Hail dented your car in a North Texas storm: coverage, repair options and first steps

Coverage and repair, in brief

Hail damage to a car is usually covered by the comprehensive part of an auto policy, not collision, and your comprehensive deductible applies; the Texas Department of Insurance lists hail among the things comprehensive typically covers. If you carry only liability coverage, damage to your own car is generally not covered. The repair depends on how many dents there are, how deep they are and whether the paint or glass is broken, and ranges from paintless dent repair to conventional body work and panel replacement. Photograph the damage, report it to your insurer promptly and get an in-person estimate from an established local shop.

We at ACE Body & Frame repair storm damage alongside collision work, and after every major storm we see the same questions. This guide answers them in the order they usually come up, from the night of the storm to the day you pick the car up. It is general information from a repair shop's point of view; for questions about your specific policy, talk to your agent.

What hail actually does to a vehicle

Hail is solid ice that forms inside thunderstorm updrafts, and it hits harder than its size suggests. NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory considers hail severe once it reaches about one inch across, roughly the size of a quarter, and notes that hail can damage cars and that wind-driven hail can break side windows.

On a vehicle, the damage concentrates on horizontal surfaces: the roof, hood, trunk lid and the tops of fenders. Roof rails and the edges of panels are especially hard to repair because the metal is stiffer and the dents are sharper there. Plastic trim, mirror housings, light lenses, sunroofs and windshields can crack. Paint can chip at the center of a dent, which exposes metal and changes the repair method. Even if a car looks fine from a few feet away, angled light often reveals dozens of shallow dents.

What to do in the first few days after the storm

Hail storms tend to damage thousands of vehicles at once, so the owners who move promptly and keep good records usually have the smoothest claims. You do not need to be an expert. You need photos, a claim number and a shop that will inspect the car properly.

Better still is avoiding the damage. Hail is a familiar part of storm season in North Texas, and storms can build and arrive quickly. When severe weather is in the forecast, move vehicles into a garage, a covered parking structure or under any solid cover you can find, and do not leave them under trees that can drop limbs. Businesses with fleets can save a great deal by having a plan for where trucks and vans go when a warning is issued, because one storm over an open lot can put a whole fleet out of service at once.

• Photograph every panel, the glass and the roof from several angles, ideally in soft daylight
• Cover broken glass or a cracked sunroof to keep water out, and avoid driving with impaired visibility
• Report the damage to your insurer as soon as you can and write down the claim number
• Note the date and approximate time of the storm and where the car was parked
• Avoid quick fixes or pop-up repair offers until you have an in-person estimate
• Schedule an estimate with an established shop that has a permanent address

Which part of your policy pays for hail

Auto policies are built from several coverages, and only some of them pay for damage to your own car. The Texas Department of Insurance explains that collision coverage pays to repair or replace your car after an accident, while comprehensive pays when the car is damaged by something other than a collision, and its guide lists hail, fire, theft, flood, flying gravel and hitting an animal among the losses comprehensive typically covers. A deductible applies to comprehensive claims, and it may be a different amount than your collision deductible.

Liability coverage, which Texas requires, pays for damage you cause to other people, not damage to your vehicle. Owners of older vehicles sometimes drop comprehensive to save on premiums and only discover the gap after a storm. If you are not sure what you carry, check your declarations page or ask a licensed agent such as Aaron Husman, who handles property and casualty insurance. Knowing your deductible before the estimate helps you decide whether a claim makes sense.

How hail damage gets assessed

Hail estimates are built panel by panel. The estimator counts dents on each panel and records their size and whether the paint is broken, usually under bright, angled light that makes shallow dents visible. Glass, sunroofs, moldings, lenses and mirror housings are checked separately. On some vehicles, interior trim has to be removed to reach the back of a roof panel, and that labor belongs on the estimate too.

Because shallow dents are easy to miss, insurer estimates written quickly in a parking lot or from photos often grow once the car is under shop lights. The Texas Department of Insurance notes that if damage turns out to be worse than the adjuster first thought, you or the repair shop can ask the adjuster to increase the estimate. We document hail damage with photos and a computerized estimate and work with your insurer on any additions.

Repair methods, and how the right one is chosen

Paintless dent repair is a technique in which specialized tools are used from behind the panel to massage the metal back into shape, leaving the factory paint untouched. It works well for shallow, rounded dents where the paint is unbroken and the technician can reach the back of the panel. It is less suitable for sharp dents, dents on stiff edges and roof rails, and anywhere the paint has cracked.

Conventional repair is used where paintless repair is not possible: the panel is reshaped, filled where needed, primed and refinished, with the new paint blended into the surrounding panels. When a panel has too many dents, or dents too severe to repair well, replacing it is often the better choice; roofs, hoods and trunk lids are the panels most often replaced after severe hail. Broken glass is replaced, and we handle glass replacement in-house along with body and paint work. Many hail repairs combine several methods on one car.

Please resist the urge to pull hail dents yourself. Suction tools and glue pullers sold online rarely work on dozens of small dents and can stretch the metal or lift paint, which turns a repairable panel into one that needs refinishing. Our guide on which dents you can fix yourself explains where the line is.

When hail damage totals a vehicle

Severe hail can damage an older car enough that the insurer decides not to repair it. The Texas Department of Insurance explains that insurers pay to repair or replace a vehicle only up to its actual cash value, so when the cost of repairing every damaged panel and piece of glass approaches what the car is worth, the insurer may declare it a total loss.

If that happens, the decision and the settlement are between you and your insurer, and your agent can explain your options. What a shop can do is make sure the estimate is complete and accurate, so the decision is based on the real repair cost rather than a quick count in a parking lot.

Be careful with storm-season pop-up repair operations

After a large storm, temporary repair operations often appear in parking lots and rented spaces, sometimes with flyers on windshields and offers to cover your deductible. Some do good work. Others are gone by the time a problem shows up, along with any guarantee. An offer to waive or absorb a deductible deserves extra caution, and it is worth asking your insurer or agent about before you agree.

The Federal Trade Commission's auto repair advice applies here: get a written estimate that describes the work, parts and labor, ask what the warranty covers and get it in writing, and keep a record of every transaction. Choose a shop with a permanent address, a history in your area and someone who will answer the phone next month.

Why repairs take longer after a big storm

When a storm damages many vehicles at once, every part of the process gets busier: adjusters have more inspections, shops have more cars, and suppliers see more orders for the same roofs, hoods and windshields. Reporting promptly and getting your estimate scheduled early helps keep you near the front of the line.

Hail repairs move through the same stages as any collision repair, from estimate and approval to parts, body work, paint and reassembly, and our guide on how long a collision repair takes explains each one. If you want to understand why the estimate came out where it did, the guide on what drives a collision repair bill breaks down parts, labor and paint.

Get the damage documented and estimated

The sooner hail damage is properly documented, the smoother the claim tends to go. Bring the vehicle to our shop in Balch Springs, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with your claim number if you have one. We will inspect every panel and the glass, write a free computerized estimate and work with your insurer from there.

We accept all insurance claims, offer rental car service and towing, and repair cars, trucks, fleet vehicles and RVs for drivers and businesses across southeast Dallas County. Every repair is satisfaction guaranteed.

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