This blog will explain the auto hail damage claim repair process and explain delays. Typically, we don’t like to take in a car until we are ready to work on it. We differ from other shops that will take the car and stick it in a lot for weeks with no movement. We try to eliminate those types of delays without your car as much as possible.
1. File your car insurance auto hail damage claim first, always, and get the initial estimate (drive-thru, at your house, etc).
2. Schedule a time with us to bring in your estimate and have our techs look at the hail damage on the car.
The purpose of this is not to take your car in for hail repair (yet), and it’s not to write an estimate. What we are doing here, is we are going to look at the hail damage on the car and compare what we see to the original car insurance estimate, and try to get an idea of what would need to be repaired by conventional bodywork (replace and repaint a hood, etc), and what will be able to get paintless dent repair.
3. We will then give you an appointment date to drop off the car for turn in (you should have your rental, if needed, set up for this date).
4. We will then file any hail damage insurnace supplements on your behalf with your insurance company.
The reason for this process is that every car is different. Auto body shops can slow the process down, as they are backed up (they are doing all this auto hail repair work PLUS normal day-to-day operations with standard collisions). Also, waiting for insurance adjusters to approve supplemental claims also slows the process down. Almost no claims are ever correct on the first estimate; it needs a supplement 99.99% of the time, so we are always waiting for the adjuster at one point or another. The initial estimates are done quickly and in sub-optimal lighting conditions, which is why they are always low.
5. WE REPAIR YOUR AUTO HAIL DAMAGE USING PAINTLESS DENT REPAIR AND/OR CONVENTIONAL BODY WORK.
A car that is all paintless dent repair work, with no damaged trim (waiting for parts, etc), we can usually get in and get complete ASAP. Heavily damaged hoods and trunks typically need to be replaced (it’s cheaper for the insurance company to pay for a new hood and paint than it is to pay us labor to fix every dent - important to note that sometimes we can agree to fix a part with paintless dent repair that’s been written for replacement without replacing, it’s just that the insurance company will pay a maximum for that part), the wait time on those is less than if the roof needs to be replaced.
Hoods and trunks can be ordered and painted on stands in the corner of a paint booth, whereas if the roof needs to be replaced, it needs to be cut off and welded back on—it’s major surgery. Hoods and trunks think of it as going to the medical center for a stent in your heart. Getting a roof replaced is like getting on the waiting list for a transplant.
Depending on how much work needs to be fixed by conventional body shop work, how much paintless dent repair we can do (we always try to minimize body shop work), especially roof replacements, the time you are without your car and the process will take will dictate the length of time.
Some insurance companies also take longer and delay the process. State Farm and Allstate are the two worst for these delays, typically.
Other delays could include the type of vehicle. For example, there have been longer waits for Toyota parts lately compared to domestic vehicles.
The actual paintless dent repair work we do is the quickest part of the process.
