A few weeks ago my 1992 Camaro was park outside and a hail storm nailed it pretty good. hood and roof are bad and some on the deck lid and doors and fenders. I know I have to get a new hood and windshield.

Allstate gave me 2,400 bucks.

What are your guys opionions on "aftermarket body parts" ???and are there any easier ways to get the small dents out of the doors with out having to take off the inner panels to pound them out.

Less bon-doo the better. Any tips on painting prep before I get it sprayed by a body shop.

:hail:

 

go drive by some dealership places, they might have the paintless hail damage removel set up there. i know a bunch of places started doing that after we had a bad hail storm here a few weeks ago. but yea try dealerships and autobody places.

 

How or what do they do?

 

i really have no clue, we havent had to get any of our cars fixed becuz of hail. im probably sure its like that paintless dent removal stuff. where they work out the dent

 

with paintless dent removal, they slip a metal tool inbetween the sheet metal & the car & basically work out the dent (by gently bending the metal) from the outside in. then they use a laser to make sure the dent is completely out. if done right, you'll never even be able to tell there was ever a dent there

 

Anybody ever heard of the dry Ice trick, where you put the car in the sun and let it get hot, then using dry ice around it, you shrink the metal by cooling it thus pulling out the dent.

 

where do you get dry ice from?

 

The gocery store, people use it in place of regular ice because when it melts there isn't any water. It's CO 2 chilled.

 

yeah, I've heard of the dry ice trick, but I've also heard that it only works on larger dents, not those as small as hail. Hey, it's worth a shot though.

 

OK guys, info from a PDR tech here.

Dry ice will not work. Heat will not work. The metal was damaged and needs to be reshaped. Dents don't just POP out. If they did, I'd be out of a job. The good thing about the metal used in our cars, is it maintains a memory. What this means is that it will go back to the shape it originally started if the damage isn't too severe.

To remove the dents, special tools are used to access the damaged area from behind the dent and massage the metal back into it's original shape. This is not as easy as it sounds. The metal will stay where you put it. If the dent isn't worked thru to completion, it will learn a new memory of the incompleted work. Lasers are not always used and they are usually "eye candy" for the customer. The laser can't get the dent out and only your eyes will tell you if it's completely gone.

DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF! PDR takes time to get good at and the metal damages easily. Take the car to a reputable dent removal company and get an estimate. It will definately be less than what the insurance company paid you. The reason you want to go to a reputable company is because some dents might get missed or might not be completely removed. You will want the guarantee that you can get it taken care of under warranty of the original repair. Check into Dent Wizard. They have hail specialists.

If you want to see how easily it is to damage the metal, put a small dent in an already damaged hood or fender that needs replacing and try pushing the dent out. I guarantee that either the dent remains, or the damage is worsened by overpushing the metal.

 

:hail: listen to him guys.. he is right... bodywork is NOT for the amateur... especially if you want your car to be perfect... practice eslewhere first