So there was a bit of hail outside the office this afternoon:
bit.ly/NQWFh6 (links to Leicester Mercury article with lots of images)
All the cars parked outside work have got dents in them from the hailstones, including my Mondeo. It's difficult to count the dents because the rain carried a lot of sandy dust in it and has now dried, but every panel is affected - roof, bonnet, tailgate, wings, doors, even quarter panels and windscreen pillars. I'm going to grab a bite to eat then wash the car so I can have a good look at the damage.
Should I get it repaired? Who by, dent man or bodyshop? I've had the car for 16 months and was planning to keep it 5 years, mechanically it's tip top and until yesterday the bodywork was fine too. Obviously it's now worth less with all the dents, so will I be able to claim a cash sum equivalent to the difference and continue to drive it as it is? It's covered fully comp, protected NCB, £150 excess.
There's always someone worse off than yourself though. One of our customers up the road has got the same problem with twenty Bentleys, and another in Melton Mowbray has got a lot of dented Land and Range Rovers, many with smashed windows and lights too.
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blimey your not wrong dave, i was in loughboro this afternoon coming back from the east mids airport.... im sure the car floated down the A6 for 200 yards just past the ring o bells pub junction...quite scarey the swmbo has it on her galaxy 2 ..il try and upload it . ive never seen so much rain
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Same here in Leeds sandy dust covered the car looks worse been red.
Humid as hell today 23c rain forecast for the next few days. :-(
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We had the heavy dust in the rain yesterday, today was very hot and very humid 28c and 80%
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Yeah, same in Northampton where car had been on station car park all day. Xantia's screenwash pump is u/s so had to drive home peering through the sand.
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Now it's clean and shiny, the total of distortions, dings and dents is 161. On the roof there are 68 strike marks alone.
About 30 of those are significant enough to warrant repair if they were on their own.
I got a soaking twice today, 6am near Melton (19°C) and 11am in Nuneaton (24°C). Didn't see any hail or floods myself, been down the M1 as far as sunny 29°C Luton.
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Unfortunately I think that be a write off if you go through insurance Dave
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>> Unfortunately I think that be a write off if you go through insurance Dave
That's what I'm thinking too.
Would the ins co pay out and sell the car back to me as it is? You can't see the dents from the inside. Except for the ones on the bonnet, you can see those :(
After everything I've read on here I'm wary of even asking the ins co's advice, in case the premium goes up anyway. Although I've paid enough in premiums over the years to be "due" a bit back, I reckon.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Thu 28 Jun 12 at 21:19
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Unless things have changed, you have the right to buy it back as salvage, it might be given Cat D status though.
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>> Now it's clean and shiny, the total of distortions, dings and dents is 161. On
>> the roof there are 68 strike marks alone.
>>
>> About 30 of those are significant enough to warrant repair if they were on their
>> own.
Why not contact one of those mobile dent doctors for a quote. See if they're true to their word about it being something like £50 a panel. The bulk of the fee is the call out charge, btw.
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Friend of the Wife's above Watford somewhere has every panel dented apparently. Does insurance cover this??
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Yes, but again it might be a write off.
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At 4pm saw a nice break in the clouds so took the bike out nice pedal for 3 miles then wham the flippin clouds came in and heavy rain, was soaked but was hot with it so quite nice.!!
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Are we talking very large hailstones here?
What's wrong with a sort of stippled effect finish on your Eurobox anyway? Please post some photos. Made of 0.5mm zinc are they?
As long as the doors still shut and the windows aren't broken, what is everyone whining about? They're only cars for God's sake.
Wimps. Tchah!
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>> Please post some photos
Try this, never uploaded pics to view on here before so fingers crossed:
sdrv.ms/MC7kuO
They don't show up well in photos, but the video footage gives a better idea. Not catastrophic as you can see, but annoying all the same.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Thu 28 Jun 12 at 22:36
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My god!
That video of your roof's a 100 meg!
Some of us have a 10 gig/month limit.
Couldn't you have just taken a photo?
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>> My god!
>>
>> That video of your roof's a 100 meg!
>>
>> Some of us have a 10 gig/month limit.
>>
>> Couldn't you have just taken a photo?
He did.
