nermalgod

Last week southern Wisconsin was nailed by a nasty storm resulting in baseball size hail that lasted for almost ten minutes. I have comprehensive, my ladyfriend didn't so she got the garage. Now I'm trying to put my truck back together.

The windshield has already been replaced and I am looking into dent removal. My truck is radiant red and has noticeable paint fade as I just added the factory colour matched topper this year so the faded truck stands out. I'm hoping I can get the entire truck painted. I just noticed the topper last night. Anyone have experience with topper repair? It's a fibreglass topper with carpeted interior. I've done a lot of glass and gelcoat repair but never with carpet involved. I'm also worried about strength of the roof as I have a roof rack mounted fairly close to several of the impact craters. Is it possible the topper will be called a total loss? Any knowledge going into talks with my insurance company would be nice. They at least have been real understanding. I guess in the one mile radius that had the hail has an estimated $17 million in claims.

AH64ID

When my dads fiberglass canopy cracked at the window the mfgr just replaced it, said it was easier to do than fix...and it was 6 years old...good warrenty

Bobakazi

Holy crap that is big hail! I have heard about it before, but never seen it. I hope nobody was caught outside. Those could probably kill a person.
Toppers are relatively inexpensive, so most likely the insurance company will just replace it. Accessories are more often replaced than repaired. Especially with all the other damage done close-by, things will hopefully be handled as quickly as possible. You said you replaced the windshield and are looking into dent removal. Are you putting it all on your comprehensive? If you are putting anything on it, you should put it all on it since you have to pay the same deductable either way. How is your house? My uncle in Iowa had his house re-roofed for free when he had a homeowner insurance adjustor look at it after a hail storm, and it was nothing like what you went through.

nermalgod

Just had the topper looked at; total loss. Since I am getting a new topper and a paint job, I'm researching possibly changing colours. People's thoughts on a new colour keeping in mind that the interior will probably remain red.

mt_goat

If you want it to be repainted just pick a body shop that does conventional dent repair unstead of PDR. If the insurance co requires PDR to be used (if possible), then make sure you tell the body shop that you don't want any holes drilled for PDR access. Baseball size hail will make a PDR repair very hard to do anyway but if they don't have your permission to drill holes they will most likely have to do a conventional repair.

Also, ask for a plastizer to be added to the paint to make the front facing surfaces more chip resistant. It is used for plastic panels and bumpers and makes the paint job more like a factory paint job in terms of being chip resistant.

I just finished having $9000 worth of hail damage repaired on a 97 BMW 328i. It took about 3 months to get the car back, then was in and out for the next year after that getting little things redone.

Dublin

How about some carnage pics. Most likely any horizontal sheet metal will be replaced, as for the vertical, most shops around here will attempt a paintless dent repair. Given the size of the hail and the probability of repainting the hood and top after replacement they may need to repaint everything, especially because of the fade. Find out before it goes in or they may just try to buff the old paint back into shape. I feel your pain ( or actually my wife does). We had 2 hail storms a month apart a few years ago and her Jeep didn't fair too well, neither did our home roof. Both times the windshield blew apart and the second time the gate glass as well. Her Truck looks perty now, but it's still a Jeep.

Bobakazi

I always loved the bright red (last truck), or gloss black on Toyotas. I wheel mine a lot, so I am going to paint the one I have now flat black soon. Easier to repair and touch-up myself, plus I think flat black looks really mean, like back in the day, old school.

nermalgod

I suppose I could have the body shop do all the prep work then just hit with a spray bomb. Flat black would be different. I saw someone do a great rattle can camo. Wish I could find the thread.

Bobakazi

This one was pretty good.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...ht=camo+rattle