Hail storm damaged - body shop? PDR?

Hail storm came through the area spared the passenger side due to how I had the truck parked that day. The roof, driver side fender, and tonneau cover seems to have the most damage. I’ve got random hits to the A and C pillar areas and bed also. Surprisingly the doors didn’t get hit, if they did, I didn’t see anything so far

I’m actually quite bummed out as it was the first new vehicle I ever owned and just barely broke 9K on the odo. It’s a 2022.

Anyway insurance wants estimates so should I find a PDR specific body shop or any good body shop in general? Anything I should avoid?

It’s been like 20 years since I filed anything with insurance. All feels new again.

 

You bodyshop will probably get a PDR guy to do the repair.

My neighbor bought a Toyota Avalon from Copart with hail damage, he paid PDR guy $2400 to get it fixed. I honestly couldn't tell from 5 feet away.

 

Hail damage is where PDR excels. Sorry this happened to your truck, but this is why we pay for insurance!

 

Lots of hail storms here every year.
Mine got hit bad last year.
Mostly all hail dents can be fixed so you can't see them with paintless dent repair.
Highly recommend it.
Most people here use that.
Had my hood replaced as it was an easy and more cost effective repair.
Paint was easy to match for the hood.

 

Most collision centers use PDR for hail damage. I have used PDR many times and have been very pleased with the outcome.

 

PDR is the way to go, unless you are looking to total out the truck...

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Will have to make some time this coming up week to get some estimates.

 

PDR probably, depending on cost estimate.

I feel your pain. Hail damage is one of the reasons insurance is so high in Colorado. I pay too much attention to weather forecasts, and if there is a chance of hail, I walk the extra 1/4 mile to park in a parking garage for the day. It's a pain, but less of a pain than having the vehicle destroyed (and that happens). Hope you can have the truck restored to your satisfaction.

 

Just go pdr as it's the best.
"depending on cost estimate" is not a factor since it's an insurance claim.
Get pdr estimates at shops with good ratings or referrals.

 

Finally got my estimate back and the body shop / PDR decided to replace the hood and fender since it was cheaper than trying to PDR all of those dents out. They plan on using aftermarket parts that are CAPA certified. I asked about using OE parts and I would have to pay the difference which is around $200 bucks.

Is it worth it to pay the $200 and get the OE parts?

 

IMO pay the $200

 

yep if it's only two hundo get that oem

 

What? Your carrier doesn't have adjusters? You had to chase down estimates on your own?

I'll admit it's been a while since I had a claim, but I didn't have to take anything anywhere.

Now, moving ahead, if it's cheaper to replace parts including paint, blend, etc etc, I'd argue the source unless your policy clearly excludes OE. If it does, I'd pay the $200 delta.

 

of course they do. it's cheaper for them not to send someone to his house when they have every service king, caliber collision, etc as in network shops.

 

They told me to head to a body shop and get an estimate and then the body shop will send that over to them.

The estimate clearly stated aftermarket parts and locations on where they are sourcing these parts. A call with the body shop and it was confirmed that insurance will not budge on that and gave me a choice to pay the difference which came out to around $200.

I just went ahead and paid the $200.

 

Insurance companies love to use aftermarket parts. Body shops hate them because they won't line up. The usual process is for the shop to order the aftermarket parts then tell the insurance company they don't line up properly then they approve OEM parts. Your body shop should know this, but a lot of shops just don't care and will slap on whatever they are paid to install.

In this situation, it might be easier to just pay the $200 to have it done right the first time.

 

Insurance companies are terrible. They love to take as much of your money as possible and then cheap out or even deny a claim.
Insurance is supposed to indemnify you in the case of a lost.
That basically means to return it to how it was before the claim.
That usually means OEM!
I would tell the claim adjuster on any claim you are only accepting OEM as that was what was on it.
My insurance said they would replace my hood with aftermarket.
My body shop and me disagreed and I got OEM.

 

you get what you pay for.

if you have an oem endorsement you will get oem parts.

if your vehicle is new enough or afm parts are not available you will get oem parts.

if the afm parts are shitty and need a bunch of work to make good you will get oem parts.

most good insurance companies have lifetime guarantees on repairs so they will err on the side of caution vs having to do repairs multiple times.

if you purchased a policy that says LKQ then that's what you will get.

being a karen will not get you what you want.

 

Why do you quote my post just to repeat it?

 

It's not "love to use" it's literally in your policy language.

Hope this helps!