Hail randomly swept through the city a few months ago and my car was hit really bad, i got stuck in my car and couldn't drive anywhere, but yeah I haven't had the money to repair it. I'm looking into that now, and i'm wondering what options there are in fixing all the dents in my car. Its not like 10-20 dents. Its like more like probably 60+ dents. Its a Mazda Protege LX '98, i dunno if it makes a difference on what kinda car i have. Any suggestions on the least expensive way to go about fixing her up?
2006-08-06 18:41:27 · 3 answers · asked by Stone Sour 2 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
I've had estimates done already, if I had someone else do it right now it'd empty my wallet, and like i said, I don't have alot of money to work with. I'm a do it myself kinda gal, so I was just wondering if there's any cheap way i could try to fix it myself.
2006-08-06 19:04:12 · update #1
Body shop is wrong path as they will cut your roof off, put on a new trunk and hood, bondo the rest and repaint the car. Looks great today but falls apart in a few years.
Your next and best option is to find a PDR Tech. PDR = Paintless Dent Removal. You can find them in the phone book. Being that you have extreme hail damage I would not just choose the cheap guy in the book, he will cause more damage than he fixes.
Since you mentioned 60+ dents I am sure most are least the size of a golf ball dent and at least 1/2" deep. Being that the metal has been seriously stressed I would look up Dent Wizard. http://www.dentwizard.com
They are the only true hail dent techs that know what they are doing when it comes to hail. They have special teams that deal with only hail jobs.
To people who tell you dry ice or any other absurd idea, they are smoking some good pot cause all those tricks are myths and tricks to get you to mess up your car even more.
PS - PDR can be expensive. Look into your insurance policy and see if it covers any or all. If not either have them repair one panel at a time as you have the money. Or better talk to one of the Tech's about working on your car on the side as they only make 50% of the sale price.
2006-08-06 19:08:42 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 8⤊ 1⤋
On a hot sunny day, which is any day now, take ice cubes and make a slow circle around the hail damage one at a time, the dents will pop up. I learned this from an insurance man in Kansas when I was stationed there at Fort Riley.
2006-08-06 20:35:59 · answer #2 · answered by Ken R 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can get a piece of dry ice and move it back and forth just above the dent. The cold from the dry ice will cause the metal to expand and contract and the dent will just pop out. Do you have full coverage on the vehicle? If you do, hail damage is covered.
2006-08-06 18:58:35 · answer #3 · answered by Thomas S 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
just for get it and buy a new car later but if you need to get rid of them there is a device for like only 50 dollars the gets rid of dents buy sucking them out like a plunger.
2006-08-06 19:20:48 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