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ive got unlimited d/l ( 40 gig fair use) for £7.25 month
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>>ive got unlimited d/l ( 40 gig fair use) for £7.25 month>>
That is NOT unlimited...:-) Furthermore, for £10.50 a month I get the same 40GB limit, plus free AnyTime UK and AnyTime International phone calls..:-))
We got the cars covered in a messy layer of dust up here in the North West as well but, fortunately, a few hours later the heavens absolutely opened for several hours and washed it all off......! Not seen such prolonged heavy rain for years.
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>>Not catastrophic as you can see, but annoying all the same<<
That's incredible, I would never have imagined hailstones could caused damage to a vehicle, like they clearly did.
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>> That's incredible, I would never have imagined hailstones could caused damage to a vehicle,
I can well imagine it. The terminal velocity of a falling hailstone the size/weight of a golf ball would be in the region of 31 m/sec or 69 mph. My car has a dent on the bonnet caused by a stone which I doubt was as big or as heavy as a golf ball.
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I'd hate to out walking in a hailstorm like that :(
The weather (it is July on Sunday folks!) wont improve until the jet stream shifts its butt North of GB:
maps.wunderground.com/data/640x480/2xeu_jt.gif
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" The terminal velocity of a falling hailstone the size/weight of a golf ball would be in the region of 31 m/sec or 69 mph".
How do you arrive at that calculation?
Shome mishtake?
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>> " The terminal velocity of a falling hailstone the size/weight of a golf ball would
>> be in the region of 31 m/sec or 69 mph".
>>
>> How do you arrive at that calculation?
By interpolating the size of a golf ball (approximately 43 mm diameter) between the terminal velocity of different size hailstones quoted in Wikipedia. "A hail stone of 1 centimetre (0.39 in) in diameter falls at a rate of 9 metres per second (20 mph), while stones the size of 8 centimetres (3.1 in) in diameter fall at a rate of 48 metres per second (110 mph)." tinyurl.com/ynxty2
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Where's number cruncher when you want him?
Surely, all objects fall at G, er 32.2 feet per second per second, until other forces slow or prevent that acceleration, e.g. air resistance etc.
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Yes, you obtain terminal velocity when the aerodynamic drag equals the weight
mg = 1/2 rho Cd A v^2
where m is the mass of the hailstone, g the accleration due to gravity, rho the air density, Cd, the drag coefficient, A, the projected area of the hailstone, and v, the terminal velocity.
re-arranging gives
v = sqrt( 2 m g / (rho Cd A))
So, the mass of the hailstone is proportional to the diameter cubed, while its area is proportional to the diameter squared. Therefore, the terminal velocity is proportional to the square root of diameter. This means that a linear interpolation would not be valid, but, one based upon the square root relationship would.
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>> This means that a linear interpolation would not be valid, >>
Also, I believe both the mass and the diameter/shape of a hailstone change as it falls.
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I think the shape forms pretty rapidly and early in its falling stage, but the mass varies both up and down!
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>> mass varies both up and down!
>>
hence the word "change".
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>> >> This means that a linear interpolation would not be valid, >>
>>
>> Also, I believe both the mass and the diameter/shape of a hailstone change as it
>> falls.
My estimation of the terminal velocity of a hailstone the size of a golf ball was intended as a rough approximation only.
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>> estimation, intended, rough, approximation,
>>
If that was your intention, then as a pedant, you should have made that absolutely clear. ;-)
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>> >> estimation, intended, rough, approximation,
>> >>
>>
>> If that was your intention, then as a pedant, you should have made that absolutely
>> clear. ;-)
Trust you to notice!
:-D
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Is that an African or European swallow hailstone?
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Years ago, my company car got badly damaged by hailstones. It was in Brazil mind you. Never seen that sort of damage here before. Wow ! My current car is covered in sand though.
Here's a pic and some details of the car I had the use of in Brazil. It ran on sugar cane alcohol. Exactly the same colour and spec as the one in the photo...
It had a vinyl roof so that protected the paint but the bonnet and boot lid were left with pockmarks. brazilian garage sorted it out for not much but to be fair nothing which involved mainly labour cost that much there back then...
www.automobile-catalog.com/img/pictosm/ford_brasil/landau.jpg
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Thu 28 Jun 12 at 21:32
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Error 503 or something Humph.
Post a good link. I can't wait.
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Looks a nice cruiser for a large country with plenty of sugar cane spirit available.
But where is all this hail damage?
I reckon it's wholly imaginary or criminal, like whiplash injury.
