| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
ntruder
31 Flavors
Joined: 29 Aug 2001
Posts: 314
Location: Pell City, AL
|
 Posted: Fri May 14, 2010 4:58 pm Post subject: Hail damage... |
 |
|
The cover on my 93 has started disintegrating so I've looked it over. While I was away it seems to have sustained a good bit of hail damage all over the body. I'd post pictures but that would be horribly depressing. None of the windows are cracked but there's tons of tiny little dents.
I know there's paintless dent removal services that claim to fix hail damage. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with that and how realistic my expectation should be. I was also wondering how much I could expect it to cost.
Ironically, the 89 which was parked uncovered about 20 feet away has no hail damage at all...
_________________
Anything I do is purely coincidental. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
BarryG
President
Joined: 28 Aug 2001
Posts: 7314
Location: Tuscaloosa
|
| Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 12:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
When did hail happen? We haven't had anything in T-town for at least a week.
Sorry to hear about the damage.
B
_________________
Butter!
Parkay! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ntruder
31 Flavors
Joined: 29 Aug 2001
Posts: 314
Location: Pell City, AL
|
| Posted: Sat May 15, 2010 11:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
It would have happened sometime between August 2007 and yesterday. When I say "while I was away" I mean 2007-2009. I only got back here in Pell City last July.
So far from reading I've learned it might be $1000 (probably a little less) and I will probably need to repaint it within a few months but I was planning on doing that anyway.
Other than the inter-dimensional oil vortex, its in good shape and I look forward to driving it later this summer.
_________________
Anything I do is purely coincidental. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Joe Sanders
Cracked Windshield
Joined: 30 Aug 2001
Posts: 1916
|
| Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 11:56 am Post subject: |
|
|
| ntruder wrote: |
...I will probably need to repaint it within a few months but I was planning on doing that anyway. |
This is a piece of information I was wondering about and the reason I hadn't thrown in my 2 cents (which is only worth about 1 cent on the open market and declining in value).
I've bought several hail damage cars over the last few years. Bought the latest one 4 weeks ago. There have been plenty hail damage cars the last 2 or 3 years.
Here's the deal...
The paintless dent removal systems can only do so much. There is point where either the severity or the extensiveness (or both) of the damage determines that the the only practical solution is to just repair the damage and refinish the car. And if a car could already use a refinish, traditional repair and refinish is the only way to go. If you know you are already going to refinish the car, the more economical way to address the dings would be to use a stud welder and stud puller to work the dings out. The labor to remove dings by that method will be far less than the paintless dent removal method. And to be honest, if you go the paintless method, there's a good chance a lot repairs will still need to be worked with a body glaze before the car is refinished. I'm one of those who feels paintless dent repair is more accurately described as paintless dent reduction. I don't know the severity or the extensiveness of your damage, but I don't need to. If you plan to repaint the car, paintless dent repair is not the route to go.
I've done done hail damage repair and a refinish on a Probe before. I first just replaced the hood and fenders. If you have big dings or extensive small dings, smart money just replaces those panels. The roof then ends up being the biggest task. The top of the doors and quarters and the hatch will have some dings, but my experience is the the hood, fenders, and roof want to ding up the most (fenders are really thin metal...hood and roof have the most exposure).
Anyway, the paintless dent repair for hail damage is really limited to a few dings here and there. If the body of your car resembles a golf ball, you need to go with traditional repair methods. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ntruder
31 Flavors
Joined: 29 Aug 2001
Posts: 314
Location: Pell City, AL
|
| Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 2:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Joe Sanders wrote: | | Anyway, the paintless dent repair for hail damage is really limited to a few dings here and there. If the body of your car resembles a golf ball, you need to go with traditional repair methods. |
I was worried about that. Yeah, golf ball could describe it pretty well.
I thought about just replacing all the panels but I was wondering about the roof. Is it a skin I can swap out?
I will probably just go ahead and replace everything in front of the firewall.
_________________
Anything I do is purely coincidental. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Joe Sanders
Cracked Windshield
Joined: 30 Aug 2001
Posts: 1916
|
| Posted: Sun May 16, 2010 3:35 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ntruder wrote: | I was worried about that. Yeah, golf ball could describe it pretty well.
I thought about just replacing all the panels but I was wondering about the roof. Is it a skin I can swap out?
