Filing a claim on my truck for the hail damage.....need advice!!

My truck went through a severe hail storm last summer, 14K in damages. They totally rebuilt it, took 4 weeks. New hood, new roof and pillars, new fender, new door skins, new bed side. Alot of the panels are actually glue on...I did not know that before talking to the shop manager.

The insurance guy said I needed 3k more in damages to total it... Had I been able to see while being hailed on I'd have turned it to get the drivers side too!!!

We were just lucky all the side windows held up through the storm...Me and 2 friends were inside during the whole thing!!! Some people were caught out in the woods during the storm, they looked like they went 9 rounds with Mike Tyson, all beat up and bleading! No life threatening injuries though..

I had the local toyota dealer do all repairs, that way it's still 100% covered for warranty. If I do ever trade/sell this truck I'd get another Toyota and I'd deal with this same dealer that did the work...So they shouldn't ding me too much since their shop did all the work...

The sport hood scoop hood was $200 extra, figured I might as well go for it...









Fixing: New pillars welded on, almost back to a full truck...



All new again!

 

Man, I'm glad I wasn't out in that stuff. Good luck on the repairs

 

And I get this over the lunch hour... Gal turned right, accross 1 lane of traffic into mine and I couldn't avoid hitting her.



Sucks.

 

With the pics you've posted I am surprise your windows are okay. I remember driving through Soccoro, NM about 6 years ago, they had a terrible storm come through town. Vehicles had dents and broken windows in the parking lots, ceramic tiles and windows on buildings were shattered.


Some one posted pics of what I am talking about.

 

That was crazy when we got into town. We were not there when the destruction happened. But we saw the damage.


I did not read through the entire thread before I posted. But that is exactly what I saw! Buildings were taped off with 'Do Not enter' When we were in buildings, we had to be careful because of all the broken glass everywhere.

 

That blows! Sorry man.

 

EXACTLY what i was thinking... you'll get better mpg with the hail mod

 

Yeah I've heard stories. I was still in high school in albuquerque when it happened so I didn't get to see any of the damage, besides the occasional smashed up car I see still driving around.

 

Did they put new panles on all the way back to the bed? You got more pics?

 

Some serious hail damage going on here!

 

Insurance companies don't owe diminished value on a first party claim (vehicles they insure) they only owe on third party claims (vehicles their insured's run into) for the most part. There are certain states including Ohio that there is no diminished value laws at all. The insurance company owes to get the vehicle back to "pre loss condition" as defined by the state department of insurance.

 

wow.....

hmmm...how much cash are we talking. personally, i'd be tempted to pocket the cash and drive the dinged up truck.

 

I have seen worse, there are hailchasers that travel the country and do paintless dent repair, we had our entire new car inventory look like your truck and did not lose one vehicle. If you lived here, I have the hook up, can't help ya in AZ though. The guy I know does the dent repair on the presidents helicopter. A good dent guy is worth his wait in gold. The last thing you want to do is repaint, you will lose a lot of value. Try and find out if there are going to be any hail chasers coming to town. Your insurance company should know.

 

we had a small hail store here. about a day later the "contractors" were all out like cock roachs.

car dealers were having hail damage sales. bet there were some cheap cars.

 

Yea our dealership was on the news yesterday....advertising half off the cars. Anyone need a cheap new Nissan?

 

Hail hit my MazdaSpeed3 a couple of years ago and it had less than 5,000 miles. First couple of PDR shops went around pointing out things they couldn't fix. I feel your pain. I even took my car to the dealer just to see how they'd trade for a new one. Thankfully, someone pointed me to a PDR storm chaser that's home is in my area. He brought it in and started pointing out dents I hadn't even noticed (way over 500 dents in my roof alone), continued to examine panels for about 10 minutes, looked up and said, "I can make this look new again"...and he did! PDR is all about experience so don't rush to get it fixed. Ask around and allow several shops to look at it. I kid you not, the roof of my car actually looked better when he finished than it did before the storm damage. He even did me a favor by keeping the number of dents reported in the roof under the value at which the insurance would have said to cut out and replace it. Also, like I said he was pointing out dents that I didn't see and neither did the adjuster. He worked with the insurance to increase the value of the claim to cover everything.

They chase storms so they may actually be in or headed to AZ to fix damaged vehicles. Just in case the company was Dent Pros, Inc. and the owner is James Love. 620-230-5446. I didn't know the guy before my damage and haven't talked to him since but I know if I ever have another dent that hasn't damaged the paint I will be calling James! It was a HUGE relief walking into his shop and seeing my car in perfect condition.

A link to my story as it unfolded on the Mazda forum: http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=107004.msg2222489#msg2222489

 

talked to my insurance this morning. got an appt with the adjuster in a couple weeks cuz theyre so backed up. he will cut me a check right there and then if there is more damage than they thought it was then they will cut another check. they will pay for a rental up to $1000 and cut a seperate check for dimished value. so far this makes me happy.....just gotta wait to see what the amounts are

 

Hey Brad,
We were out of town and had the other cars in the garage so the Tacoma took a beating, not as bad as yours but I have been wondering if it is worth getting the insurance involved.
I have about 20 hits after a quick look over.
Mostly hood and roof.
Curious how much your insurance guy offers.
Keep us posted and good luck.