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Will the car be faster now though Dave? Like golf balls, iykwim. ;)
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Not faster, but straighter.
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>> Only if you spin it.
Depends on the driver.
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>> heavy dust in the rain yesterday,
Yes, we got some of that Sahara stuff too.
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You could just ignore it for now Dave but next winter, just wait for a really really cold day and chuck a bucket of hot water over it. The dings'll just pop out.
Possibly
(Probably not in fact but you could say that to anyone who might want to buy it...)
:-)
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Seems like the hailstorm was quite intense from Hinckley across to north Leicester and Melton Mowbray - makes me think the ins co will have more than one claim from the same storm, so will be more likely to pay out. A quick Google finds discussion on hail damage claims from this storm on p i s t o n heads, mon ey savin g exp ert and the Grauniad websites already.
It looks like a lot of car owners have already claimed - my last insurance claim was 20 years ago when I was a teenager so I had no idea you're supposed to call them before the rain has even stopped.
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Yes, wow, those are real dents, lucky the windows escaped eh? Sorry for scoffing like that!
Is there any sort of comprehensive insurance that would cover it - an act of God so to speak - or does it just have to become an amusing feature of the jalopy?
Repairs to as new standard would be enormously expensive seems to me.
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Wow indeed - surprised people out in the open weren't injured (or perhaps they were?).
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A tree came down on a passing car about half a mile away and closed the A607 while the occupant(s?) were extracted and treated. There are lots of pictures of much nicer cars than mine sporting similar dimples and with broken windscreens and lights too. Lots of talk of write-offs.
My car was one of 8 in our car park, all damaged. The windscreen chip repair I had done last year held out though :)
i will try the insurance in the morning, what I'd like is a few quid now to offset the difficulty in selling the car when I've finished with it in a few years' time. Whether that's what I'll get, though...?
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 29 Jun 12 at 00:31
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>> chuck a bucket of hot water over it
That'lll probably do for the windows what the hailstones didn't :)
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Wow - I looked at your pictures, that's nasty.... I was going to make flippant comments about the fact it's not particularly humid or hot in the UK but feel that would be inappropriate now.
I hope your insurer can help, that would really upset me if it happened to my car.
We have a Typhoon warning in place and will be taping our apartment windows tonight if it gives any small consolation, also it's already 33C and 80% humidity at 9am..... So, just like the UK we're getting a Typhoon in time for our bank holiday weekend - coupled with the now traditional protests, new Chief Exec and President Hu visiting it's going to be an interesting weekend.
Last edited by: idle_chatterer on Fri 29 Jun 12 at 01:58
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Sympathy to you Dave.
I had my Accord Tourer written off Cat C four years ago when I got caught in the Northumberland floods .
My insurance company LV were very good and gave me top dollar , enough to buy a suitable replacement, I bought the Tourer back and sold it on to my local independent garage owner who knew and had serviced the car. He put a new engine in and his wife still uses it.
I would see what the insurance company say - you might be pleasantly surprised.
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Commiserations Dave and oilburner. I hope that your respective insurers sort matters out for you with minimal fuss and bother.
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Thanks. So far mine has been very good considering they've been inundated with calls! Fingers crossed on a decent repair, or a good settlement if it comes to that.
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We had some fairly serious stuff over here a couple of years gone. Hailstones the size of tennis balls.
A few weeks later I was looking at cars for a mate and in the workshop of one of the places we went was a new MINI that looked as if someone had been all over it with a 2lb ball-pein hammer.
We stood there, puzzled, until the lightbulb went on: "Ah. Remember that hail we had......?"
I'll bet that one was a write-off too.
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Dave, you're not the only one. Mine's been wrecked too. My car was in Hinckley yesterday for some diagnostics at a nameless dealer, looked at it this morning through the dusty murk covering the paintwork (having no idea, nobody mentioned it at the dealers) and saw it covered in dents.
I've only had the car 5 days!!
I tried to count them all and lost track after 50... No smashed glass, but nearly every panel has some minor damage, with the worst on the bonnet and roof.
Annoyingly, I don't even live anywhere near Hinckley.
Supposed to be picking up a new caravan with the car on Saturday (hence why I bought it), and that plan is out of the window.
Hey ho. All part of life's rich pageant eh?
