Hail Damage...worth it?

[T4RBoarder]

Story in a nutshell. Found the perfect Black 03 SE V8 4WD locally (other models 100+ miles away) Test drove it and it was a dream, a lot better than other ones I have drove. Got back and found that there were hail dents all over the roof but no marks on the other panels that appeared to be original (VIN sticker). Is it worth it to buy and fix or should I run away fast? How much does PDR typically cost?

 

[Rowan611]

Story in a nutshell. Found the perfect Black 03 SE V8 4WD locally (other models 100+ miles away) Test drove it and it was a dream, a lot better than other ones I have drove. Got back and found that there were hail dents all over the roof but no marks on the other panels that appeared to be original (VIN sticker). Is it worth it to buy and fix or should I run away fast? How much does PDR typically cost?

You can get those popped out pretty easily; but it depends on how bad they really are.

 

[4boer]

If it's just the roof and not the hood....nobody under 6'2" will even see it. Tell tall folks your a storm chaser!

 

[Kwik8608]

I was at my girlfriends house one night and only her street had hail damage. Well at first it didn't look like my car had dents, but the hail was definetly golf ball size so I knew it was too good to be true. Sure enough, my car looked like swiss cheese, and so did her dads new G6 and her sisters BRAND NEW Scion tC. Turns out they both paid about $1,200 to fix there's. Mine turned out to be a little more than $2k (Mind you, this was with my Jetta that was a lease and was being turned in). Not all of the $2k was from hail damage, a few other things had to be replaced, but it was probably like $1,600 due to hail damage. On the plus side, my new trunk lid came debadged

 

[T4RBoarder]

I was at my girlfriends house one night and only her street had hail damage. Well at first it didn't look like my car had dents, but the hail was definetly golf ball size so I knew it was too good to be true. Sure enough, my car looked like swiss cheese, and so did her dads new G6 and her sisters BRAND NEW Scion tC. Turns out they both paid about $1,200 to fix there's. Mine turned out to be a little more than $2k (Mind you, this was with my Jetta that was a lease and was being turned in). Not all of the $2k was from hail damage, a few other things had to be replaced, but it was probably like $1,600 due to hail damage. On the plus side, my new trunk lid came debadged

was that the price from a body shop or PDR?

 

[Kwik8608]

Body shop. My girlfriends sister and dad took their cars to the dealership and they quoted them at about roughly $1,200 each, which includes a new hood. So where I took mine I think the hail repair was a little more expensive (for a VW) than their dealership quote, but I also needed a couple more things to be fixed as well. Hail alone for me was going to be about $1,300 I believe.

 

[Kwik8608]

How many dents are there? And are there dents on any seems? My Jetta probably had a good 125 dents all over the car. If you only have a few on the roof, you could get a ding king from an autoparts store. I used to have one when I had a 1996 Sebring Convt. ( :bash: ) and it worked pretty well, except on the seems.

 

[T4RSpectreSix]

Can't do more than speculate on the up close and personal view of the dents, but from that picture i'd say that's a pretty slick looking 4Runner. I think the black with cladding is a nice combo, look's kinda ballsy yet refined, I dunno, just looks unique, i like it.

 

[Falls]

Tell the dealer to have them fixed and you'll take it , otherwise tell them to knock another grand or so off. I'm sure if the roof was damaged so was the hood and was either fixed or replaced. Also check to see if windshield was replaced. Ask to talk to prev. owner before you buy it.

Just a few thoughts.

 

[T4RBoarder]

well once I get rid of my truck this week I'm gonna have a buddy inspect it and while it's there have a PDR guy come and give me an estimate...if everything checks out in the inspection/carfax is clean, I will just take that price off and hope he will take it. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't though, probably will want to try to sell it to someone who doesn't notice.

kwik, I would say there are at least 30 dents on the roof and range in size.

I wish I wasn't as tall or anal about appearance so I could just buy this and never noticed or cared

 

[Kwik8608]

I don't know if you're really gonna need to take the whole $1200 off cuz that price also includes a new hood, which you don't need. I would definetly get him to bring the price down tho.

 

[Fo_SheeZy]

If you do get that 4Runner, I would get all that gray plastic painted black to match the rest.

 

[blaniac22]

Tell the dealer to have them fixed and you'll take it , otherwise tell them to knock another grand or so off. I'm sure if the roof was damaged so was the hood and was either fixed or replaced. Also check to see if windshield was replaced. Ask to talk to prev. owner before you buy it.

Just a few thoughts.

I agree - I purchased a Camry a few years back with some wind damage....in the California High Desert there are routinely 30-50 mph winds at times. Typically, person opens door, door catches wind, and damages the hinges and or the door.

The price was excellent and the car had 15K miles on it. Part of the deal was to fix the door - which they gladly did. I still have the car 9 years and 150,000 miles later.

 

[T4RBoarder]

If you do get that 4Runner, I would get all that gray plastic painted black to match the rest.

I would love to have an all one color 4Runner but I can't afford an 04(HUGE price diff) and I feel like painting the plastic would be really expensive?

 

[pipspeak]

I'd hazard a guess that the roof is the only panel with damage because the other panels that could be replaced were replaced. Ask yourself this... how often do you look at your roof? I'm 6' and I only notice what's going on up on my roof when I'm washing the car. Any other time I simply don't notice it.

Pulling out the dents is an option but when steel dents it stretches slightly and will never go back to being totally flat. So pulling out a lot of dents might make the roof look only slightly better. If you can get a bt more knocked off the price I'd live with it, unless you're very tall and will have to look at it every day!

 

[Canuckcarguy]

I would try to negotiate a discount on the truck based on the hail damage, and then never bother fixing it. Really, does it matter if the roof has some hail damage?

If you really want it fixed, shop it around to the PDR guys. I've had PDR many times, and if you have a talented technician, the results are excellent. I've had even seams pulled out, no problem. I would expect to pay roughly $400 to repair an entire roof.