stretched, you can't shrink it back to size without enough heat that it will mess up the paint, not to mention trying to shrink/stretch modern body panels is a losing situation for a shop, which is why they either get replaced, or filled with mud after hammering it out close enough.
Also, in my professional experience, what the majority of people think is a good body work repair..isn't.The shop i worked in was mostly quick insurance jobs and auction flips to sell, so it was fast and dirty body work most of the time. I always thought the customer was gonna say something about the ripple/wave/low spot/etc. I could see as plain as day, because i was trained to look for it, but they almost always thought it was perfect.
Also, in my professional experience, what the majority of people think is a good body work repair..isn't.The shop i worked in was mostly quick insurance jobs and auction flips to sell, so it was fast and dirty body work most of the time. I always thought the customer was gonna say something about the ripple/wave/low spot/etc. I could see as plain as day, because i was trained to look for it, but they almost always thought it was perfect.
The storm with the tennis ball sized hail had far fewer but much bigger dents. The PDR crew took one look at my hood and stated they couldn't fix it.
Mountain Pass
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 243
Likes: 33
From: Montana
I. . .PDR isn't going to fix a large flat panel like a hood or roof with dozens of hail strikes. Once the metal gets stretched, you can't shrink it back to size without enough heat that it will mess up the paint, not to mention trying to shrink/stretch modern body panels is a losing situation for a shop, which is why they either get replaced, or filled with mud after hammering it out close enough. . .
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5th Wheeling
Joined: Mar 2020
Posts: 41
Likes: 8
The owner of a local body shop, who I’ve know for many years says he can make it 100% with PDR. I’m going to go this route, as I prefer to keep my original paint intact. He says if I’m not completely happy with the outcome, he will do whatever is necessary to make it perfect. Looks to be about $6-7k worth of damage going this route. He repaired 2 dents on my mustang a few years ago while I watched, you can’t tell they were ever there. Hopefully it works on the aluminum SD.
Laughing Gas
Joined: Apr 2023
Posts: 922
Likes: 1,870
From: SE PA
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Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 1,937
Likes: 1,221
From: Southern Crescent
in fact airlines still use dry ice to pull hail dents out of aluminum airplanes. Don't know the details, all I ever did was aircraft electrical.
Laughing Gas
Joined: Apr 2023
Posts: 922
Likes: 1,870
From: SE PA
https://www.autos.com/auto-repair/ho...s-with-dry-ice
https://penguindryice.com/removing-dents/
https://cardetailingart.com/dry-ice-dent-removal/
1st Gear
Joined: Jan 2025
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
My 2022 F-350 6k miles received some substantial hail damage last Thursday. The hood, roof and tonneau cover are trashed. Platinum chrome around windows is dented, roof ditch molding is broken and every planet has small dents except the tailgate. No light or windows were broken and surprisingly my pano glass roof held up. The truck is star white and I really don’t want to have it repainted. I had some minor damage 2 years ago to my 2020 f150 and now see bubbling paint/ aluminum where the repair was done. I plan on keeping my SD for a while and want to make sure this repair is done properly. I was thinking maybe paint less dent removal on the panels, but I don’t think this is possible with the hood and upper door frames. I really don’t want a lot of filler on the truck. Anyone with experience in handling a hail damage repair that may have some wisdom? Thank you
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