Last edited by: oilburner on Fri 29 Jun 12 at 11:54
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Got caught in a big hailstorm some years whilst out cycling. Being bombarded with these things was actually quite painful. One landed on my knuckle and actually broke the skin. I eventually managed to take cover under under a bus shelter. It sounded like the end of the world.
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Just had a description of this from a pal who lives at Barrow on Soar. He didn't get such bad hailstones but said it went dark enough to put the street lights on before bucketing down, then it brightened up almost as quickly.
I've seen it once in the 60s when I was at school - darkness followed by ice golf balls - and never since. I suppose if it was a regular thing they'd make cars out of something else...
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One of the "chaps" in the pub last night was telling us of the laugh his brother had had, watching his next door neighbor`s stood out on kitchen chairs, holding a blanket stretched tight over the top of their car to protect it! - whilst being severely stung themselves by the hail-stones!!
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>> holding a blanket stretched tight over the top of their car to protect it!
I would imagine just laying it over the bodywork would have provided enough protection.
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act of god, not covered....? cant you pop the dents out with a hot air gun instead of putting a claim in and pushing everyones premiums up
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>> act of god, not covered....?
Its covered. Its comprehensive insurance.
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whats not covered then? just riots and civil war?
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>> whats not covered then? just riots and civil war?
>>
War, invasion, act of foreign enemy, hostilities or a warlike operation or operations (whether war be declared or not), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection, civil commotion assuming the proportions of or amounting to an uprising, military or usurped power.
and
Terrorism
caused or occasioned by any person(s) or group(s) of persons in whole or in part for political, religious, ideological or similar purposes, or is claimed to be caused or occasioned in whole or in part for such purposes
and
Nuclear radiation or Biological contamination.
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Yep - No use filling in a claim form if a nuclear weapon takes out your pride and joy. Still it shouldn't affect your No Claims Discount.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Fri 29 Jun 12 at 14:23
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I think it might affect your premium tho. High risk area and all that
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what constitutes a riot? 3 people jumping on some ones car? i was read the riot act in 1981 during the 'riots' we were a group of 4 just making our way to the pub...the coppers were massive...very intimidating...they ran over one bloke in a side street cause they changed the colour of the transit vans from white to a an invisible blue
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Government is extremely reluctant to declare riot. They have to foot the bill.
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>> act of god, not covered....? cant you pop the dents out with a hot air
>> gun instead of putting a claim in and pushing everyones premiums up
>>
You haven't seen them. It's like someone's spent a good weekend practicising their golf swing against my car. :(
Sorry about your premium, but isn't this what insurance is for?
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i was at sileby train station ( one down from barrow) and all the station lights came on , it looked like a winters evening but was infact midday
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"I was at Sileby train station "
I feel as much sympathy for you as for those whose cars were damaged!
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Dealer to pay, oilburner?
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Fri 29 Jun 12 at 13:54
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Dave,
You Have Mail.
Matt
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>> Dealer to pay, oilburner?
>>
Dunno. Could they be responsible? It's not like they did anything to it. Besides, I wasn't dealing directly with the main dealer (sent in via the dealer I bought the car from), so it could be messy legally?
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Trying to make a dealer responsible might just be taking it a bit far!!!!!
If you can secure a decent market value to have it written off, then agree an attractive salvage cost, you could end up nicely in pocket and drive around in a very cheap motor on Cat D, throw it away when you've finished with it. Depends on the age of the car and how you feel about it, I see them in France with this kind of damage regularly. Wouldn't bother me personally.
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...so it could be messy legally?...
Almost certainly, not least because the repair/write-off bill is likely to come to a few quid.
Had the car fell off their ramp, you would reasonably expect to be put back into the position you were before it did so.
This may come down to whether the car was 'in their care' or not.
Probably was, but it wouldn't be had you, for example, left it outside the premises to be attended to the next day.
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Yeah, you're spot on. I've just got some legal advice which basically agrees with you both.
The nub is: did the dealer act negligently? The answer here being no, so they're not liable.
The end result is that it's mine/my insurers problem, and the fact it was on the dealer's car park at the time is neither here nor there.
And yes, Baz, the thought does occur...better not say too much now as it's in the hands of the insurers...
Last edited by: oilburner on Fri 29 Jun 12 at 18:23
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>> better not say too much now as it's in the hands of the insurers...
