Last Saturday, I watched a hail storm leave is marks of Miranda. It was painful to watch. We dont have anything broken or chipped... but it hurts my heart to see all the dings. Yes, it would be nice to have a garage.. but its just not fesible. I keep trying to convince myself that its better for the heavens to rain down on her, than me being the cause of this infliction. (I'll have to get back with you; when I totally accept that one)
I know other devoted Mini Lovers, can understand how I feel.

 

Wow, I'm really sorry to hear this! What do you plan to do?

 

Yikes... that sucks.

I hope this makes you feel better:

I had a beeeeeeeeautiful Nissan 240SX, dark green with white leather interior... loved it. Hail storm left 39 dings in it one day. Eight days later, you would never have known it ever had a single hail dent. PDR is GOOD !

Another time to remind people: $100 deductible on your comp coverage, folks !!

 

oh no... i feel for ya....

what yr plan now?

 

Same thing happened to our MCS a few years ago. Too many dings to count. The dealer had it for almost a month fixing it (thank goodness for insurance).

 

*sigh* I'm thinking of just leaving them... I know my insurance would cover it. From other post I've read, its been said that extreme heat pops some out. I'm in Alabama, in the middle of the dog days of Summer (high today 100). But in other posts I've seen mention of PDR. What is that?

I've had a few cold hearted folks remind me its just a 'car'. (Obviously they dont own a Mini). And I should change her name to Dimples. I wont repeat my response.

 

I cant imagine being separated for a month!

 

It's not just a car.... don't listen to them.

Seriously... get it fixed. PDR is Paintless Dent Repair. The highly-trained technician sticks a long, thin rod behind the affected panel and then pops the dent out from behind. That's over-simplified, it's much more technical than that, of course.

But the bottom line is, PDR does not affect the integrity of your paint like conventional body repair. Once it's done, your car is literally Good As New.

File your claim with your insurance company. It's a comp claim, has very little or no effect on your future premiums, and all you pay is your deductible.

 

Hail is some serious stuff - I had a car totaled out in a hailstorm in Texas in 1993, and I'm not talking about an old junker.

Actually, the adjuster said that it was right on the borderline and that I could choose to have it repaired or declared a total loss. When I asked what it would take to fix it properly, he said "All new glass, obviously, new hood and trunk lid, one new fender, standard bodywork/painting for all the other panels on the car, and oh yeah - they'll have to cut out the roof and weld in a new one."

At that point, I just told him to total it out.

 

So in totalling it, insurance paid you enough to get a new one?

Excuse me while I whine...."I dont wanna new one". Unfortunately, I'm looking at work on every side of the car. It quite possibly could be totaled.
I dont see how a PDR can get the dents out of the roof (bonnet yes, everywhere else no).

Thank you for letting me voice my woe. Of course, Mini's are family, along with the folks that own them.

 

Well, the insurance payoff wasn't enough to get me into a new car, but I didn't expect it to, considering that my car wasn't new when it was totaled. The payoff was more than enough that I could have replaced the car with another one of the same year/make/model/condition, though.

Unless they have to replace all of your glass, trim and headlamps along with the panel repairs, I'd suspect that your car's probably not totaled.

If the PDR guys can get to the back side of the panel, there's almost nothing they can't fix as long as the panel isn't creased. Even if they can't get to the back side, they can still pull off some pretty impressive repairs just working from the "paint" side of the panel.

 

We had a huge hail storm right before we moved to florida quite a while ago, My wifes cousin had an Acura Legend coupe, 18k in damage, even the rocker panels were dented from them coming up and hitting them, It is one of natures more car destructive actions (hail)

PDR, paintless dent repair is quite good, I used them fairly often, Also I have been told they can use dry ice but don't know that for sure, the problem is that the dent/ding stretches the metal so it is not just a "pop out" type of repair. they have to massage the metal.

Best of luck, hope it works out for the best.

peter

 

PDR people can be quite good, in fact, very good. At the dealership here where I work, we have one that comes every tuesday. He is excellent, very professional. [he also has an '06 MCS, so we get along just great!]

So give one of these guys a try [or gals].......

Steve

 

Post some pics if possible, so we get an idea of just how badly it is damaged.

Personally Id give PDR a go. If not this is an excellent excuse to get a body kit

I heard rumors that if you rub dry ice on the dents they can pop back out? Anyone else heard of this?

 

I feel for 'ya MiniMusician! One of my (many) reasons for hand-wringing over getting a MINI was over the possibility of hail damage. I do have a garage, but now 'MINI makes three' (vehicles, that is) for a two-car unit. Of course, the MINI's going in the garage, but what about those times it's on its own in a parking lot or whathaveyou !? I guess that's why they make insurance.

Anyway, good luck to you. Hope it gets resolved to your satisfaction without too much sweat being produced on your part!

 

Another vote here for paintless dent repair. About 6 years ago my Jetta was involved in a hail storm and when they told me it would be fixed by PDR, I was skeptical. I just sold it a few months ago and there was no indication that it had been repaired, even 6 years later. And it didn't take anywhere near a month...

 

She can take about anything, she is strong, look at if as living life, not scars she is stronger for it

 

In a time before Cornelius, a hail storm came through Indy and just destroyed houses / cars in it's path - including my Silverado and my wifes Monte Carlo - not to mention our roof, siding, and even a few windows. Insurance was great, contractors not so much.

Needless to say, upon find Cornelius, I "made" enough room in my over packed pack rat garage to give him shelter.

Hang in there, Miranda will be back good as new

 

A good PDR tech wll be able to get all of the dents out. Had a hail storm come through our area and it was so bad it destroyed 15 airplanes sitting at the local airport. My son was working at the airport at the time and our wagon was dimpled badly. Every panel was hit. PDR tech had it for 2 days and was able to get every dent out with little to no blemishes left.

I have also heard that folks who live in hail prone areas will actually keep an old comforter in the car so they can cover the car if a hail storm comes through. Guess it does a great job protecting the car.

 

Old comforter... what a great idea.
I'll get some pictures to post.
Thanks!

 

MM... did you call your insurance company yet ?

 

No- not yet

 

You'll feel better after you speak to them, I'm sure of it.

 

pics!!!

 

I've used the old comforter trick,as well as throwing old blankets or carpet on the car. We've also got 3 cars and 2 cars worth of shelter, so we make an active decision to which one sits outside, but sometimes you're caught off guard.

Guess I'm a little sensitive to it, because I bought a hail-damaged car at a good discount (a fantastic black mica Mazdaspeed Protege - turbo - FUN car!). I can tell you that the hail damage does, to an extent, become less evident as time goes on and the metal heats and cools, but it doesn't go away. PDR works well. Replacing the hood with a carbon fiber one works well.

Have it estimated - without that information you can't make an informed decision. Good luck!