I will probably just go ahead and replace everything in front of the firewall. |
Replacing the roof skin would be a lot of work. For starters, you would need remove the interior because cutting out and welding in a roof skin would do damage to the interior. You would need to remove the hatch and cut out the windshield and quarter windows. So they are not in the way, removing the doors would be helpful. Then you start the process of drilling out all the spot welds. Since Ford long ago discontinued sheet metal for these cars, you will need to source a roof skin from a donor car. Removing and prep'ing that panel will be harder than removing the bad panel from your car. I don't want to sound negative. It's just a big job as is reskinning any part of the body shell.
I suggest first pulling your headliner and see if you can work the roof skin with a body hammer and dolly and a stud welder and puller for what you can't get to with the hammer and dolly. This could get most of the dings out of your roof skin. Then you can use a very thin layer of body filler to make the roof skin 100% smooth. Skim coats of body filler are not bad. Just thick body filler is bad. I'm a big fan of Dynatron Putty Cote. Of course I'm making blind suggestions having not seen the car, but I know replacing the roof skin should be plan B.
Having said that, I put quarter skin on a '95 PGT last summer. I replaced the skin from the door hinge post all the way to the way to the rear (quarter panel, rocker panel, hinge post panel is all one big piece of stamped sheet metal). It was a big job, but I wanted a nice quarter skin on the car. You may be the same way and just want a new roof skin.
BTW...is your car a solid roof skin or a sun roof car?
Yep...just replacing the front sheet metal gets that area taken care of a whole faster. The hatch is another panel that can be swapped out if needed. They don't have a lot of metal surface, so often the dings are few enough that it is easier to fix them than replacing them. Fixing vs. repairing is always on a case by case basis. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ntruder
31 Flavors
Joined: 29 Aug 2001
Posts: 314
Location: Pell City, AL
|
| Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 7:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Joe Sanders wrote: | BTW...is your car a solid roof skin or a sun roof car?
Yep...just replacing the front sheet metal gets that area taken care of a whole faster. The hatch is another panel that can be swapped out if needed. They don't have a lot of metal surface, so often the dings are few enough that it is easier to fix them than replacing them. Fixing vs. repairing is always on a case by case basis. |
It's a sunroof.
I can probably just pound out the roof and possibly the tailgate then. If it isn't a bolt on part then replacing it definitely isn't worth it to me. The dents really aren't deep at all which is why I thought the paintless dent removal might be worth it. I've had the headliner out a few times so its not a big deal and I'll probably recover it anyway.
I'm going to keep it black but its fairly safe to bet the front end parts aren't going to be black. Would it be worth it to get some black primer to help keep the original colors from shining through or should I plan on stripping them to bare metal/plastic?
_________________
Anything I do is purely coincidental. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Joe Sanders
Cracked Windshield
Joined: 30 Aug 2001
Posts: 1916
|
| Posted: Mon May 17, 2010 8:37 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ntruder wrote: | | It's a sunroof. |
Well...being a sunroof car has its advantages in this situation. The sunroof panel bolts in and out. Replacing the sunroof panel will take car of at least 1/3 of dings in the roof.
| Quote: | | I can probably just pound out the roof and possibly the tailgate then. If it isn't a bolt on part then replacing it definitely isn't worth it to me. |
If the headliner is out, replacing the hatch is pretty straight forward. Replacing the hood, fenders, sunroof, and hatch will knock out a good percentage of your dings.
| Quote: | | The dents really aren't deep at all which is why I thought the paintless dent removal might be worth it. |
If you have to be covered up with dings, better small one than big ones. To be honest, a filler like Putty-Cote can take car of a lot of the smaller dings. Shallow dings can be without having to work them.
| Quote: | | I've had the headliner out a few times so its not a big deal and I'll probably recover it anyway. |
Yeah...not too bad of a task.
| Quote: | | I'm going to keep it black but its fairly safe to bet the front end parts aren't going to be black. Would it be worth it to get some black primer to help keep the original colors from shining through or should I plan on stripping them to bare metal/plastic? |
No need to strip down to the bare metal unless the paint on the parts is in awful condition. A good sanding with 220 and then a sealer will give you a good surface for your color coat. No need to worry about the different color paint on different panels. The entire car will be sprayed with a sealer before the color coat is applied. The sealer is barrier between the older paint and the new paint and also makes all the panels a uniform color, so there are no variations in the shade of the color coat from panel to panel. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