I phoned my insurers this morning just after 9.00am. The first thing the woman did after the ID checks was tell me off for not calling as soon as I'd found the damage! How was I supposed to know they're open 24-hours? I haven't made an insurance claim in over 20 years.
She then told me not to claim, as it will put next year's premium up. When I asked her what to do instead, she sighed and told me to get a quote for the work and call them back. No idea where my nearest bodyshop is, whether they're any good, or if they're open on Saturdays.
Too tired to investigate it right now, I'll have a look first thing in the morning before I pick the lad up for the weekend.
EDIT: Popped in to ASDA Thurmaston after work. Approx 1/7 of the cars in the carpark had hailstone dents all over.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 29 Jun 12 at 23:20
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Sympathy to those who've had their cars damaged, but how much loss of value would there be by the time they come to sell them?
Think how much easier it's going to be to find your car amongst loads of others in a car park.
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>> Sympathy to those who've had their cars damaged, but how much loss of value would
>> there be by the time they come to sell them?
>>
On my car (which I literally bought last Saturday), the damage has hit the value by around £2-3k. I paid £12k for it. Who knows how much the number will be when I come to sell, but seeing as I only keep a car for 9 months on average, it's likely to hurt a lot.
For me, it's definitely worth claiming, and thankfully, insurance co has been very good so far.
Last edited by: oilburner on Sat 30 Jun 12 at 09:07
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...I only keep a car for 9 months on average...
Take pics of it now.
If a buyer asks why it's had a respray, you will be able to explain.
Last edited by: Iffy on Sat 30 Jun 12 at 09:30
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Good point, thanks for the tip! :)
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give us a clue who this insurer is, so we can all avoid them and their utterly helpful customer service.
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>> give us a clue who this insurer is
I couldn't do that, but I've only given them One Call so far.
>> how much loss of value would there be by the time they come to sell them?
I've had a look on AT and ebay to gauge the market rates. It cost £2.8k with 112k miles last spring, now it's done 135k similar cars are selling at £1700-£2000. Damaged / blown up repairable examples are around £700. I was expecting to keep it 5 years / 200k and get £300-400 for it afterwards.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Fri 29 Jun 12 at 23:38
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>She then told me not to claim, as it will put next year's premium up.
That's exactly what I was told when we got home from holiday last month to find most of the kitchen ceiling hanging down and half an inch of water on the floor.
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I suppose if nobody ever claimed for anything because the insurer told you not to - they'd make even more money.
I can see if I had a bit of a clapped out or older car I might not be bothered. If I had a nearly new £29k car then I might want it sorting.
If the damage to Dave's Mondeo was on my car I'm not sure what would happen. It's a lease/company car and I'd imagine my company would pay to put it right. But if every panel is dented....
But if the dents are due to large hail stones.... maybe these dent people really can pull them out? But at what cost?
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Perhaps the dents are a bit too big and far apart, but looking on the bright side they might theoretically improve the cars' aerodynamics by creating a 'boundary layer' at speed.
Anyone checked what their battered jalopy will do yet?
:o}
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I like your thinking... golf balls have dimples for aerodynamic purposes.
I shall go out and dent my car and see if I can go faster than the official top speed of 141mph right away.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sat 30 Jun 12 at 00:18
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I am all agog rtj. Don't get into trouble just to satisfy my curiosity though. Keep an eye open for blue lights and chaps apparently pointing pistols at you from the side of the road.
The dents by the way should be small, numerous and close together. Perhaps a small electric hammer would help.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Sat 30 Jun 12 at 00:21
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:-) Okay.
I have tyre pressure monitoring to spot when the stingers are deployed.
To keep scientific I will wreck the roof first and do a run. Then the bonnet... boot... wings, doors. etc.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sat 30 Jun 12 at 00:22
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To keep scientific I will wreck the roof first and do a run. Then the bonnet... boot... wings, doors. etc.
Excellent progress since the course, RTJ. Well done!
}:---)
As for learning to love the dents, those on horizontal panels will fill with rainwater and create their own micro-habitats. You might get carp in one, newts in another. With so many, you could fill some with sand to create hazards on your own mobile micro-golf course. Such potential!
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>> maybe these dent people really can pull them out?
I thought they generally massage them out from the other side of the panel using levers and the like.
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Pull them out was a figure of speech but for large ones they will pull them.
But when they quote per panel... they don't assume there a dozen dents per panel!
