Has your vehicle sustained hail damage? Does it look bad?
Are you frantically searching the internet to find out if it’s repairable?
Then, search no more because prepared in consultation with some of the most
famous auto body repair in Riverside, this article will tell you everything you
need to know about hail damage, its reparability, and costs.
Hail Damage and its Types
Hail, like snow, is the condensation of water vapor in the
clouds high above the atmosphere. But instead of forming soft and fluffy
granules like snow, hail consists of solid chunks of ice hurling down from the
heavens at breakneck speeds.
Given the density and speed of the falling ice, it’s not
hard to imagine the devastation a hail storm can do to your vehicle. Hail
damage can vary from negligible to totaled and depends upon the size and shape
of the falling ice. Although there are many ways to categorize hail damage, I
find the auto body repairs’ of Riverside to be the most conventional.
Blunt
Falling like a meteor from the sky, hail starts to heat due
to friction; this causes its tip to melt and become rounded off. The rounded
tips mean that your vehicle will be bombarded by blunt impacts that won’t cause
any paint damage. Depending on the size of the falling ice, this can either
cause tiny golf ball-like patterns or huge deformations.
Sharp
Sometimes when the ice is particularly big, it can retain
its spikey tip resulting in a sharp impact. Along with regular indentations, such
hail storms also scratch the paint, leaving your vehicle with both dent and
paint damage.
Sheer
Although extremely rare, certain conditions can cause the
formation of abnormally large blocks of ice. Due to their sheer momentum, these
blocks can cause damage that’s far too severe to be considered body damage.
There are incidents of them ripping through the roof, damaging the engine, and
even bending the tire rims.
Reparability and Costs
Unless your vehicle is totaled, almost all of the damage can
be repaired; the cost of it, however, depends on the type of damage.
Paintless Dent Repair
Swift, simple, and affordable, paintless dent removal
employs the use of sophisticated techniques to repair your car. Paintless dent
repairs may be cheap, but they can still cost you a hefty sum if the entire
vehicle is damaged; a general estimation for such cases is around $2500.
Traditional Dent Removal
Instead of using refined techniques, traditional dent
repairs use a combination of heavy machinery repair dents. Traditional repairs
are very expensive and require a lot of time but are the only way to remove
sharp dents.
Mechanical Repairs
Mechanical repairs, as the name suggests, are outside the
scope of services like auto body
repair in Riverside. These repairs are usually handled by
specialists that collaborate with different types of services to renew your
vehicle. Mechanical repairs can take anywhere from a week to a month and
usually cost upwards of $4,000.
Conclusion
So, now you know that it’s possible to repair hail damage,
but given the costs, you might ask yourself is it worth it. The answer depends
on the damage and the value of your vehicle – for example if you’re driving an
old car worth $3,000 and its sustained damages worth $2,500, then you should
consider buying a new car. But if your vehicle is worth $25,000, then repairs
are the better choice.