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>> I thought they generally massage them out from the other side of the panel
I'd like to see them do that on the tops of the wings and doors, the sides of the roof outside the drip rails, the tailgate panel above the back window and the bonnet where it's internally braced. I really don't think all the dents can ever be removed without wholesale panel replacement, or with a family size bucket of filler. If I were estimating my car I'd allow for a new roof skin, a new bonnet, a new tailgate, patches of filler all along both sides and virtually a full respray :(
>> they don't assume a dozen dents per panel!
68 on the roof, 41 on the bonnet, 26 on the tailgate and an average of 3 on every other panel.
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Sat 30 Jun 12 at 00:33
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Filler's awful. I think I would learn to love the dents.
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"I think I would learn to love the dents. "
That's where I'm at right now. I'm seriously considering withdrawing the insurance claim. Partially because I'm not exactly delighted about the idea of ripping the roof off and also because I'm not sure it's cost effective for me to have the repair done.
The original roof was "laser brazed" in the factory. A technique unique to the Mondeo Mk4 as far as I can tell. A replacement gets soldered in (whatever that means), which sounds not so great. Plus, I'm not keen on the idea of having the car interior gutted to do the job.
End result *might* be a car that looks OK (assuming the respray is good, I've never had an accident repair I've been happy with yet...) but is structurally compromised with an interior thrown back in haphazardly at 16:59 on a Friday when the tech is desperate for a pint. All that and around £1000 in personal losses from excess + increased premiums.
I'm thinking the dents are looking better and better for the long run.
After all, in 4-5 years time my car will be near worthless anyway. And then there's no better car to take to Tesco's than one that's already adorned with battle scars. :)
Last edited by: oilburner on Mon 2 Jul 12 at 10:57
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>
>> filler. If I were estimating my car I'd allow for a new roof skin,
As far as I am aware, a new roof skin is unobtainable.
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You've overlooked vinyl. Or alcantara. Small lawn?
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Remember this? How was it sorted? 30,000 VWs hail damaged at the Emden storage depot
tinyurl.com/d4oksod
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>> >
>> >> filler. If I were estimating my car I'd allow for a new roof skin,
>>
>>
>> As far as I am aware, a new roof skin is unobtainable.
>>
Apparently on the latest Mondeo (which I have) the roof panel is laser brazed in place, and Ford will only issue new roof panels to repair centres that have the equipment and a trained tech to solder a new panel. Last I heard there was only 12 of them in the country.
So it can be done, but no idea of cost.
On Dave's older mondeo I think they simply drill the spot welds out and weld a new roof in place?
Which makes it sound so easy... :)
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>> But if the dents are due to large hail stones.... maybe these dent people really
>> can pull them out? But at what cost?
>>
It depends. The insurance VDA guy who appraised my car said that it's easy enough to pull out individual dents, but when you have so many dents so close together it's another matter. On my roof I counted 30 seperate dents, and 20 on the bonnet. Only another dozen spread around the rest of the car.
He reckoned that the panel would likely distort with a large number of PDRs and so the best option is to replace. Also, when you have 60 plus dents to repair, I think there comes a point when it's much quicker and cheaper to replace the worst affected panels.
From what I've seen in the past, it appears to take at least 30 minutes to pull out a dent properly. Multiply that by 60...and with no certainty the end result will be any good...
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...On my roof I counted 30 seperate dents...
I'm sure we are all curious as to how this repair will be carried out.
Unless the car is a convertible, it's surely not possible to replace a roof, which means a new bodyshell, which I would have thought would make repair uneconomic.
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Back in the early 80s I knew a little second hand car business that bought written off Escort estates and re-shelled them. I suppose cars were much simpler then and he said after he'd done a couple it was fairly quick and simple. I'd rather have bought one of those than one that had been pulled straight and repaired.
Clearly for him to do that somebody had already decided that repair was uneconomic, even then.
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"it's surely not possible to replace a roof"
Not sure about that - picked up a nearly new MB B class last year which had had a large branch fall on roof producing a big v-shaped dent - MB buyer said it "would have to have a new roof". Also an A class which had been damaged on a transporter by deck being lowered onto it - new roof about £3000 said the dealer.
Just had a friend ring me whose neighbour's car damaged by hail in Thurmaston (Leics) on Thurs. Apparently a write off because of all dents - not an old car either, only about 3 years old, not sure of make/model.
P
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>>Unless the car is a convertible, it's surely not possible to replace a roof
I would've thought much of the structural integrity of a monocoque's in the roof. I'd want to see any car of mine supported on a jig before the roof's cut off.
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>> Unless the car is a convertible, it's surely not possible to replace a roof, .........
Here's how to do it. tinyurl.com/cu2y5ko
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>> it's surely not possible to replace a roof, .........
>> Here's how to do it.
I worked in a bodyshop 20 years ago. Saw it done then, if anything the Mondeo looks easier to do than cars did back then because of the recessed black roof trims.
Had a couple of quotes today, both of the sucking-the-teeth, swearing, comparing battle stories variety. Phoned my insurance company again too, this time they took all the details down and promised a loss adjuster would be in touch on Monday morning (as I phoned after 12.00pm today, and they only work until lunchtime on Saturdays).
I know I said about 20 Bentleys and 30-odd Range Rovers suffering damage from the storm, how about the Sandicliffe compound containing 800 pre-delivery Fords, now all damaged?
The Mercury puts the Leicestershire damage figure from Thursday's hailstorm at £150m.
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Working in Texas in the 1990s I remember hearing adverts on the radio for hail-damaged cars at knock-down prices, the implication being that even a new car is not worth repairing after that many dents. I'd see the odd one too, looking much as OB described his. I wondered at the time how the hailstorm that did the damage would have sounded from inside the car.
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>> Probably something like this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XDG7kwUuTQ
>>
The driver would have been better off driving somewhere to try to get away from the hailstorm rather than videoing it and watching his car get damaged.
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i was driving at that time roughly ten miles away from melton.....not one hail stone......loads of rain tho
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>> Working in Texas in the 1990s I remember hearing adverts on the radio for hail-damaged
>> cars at knock-down prices,
In the Evan Davies meets Warren Buffett documentary, it emerged that WB's daughter, who always bought his cars for him, got him a good deal on a hail-damaged one.
OK, so it enhances his reputation for thrift!
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L'es, the voice in the video ("Lucky this lay-by was here") makes clear that the driver pulled over because the storm was too intense to drive through. His decision to stay put and suffer the damage to his Large German Car seems preferable to trying to drive on without sufficient grip or vision and possibly causing an accident. In any case, how would he have known where to drive to to escape the storm?
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>> L'es, the voice in the video ("Lucky this lay-by was here") makes clear that the
>> driver pulled over because the storm was too intense to drive through. His decision to
>> stay put and suffer the damage to his Large German Car seems preferable to trying
>> to drive on without sufficient .......... vision and possibly causing an accident.
I could see through his windscreen in the video.
>> In any case, how would he have known where to drive to to escape the storm?
He could have driven in any direction, provided he just kept going. Thunder/hail storms are invariably localised.
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ0sDueRRRs&feature=youtu.be
please excuse the language...this was the loughboro shower on thursday from the polo ( now with the siezed brakes)
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>> www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ0sDueRRRs&feature=youtu.be
>>
>>
>> please excuse the language...this was the loughboro shower on thursday from the polo ( now
>> with the siezed brakes)
YEAH We made it!
Till the brakes seized!
Give you that, it was quite deep. Not surprised the brakes seized.
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>> this was the loughboro shower on thursday from the polo
I was coming from Shepshed aiming for the same set of traffic lights, but access to Alan Moss Rd was blocked off from the fire station roundabout.
Quite a few shops and houses flooded out in Coalville, which is unusual because most of it's on a slope.
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Everyone else managed to drive along ok.
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But the promised expletives were a bit of a disappointment, only three f-words and an s-word.
I say good morning to my nearest and dearest more profanely than that.
:o}
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>> was you there ?
Thats was in response to the guy who stopped because of the hail. Only to be passed by everyone else.
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I was at my mates house last night in Birmingham. All of a sudden the heavens opened up, lightning, thunder, hail stones, the lot. The noise on the roof of his house at one point was deafening from the hail stones crashing down. I was wondering if my poor old Vectra that was parked outside was going to suffer the same fate as Dave's Mondeo. Fortunately it didn't. The downpour didn't even wash off the dirty marks left from the sandy rain we had earlier in the week. Heavy downpours previously have usually washed the car clean. Unless of course last nights rain was the sandy type too?
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Hailstone damage to my car - zookeeper
